MADDA WALABU UNIVERSITY

College of Computing
Department of Computer Science

Chapter Three
Wireless Network Principles

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 Outline
▪ Wireless Basics
▪ Frequency allocation & regulation
▪ Antennas
▪ Signal propagation
▪ Multiplexing
▪ Modulation
▪ Media access control
▪ Classifications of wireless networks

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 Wireless Transmission

Antenna
Antenna
Transmitter Receiver

• Wireless Communication systems consist of:

– transmitters
– Antennas: radiates electromagnetic energy into air
– Receivers
• In some cases, transmitters and receivers are on
same device, called transceivers (e.g., cellular
phones)
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 Signals
• Signals are the physical representation of data.
• Users of a communication system can only
exchange data through the transmission of
signals.
– Light ,electric , electromagnetic/radio
• Layer 1 of the OSI basic reference model is
responsible for the conversion of data,
– i.e. bits, into signals and vice versa.

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 Basic Terms
• Signals, wireless or not, are represented as
cyclic waves which may be discrete (digital) or
continuous (analog).
• Frequency : no of cycles per unit time of the
wave
• Amplitude : the height of the wave
• Phase : shows how far, in degrees, the wave is
from its beginning (phase 0).
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Basic terms …

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 Basic terms…
• Hertz (Hz) = number of cycles per second.
Frequency is measured in Hertz.
• Data rate = number of bits sent per second (bps).
• Channel = a logical communication path.
– One physical wire can support multiple channels; each
channel supports one user.
• Bandwidth = frequency range used by a signal,
measured in Hz.
• Channel capacity = number of bits that can be
transmitted per second. (same as data rate).

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 Transmission Media
• the physical path between the transmitter and
receiver.
– Guided: along a solid medium. ….Cables
– Unguided: achieved by using antennas. Wireless
• Type of wireless transmission
– Directional: point-to-point. E.g. microwave
– Omni-directional: waves are transmitted equally
in all directions.

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 Frequency allocation
• Wireless communications use the “radio
frequency (RF)” spectrum for transmitting and
receiving information.
• Several factors are considered while allocating
frequencies
– cost of components: increases as you go to higher
frequencies.
– signal losses: also increase as frequencies increase.
– Noise disruption : lower frequencies are disrupted
regularly by man-made noise such as electrical
motors, car ignition, and domestic appliances.
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 Wireless Frequency Allocation
• Radio frequencies range from 9KHz to 4000GHZ (ITU)
Major frequency bands
• Microwave frequency range (1 GHz to 40 GHz)
– Directional beams possible
– Suitable for point-to-point transmission
– Used for satellite & terrestrial communications
• Broadcast frequency range(30 MHz to 1 GHz )
– Suitable for Omni-directional applications
– applications : FM radio and UHF and VHF television
• Infrared frequency range(300 GHz to 3000 GHz)
– Useful in local point-to-point multipoint applications within
confined areas.
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 Terrestrial Microwave (1GHz to 40GHz)
• Description of common microwave antenna
– Most common: Parabolic "dish", 3 m in diameter
– Fixed rigidly and focuses a narrow beam
– Achieves line-of-sight transmission to receiving antenna
(relays used in between)
– Located at substantial heights above ground level
• Applications
– Long heave telecommunications service (instead of fiber,
coax) -- requires less repeaters but line of sight
– Short point-to-point links between buildings (e.g, closed
circuit TV, LANs, bypass local telephone companies)
– Most common BW= 4GHZ (can give up to 200 Mbps)

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 Satellite Microwave (1GHz to 20 GHz, typically)
• Description of communication satellite
– Microwave relay station
– Used to link two or more ground-based microwave
transmitter/receivers
– Receives transmissions on one frequency band (uplink),
amplifies or repeats the signal, and transmits it on
another frequency (downlink)
• Applications
– Television distribution (e.g., Dstv uses satellites )
– Long-distance telephone transmission between telephone
exchange offices
– Private business networks (lease channels, expensive)

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 Broadcast Radio (30 MHz to 1GHz)
• Description of broadcast radio antennas
– Omnidirectional (main differentiator from microwave)
– Antennas not required to be dish-shaped
– Antennas need not be rigidly mounted to a precise
alignment
• Applications
– Broadcast radio& TV
• VHF and part of the UHF band; 30 MHZ to 1GHz
• Covers FM radio and UHF and VHF television
– Due to new apps, the frequency range is expanded
frequently

