Wireless and Mobile

Communication Systems
Eengn5152
Chapter One
Overview of Wireless and Mobile
Communications

By : Amare Kassaw
1

Goal of the Chapter

To give an overview on what and why wireless
communication
Assess impact of wireless communication in our daily life
Define basic terminologies, historic perspectives and
evolution of wireless communication

Lecture Outlines

Basic principles of wireless communication systems

History of wireless communication systems

Types and examples of wireless communication systems

Trends in cellular radio communication systems

Used Acronyms

ETSI: European telecommunication standard institute

IMT: International mobile telecommunication
DECT: Digital enhanced cordless telecommunication
HSCSD: High speed circuit switched data
GPRS: General packet radio service
FOMA : Freedom of mobile multimedia access
PDA Personal digital assistant
PDC: Personal digital cellular
GEO: Geosynchronous satellite
LEO: Low earth orbit satellite
UMTS: Universal mobile telecommunication systems

Basic Principles of Wireless Communications

Transfer of information (i.e., voice, data, and multimedia)
over a distance without the use of electrical wires

Distances involved may be
Short, e.g., remote control or
long, e.g., satellite communication

Information is transmitted using electromagnetic waves
Suitable frequencies are:


Is a broadcast medium
Multiple access methods are required
Transmissions are prone to interference

Wireless channel is unpredictable: e.g., mobility
System design is more challenging in wireless than in
wired communication
Additional channel optimization technique is required.
 Adaptive modulation and equalization
 Coding and diversity
6

Wired Vs Wireless

No Mobility
Delay in New Connections
Security Hazards
Prone to Failures ( Line Disconnection,
etc )
Very less value added services
7

Merits of Wireless Communication

Freedom from wires
 No cost of installing wires or rewiring
 No bunches of wires running here and there
 Instantaneous communication without the need for
physical connection setup (Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, WiMAX)
These reasons drive the market .
Various emerging standards.IEEE 802.11,.15,.16,.20


Global coverage
 Communications can reach where wiring is infeasible or costly
rural areas, old buildings, battle fields, outer space, vehicular
communications, RFIDs
Wireless Ad-hoc Networks
Wireless Sensor Networks

Stay connected
 Roaming: allows flexibility to stay connected anywhere and
anytime
 Rapidly growing market attests to public need for mobility and
uninterrupted access
9


Flexibility :
 Stay connected Any one, anywhere, anytime!
 Services reach you wherever you go (mobility)
You dont have to go to the lab to check your mail
 Connect to multiple devices simultaneously (no need for
physical connectivity)
Increasing dependence on telecommunication services
for business and personal reasons
Consumers and businesses are willing to pay for it

10

Challenges of Wireless Communication

Bandwidth
 Scares spectrum and dictates low data rates
 Efficient use of finite radio spectrum
E.g., cellular frequency reuse, medium access control
protocols, MIMO systems instead of single TX/RX
antenna systems, ..

Reliability
 Low data rate because of interference
 Need interference minimizing or mitigating techniques

11


Power Management
 Mobility brings about battery operation
 Need efficient hardware, e.g., low power transmitters,
receivers, and signal processing tools
Sleep mode

Security problem
Shared/broadcast medium => low security
Privacy and authentication needed

12


Consumer side challenges

 Providing integrated services
 Voice, data, multimedia over a single network
Service differentiation, priorities, resource scheduling

 One size fits of all protocols and designs do not work well
13


Network supports user mobility

User location identification
 Handover analysis

Impact of wireless channels: Fading & Doppler
Multipath leads to signal superposition at receiving antennas
High probability of data corruption: need for diversity
schemes

Quality of service (QoS)
 Unreliable links
Traffic patterns and network conditions constantly change
14


Connectivity and coverage

Local networking
 Internetworking

Regulatory issues
 Spectral allocation/regulation heavily impacts the evolution
of wireless technologies
 Worldwide spectrum controlled by ITU-R
 ITU auctions spectral blocks for set of applications
 Some spectrum set aside for universal use

Cost & efficiency, ..
15

History of Wireless Communication Systems

Many people in history used light for communication
 150 BC smoke signals for communication;
(Polybius, Greece)
 Carrier Pigeons
 1794, optical telegraph, Claude Chappe

1895: G Marconi
 First demonstration of wireless telegraphy (digital!)
 Long wave transmission, high transmission power
necessary (> 200kw)
16


1907: Commercial transatlantic connections

 huge base stations (30 antennas, each 100m high)

1915: Wireless voice transmission New York -San Francisco

1920: Discovery of short waves by Marconi
 reflection at the ionosphere
 smaller sender and receiver, possible due to the
invention of the vacuum tube (1906, Lee DeForest and
Robert von Lieben)

17


1933: Frequency modulation (FM) introduced by E. H.

Armstrong
 FM has been the primary modulation technique for
mobile communication systems until late 80

1979 : NMT at 450MHz (Scandinavian countries)

1982: Start of GSM-specification
 Goal: pan-European digital mobile phone system with
roaming

18


1983 : Start of the American AMPS (Advanced Mobile

Phone System, analog)

1984 : CT-1 standard (Europe) for cordless telephones

1991 : Specification of DECT
 Digital European Cordless Telephone (today: Digital
Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications)
 1880-1900MHz, ~100-500m range, 120 duplex channels,
1.2Mbit/s data transmission, voice encryption,
authentication, up to several 10000 user/km2, used in
more than 50 countries.
19


1992 : Start of GSM

 In D as D1 and D2, fully digital, 900MHz, 124 channels
Automatic location, hand-over, cellular
 Roaming in Europe - now worldwide in more than 170 countries
Services: data with 9.6kbit/s, FAX, voice, ...

1996 : HiperLAN (High Performance Radio Local Area Network)
 ETSI, standardization of type 1: 5.15 - 5.30GHz, 23.5Mbit/s
 Recommendations for type 2 and 3 (both 5GHz) and 4 (17GHz)
as wireless ATM-networks (up to 155Mbit/s)

20


1997: Wireless LAN - IEEE802.11

IEEE standard, 2.4 - 2.5GHz and infrared, 2Mbit/s
 Already many (proprietary) products available in the beginning

1998: Specification of GSM successors
 For UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) as
European proposals for IMT-2000

1998 : Iridium
 66 satellites (+6 spare), 1.6GHz to the mobile phone

1999: Standardization of additional wireless LANs
 IEEE standard 802.11b, 2.4-2.5GHz, 11Mbit/s
 Bluetooth for piconets, 2.4Ghz, <1Mbit/s

21


1999: Decision about IMT-2000

 Several members of the family: UMTS