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 Infrared (300 GHz to 3000 GHz)
• operate in the terribly high frequency (THF)
• does not penetrate walls
• used in remote control devices (TV remote
control, garage door openers )
Commonly used frequencies in Wireless Systems
– Cellular networks: Mostly around 900 MHz
– IEEE 802.11 LANs: 2.4 GHz (802.11b, 802.11g) and
5 GHz (802.11a)
– Satellite systems: 3 to 30 GHz
– Wireless local loops: 10 to 100 GHz
– Infrared wireless LANs; 300 GHz to 400 THz
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 Frequency Regulations
• two approaches in using wireless frequencies:
– use an unlicensed band or
– use a frequency that is regulated
• Regulated bands require permission

Regulating Bodies
• ITU (International Telecom Union)
– Responsible for assigning internationally used frequencies
• Local broadcast and telecommunication
agencies are also responsible
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 Question
• Which type of frequency do you think is
widely used(or congested) in wireless
communication ?
• Lower frequencies or higher?
• Why?

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 Relationship between Wireless
Frequency and Distance Covered
• A very important relationship exists between
frequency and distance covered. The relationship
is
d = k/f
• Where d = distance covered, f = frequency used,
and k = constant that depends on environmental
factors.
• Thus, the distance covered is inversely
proportional to the frequency being used.
• This implies that the higher the frequency, the
shorter is the distance covered
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 Why lower frequencies?

• Lower frequencies are more congested and

highly competed for because the distance can
be longer and the power requirements are
lower.

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 Transmitters Antenna
Amplifier Mixer Filter Amplifier

Oscilator Transmiter

Suppose you want to generate a signal that is sent at 900 MHz and
the original source generates a signal at 300 MHZ.
•Amplifier - strengthens the initial signal
•Oscillator - creates a carrier wave of 600 MHz
•Mixer - combines original signal with oscillator and produces 900 MHz
•Filter - selects correct frequency (Checks the standards)
•Amplifier - Strengthens the signal before sending it
Receivers perform similar operations but in reverse direction
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 Antennas
• An antenna is an electrical conductor or system of
conductors to send/receive RF signals
– Transmission - radiates electromagnetic energy into
space
– Reception - collects electromagnetic energy from space
• In two-way communication, the same antenna
can be used for transmission and reception

Directional
Omnidirectional Antenna (higher
Antenna (lower frequency)
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 Antenna can be described by:
• Radiation pattern
– Graphical representation of radiation properties of an
antenna
– shown as two-dimensional cross section.
• Reception pattern
• Receiving antenna’s equivalent to radiation pattern
• Antenna gain
– is a measure of directionality of antennas
– Higher gain …means heavily directional
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 Radiation Patterns
Antenna Types
• Isotropic antenna (idealized)
– Radiates power equally in all directions
• Dipole antennas(real world )
– Omni-directional
• Parabolic Reflective Antenna (highly focused, directional)

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 Antennas: isotropic radiator
• Radiation and reception of electromagnetic waves,
coupling of wires to space for radio transmission
• Isotropic radiator: equal radiation in all directions (three
dimensional) - only a theoretical reference antenna
• Real antennas always have directive effects (vertically
and/or horizontally)
• Radiation pattern: measurementz of radiation around an
antenna y z

y x ideal
x isotropic
radiator

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 Antennas: simple dipoles
• Real antennas are not isotropic radiators

• Example: Radiation pattern of a simple Hertzian dipole

y y z

simple
x z x dipole
side view (xy-plane) side view (yz-plane) top view (xz-plane)

• Gain: maximum power in the direction of the main

lobe compared to the power of an isotropic radiator

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 Antennas: directed and sectorized
• Often used for microwave connections or base stations
for mobile phones (e.g., radio coverage of a valley)
y y z
directed
x z x antenna

side view (xy-plane) side view (yz-plane) top view (xz-plane)

z
z

x
sectorized
x antenna

top view, 3 sector top view, 6 sector

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 Signal propagation
• Transmission range
– communication possible
– low error rate
• Detection range sender
– detection of the signal
possible transmission

– no communication distance
detection
possible
• Interference range interference

– signal may not be

detected
– signal adds to the
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 Propagation Modes
Signal

Transmission Receiving
Antenna Antenna
Earth
a) Ground Wave Propagation

(< 2 MHz) Ionosphere

E.g. submarine
AM Radio
Signal
b) Sky Wave Propagation
Earth
(2-30 MHz)
E.g. international
broadcasts
Signal
c) Line-of-Sight Propagation
Earth
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 Summary of Wireless Frequency Ranges,
Applications, and Propagations
Frequency Range Type of Waves Typical Applications Propagation
Extremely Low to
Ground-Wave
< 2 MHz Medium frequencies AM radio
propagation
(power and Voice Waves
Amateur radio, and
international radio
High frequency
2 MHz to 30 MHz services such as BBC Sky-Wave propagation
(Broadcast radio waves)
and VOA (Voice of
America)
VHF television, FM
Very high frequency Line-of-Sight
30 MHz and 300 MHz broadcast and two-way
(Broadcast radio waves) propagation
radio
UHF television, cellular Line-of-Sight
300 MHz to 3000 MHz Ultra high frequency
phone, wireless LANs propagation
Satellites, wireless local
Super high frequency Line-of-Sight
3 to 30 GHz loops, terrestrial
(Microwaves) propagation
microwave links
Extremely high Wireless local loops, Line-of-Sight
30 to 300 GHz
frequency experimental links propagation
Line-of-Sight
300 GHz to 400 THz Infrared Infrared LANs
propagation
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 Signal propagation
• Propagation in free space always like light (straight line)
• In real world Receiving power influenced by
– fading (frequency dependent)
– shadowing
– reflection at large obstacles
– refraction depending on the density of a medium
– scattering at small obstacles
– diffraction at edges

shadowing reflection refraction scattering diffraction

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 Signal propagation
• Reflection – occurs when signal encounters
large surfaces. The surface is large relative to
the wavelength of the signals.
• Diffraction – occurs at the edge of an
impenetrable body that is large compared to
the wavelength of the radio wave.
• Scattering – occurs when incoming signal hits
an object whose size is in the order of the
wavelength of the signal or less.

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 Multipath propagation
• Signal can take many different paths between sender
and receiver due to reflection, scattering, diffraction
multipath
LOS pulses pulses

signal at sender
signal at receiver
• Time dispersion: signal is dispersed over time
– interference with “neighbor” symbols, Inter Symbol
Interference (ISI)
• The signal reaches a receiver directly and phase shifted
– distorted signal depending on the phases of the different
parts
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 LOS Wireless Transmission Impairments

• Attenuation
• Noise
• Atmospheric absorption
• Multipath

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 Attenuation
• Strength of signal falls off with distance over
transmission medium
• Attenuation factors for unguided media:
– Received signal must have sufficient strength so that
circuitry in the receiver can interpret the signal
– Signal must maintain a level sufficiently higher than noise to
be received without error
– Attenuation is greater at higher frequencies, causing
distortion
• Approach: amplifiers that strengthen higher
frequencies

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 Categories of Noise
• Thermal Noise
• Crosstalk
• Impulse Noise

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 Multiplexing

• Goal: multiple use of a shared medium with

minimum interference and maximum medium
utilization

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 Multiplexing channels ki

• Multiplexing in 3 dimensions k 1 k2 k3 k4 k5 k6

– time (t) c
t c
– frequency (f)
t
– code (c)
s1
f
s2
f
• Goal: multiple use c
of a shared medium t

s3
• Important: guard spaces needed! f

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 Frequency multiplex
• Separation of the whole spectrum into smaller
frequency bands
• A channel gets a certain band of the spectrum for the
whole time
• Advantages k k k k k 1 2 3 4 5 k6
– no dynamic coordination c
necessary
• E.g. radio station (same city) f

• Disadvantages
– waste of bandwidth
if the traffic is
distributed
unevenly
– inflexible
t
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 Time multiplex
• A channel gets the whole spectrum for a certain amount of
time

• Advantages
– only one carrier in the k1 k2 k3 k4 k5 k6
medium at any time
– throughput high even
for many users c
f

• Disadvantages
– precise
synchronization
necessary
t

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 Time and frequency multiplex
• Combination of both methods
• A channel gets a certain frequency band for a certain
amount of time
• Example: GSM
k1 k2 k3 k4 k5 k6
• Advantages
– better protection against c
tapping f
– protection against frequency
selective interference
• but: precise coordination
required
t

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 Code multiplex
k1 k2 k3 k4 k5 k6

• Each channel has a unique code

c
• All channels use the same spectrum
at the same time
• Advantages
– bandwidth efficient
– no coordination and synchronization
necessary f

– good protection against interference

and tapping
• Disadvantages
– varying user data rates t
– more complex
• Implemented using spread spectrum technology
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Multipath Propagation

R
S

R= Reflection
S=Scattering
D= Diffraction

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 Problem of multiple propagation
• multi-path propagation effects occur as a
result of transmitted signals being reflected
off objects (buildings, bridges, signs, cars,
etc.) before they reach the receiver.
• Extreme variability in received signal
strength (fading) and arrival time, delays and
the Doppler effect.
• Due to these distortions, wireless systems
need to detect and recover from errors by
using different techniques.
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 Doppler Effect
• Christian Doppler (1803-1853),
• Doppler effect represents the shifts in the
frequency of electromagnetic radiation emitted
by a moving object.
• Consider, for example, a police car approaching
you. The pitch of the siren changes as the vehicle
approaches you and then goes away from you.
First the pitch becomes higher, then lower.

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Doppler Effect

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 Error Control
• Mechanisms to detect and correct transmission errors
• Types of errors:
– Lost PDU : a PDU fails to arrive
– Damaged PDU : PDU arrives with errors
• Positive acknowledgement
– Destination returns acknowledgment of received, error-free
PDUs
• Error detection
– Receiver detects errors and discards PDUs
• Retransmission after timeout(Lost PDU )
– Source retransmits unacknowledged PDU
• Negative acknowledgement and retransmission(Damaged
– Destination returns negative acknowledgment to PDUs in error
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 Coping with Data Transmission Errors
• Error detection codes
• Detects the presence of an error
– Automatic repeat request (ARQ) protocols
• Block of data with error is discarded
• Transmitter retransmits that block of data
• Error correction codes, or forward correction
codes (FEC)
– Designed to detect and correct errors

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 Error Detection Process
• Transmitter
– For a given frame, an error-detecting code (check bits)
is calculated from data bits
– Check bits are appended to data bits
• Receiver
– Separates incoming frame into data bits and check bits
– Calculates check bits from received data bits
– Compares calculated check bits against received check
bits
– Detected error occurs if mismatch

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 Wireless Transmission Errors
• Error detection leads to retransmission
• Detection and retransmission is inadequate
for wireless applications
– High error rate in wireless , results in a large
number of retransmissions
– Error might occur in the retransmission
– Retransmissions will make it slower
• Best to correct errors by using
– Block Error Correction
– Turbo Codes

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Communication in wireless systems
• Analog communication
– receive/generate analogy signal and use amplifiers
to handle attenuation.
– amplifier do not know the content ,they amplify
whatever is received, including the noise.
• Digital Communication
– received/generate digital signal and uses
repeaters ,over long distances to recover the
patterns of 1’s and 0’s
– Repeaters are used to filter the noise.
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 Why digital is better ???
• more strong and free of noise because it is easier
to detect 1’s and 0’s even in distorted messages.
• Repeaters reduce additive noise.
• especially suitable for computer networks because
data bits can be directly fed into a communication
medium without any modulation/demodulation.
• Digital communications are more secure because
digital data streams can be scrambled (encrypted)
by using sophisticated computer techniques.
• The encryption/decryption on analog data is not
sophisticated.
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 Signal encoding
• Data must be encoded into signals that carry
the data .
• Data can be digital or analog
• Signals can also be the digital or analog.
• Different technique are used based on the
format of data (analog or digital) and the
encoded signal (analog or digital).

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 Encodings….
• Analog data, analog signal: One of the oldest
techniques, used in early days of telephone
systems. Easy
• Digital data, analog signal: In use since the
dawn of computer communications in the
1960s, this technique is still used by modems to
transmit computer data over dial-up lines.
• Digital data, digital signal: Used commonly at
present to transmit computer data over digital
facilities.
• Analog data, digital signal: Used to transmit
voice and other analog data over digital circuits.
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Signal encoding schemes

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Analog Data to Analog Signal Encoding
• Amplitude Modulation (AM) the amplitude
of the data signal is modified by the carrier
signal.
• Frequency Modulation (FM) is used to
represent different data signals with different
frequencies.
• Phase Modulation (PM) is used to represent
different data signals with different phases.

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Digital Data to Analog Signal Encoding:
Modems
• Amplitude-shift Keying (ASK), where the 0 and 1 bits
are represented by the height of the amplitude.
• This technique is quite simple but is susceptible to
sudden gain changes due to noise and attenuation.
• For this reason, it is not heavily used in wireless
systems.

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Digital Data to Analog Signal Encoding
• Frequency-shift Keying (FSK), where the 0 and 1 bits
are represented by two different frequencies, say
1000 cycles per second and 2000 cycles per second,
respectively.
• FSK is less susceptible to errors than ASK and is used
for high-frequency (3 to 30 MHz) radio transmissions.

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Digital Data to Analog Signal Encoding
• Phase-shift Keying (PSK), where a certain phase
(e.g., 180) is used to represent bit 0, and a change to
bit 1 is indicated whenever the phase of the signal
changes.
• PSK is also less error-prone.
• PSK uses bandwidth more efficiently. Thus many
wireless systems use PSK and its variants.

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 Question

• From a performance point of view, compare

ASK,FSK,PSK?
• Which one is better?

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• From a performance point of view,
• ASK is more susceptible to noise than FSK or
MFSK systems.
• As compared to PSK, FSK systems use more
bandwidth because more frequencies are
needed to carry more bits.
• Thus, PSK techniques are used more often.

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 Signal Encoding (Modulation)
• Modulation of digital signals
– When only analog transmission facilities are
available, digital to analog conversion required
• Modulation of analog signals
– A higher frequency may be needed for effective
transmission
– PCM and variants used frequently

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Analog data, digital signal

• Pulse Code Modulation

• Delta Modulation

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 Pulse Code Modulation
• Based on the sampling theorem (sample rate should
be higher than twice highest frequency)
• After sampling each sample will be uniformly
quantized.
• Each analog sample(quanta) is assigned a binary
code
– Analog samples are referred to as pulse amplitude
modulation (PAM) samples
• The digital signal consists of block of n bits, where
each n-bit number is the amplitude of a PCM pulse

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 Pulse Code Modulation

Amplitude

Samples

This shows 12 samples, each sample represents the amplitude of the wave. These
samples as sent as digital data and then reconstructed into the original signal on the
receiving side.
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 Delta Modulation
• Analog input is approximated by staircase
function
– Moves up or down by one quantization level () at
each sampling interval
• The bit stream approximates derivative of
analog signal (rather than amplitude)
– 1 is generated if function goes up
– 0 otherwise

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 Delta Modulation

Analog Signal

Signal Staircase
Amplitude Function

Time

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 Signal Encoding Evaluation
• What determines how successful a receiver will be in
interpreting an incoming signal?
• The following are the key criteria:
– Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR): An increase in SNR decreases bit
error rate, thus a higher SNR is good for better reception.
– Data rate: An increase in data rate increases bit error rate,
thus higher data rates are not good for reception.
– Bandwidth: An increase in bandwidth allows an increase in
data rate, thus it also leads to higher data rates and lower
quality of reception.

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 Signal Encoding Evaluation…
• The main factors used to compare different encoding
schemes are:
• How well it performs in the presence of noise and
attenuation.
– For example, amplitude modulation is more susceptible to
noise than others.
• How much bandwidth it consumes.
– For example, frequency modulation consumes more
bandwidth than others.
• How much does it cost?
– The higher the signal rate and the complexity of the
encoding scheme, the greater the cost.

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 Spread Spectrum
• Was developed for military and intelligence (wwII)
• Idea is to spread the message over a range of signals
to make it jam resistant.
• Different data bits are transmitted over different
signals based on secret scheme.
– Receiver must know the scheme(code) to understand the
signal.
– This make it secured and loud
• But it consumes more bandwidth.

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 Types of spread spectrum

• Frequency hopping Spread Spectrum(FHSS)

• Direct-Sequence Spread Spectrum(DSSS)

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Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum
(FHSS)
• Signal is broadcast over seemingly random series of radio
frequencies
• Signal hops from frequency to frequency at fixed intervals
• Channel sequence Based on spreading code
– What bit on what frequency
• Receiver, hopping between frequencies in synchronization
with transmitter, picks up message
• Advantages
– Almost impossible to intercept
– Attempts to jam signal on one frequency succeed only at knocking
out a few bits
• Used in Bluetooth communication .
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Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS)

Energy
Data
4 7 5 1 6 8 3 2 Bits

Frequency

f1 f2 f3 f4 f5 f6 f7 f8

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 Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum
(DSSS)
• Each bit in original signal is represented by multiple
bits in the transmitted signal
– bit pattern is called a chip (or chipping code)
• Spreading code spreads signal across a wider
frequency band
– Spread is in direct proportion to number of bits used
• Good to recover data with out retransmission.
• Wireless Ethernet LAN uses DSSS as well as FHSS.
• DSSS is used in Code Division Multiple Access
(CDMA), a popular standard for cellular phones

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 Multiple Access Techniques
• MAC is important for enabling successful network operation in all
shared - medium networks

• The primary job of a MAC protocol is to arbitrate access to a shared

medium / channel in order to avoid collision and at the same time

• Fairly and efficiently share the bandwidth resources among multiple

nodes.

• MAC protocols can be typically classified into two broad categories:

1. Contention based

2. Contention free

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 Contention-Based MAC Protocols
• All nodes share a common medium and contend for the
medium for transmission, collision may occur during the
contention.

• ALOHA (Additive Link On - Line Hawaii System) and CSMA

are the most typical examples of contention - based MAC
protocols

• In Pure ALOHA, a node simply transmits whenever it has a

packet to send. In the event of a collision, the collided
packet is discarded. The sender just waits a random period
of time and then transmits the packet again.

• In Pure Aloha the problem is that the channel efficiency is

only 10%
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 Cont.…
• In Slotted ALOHA, time is divided into discrete
timeslots. Each node is allocated a timeslot. A node is
not allowed to transmit until the beginning of the next
timeslot.
• Slotted ALOHA can double the channel efficiency.
However, it requires global time synchronization, which
complicates the system implementation.
• CSMA differs from ALOHA in that it uses carrier sense;
that is, it allows a node to listen to the shared medium
before transmission, rather than simply transmits
immediately or at the beginning of the next timeslot.
• CSMA cannot handle the hidden - terminal problem in
multi-hop wireless networks

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• In CSMA/CA, a handshake mechanism is
introduced between a sender and a receiver
(3 way).
• MACA: (4 WAY HAND SHAKE) RTS – CTS –
DATA - ACK
• MACAW (5 WAY HAND SHAKE) RTS – CTS –
DATA – ACK – DS & RRTS

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 Contention-Free MAC Protocols
• A shared medium is divided into number of sub channels in
terms of time, frequency, orthogonal pseudo noise codes.

• These sub channels are allocated to individual nodes with

each node occupying one sub channel.

• This allows different nodes to access the shared medium

without interfering with each other and thus effectively
avoids collision from different nodes.
• Examples of Contention-Free MAC Protocols
– TDMA
– FDMA
– CDMA

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 Wireless Networks

Wireless LANs Wireless MANs Wireless WANs

Wireless Cellular Satellite Paging

Personal Business Local Loops Networks Systems Networks
Area LANs (Fixed Wireless)
Networks

Example1: Example1: Example1: Example1: Example1: Example1:

Bluetooth 802.11b LMDS GSM, 9.6 Kbps, Motorola
11 Mbps,
FLEX,
1 Mbps, 37 Mbps, wide coverage Iridium
10 Meters 100 Meters 1.2 Kbps
2-4 Km up to 64 Mbps
Example2: globally
Other examples: Other Example2: 3G, 2 Mbps, Example2:
wireless sensor examples: FSO wide coverage Example 2: ReFLEX,
networks, UWB 802.11g, 1.25 Gbps Deep space 6.4Kbps
HiperLAN2 1-2 KM communication

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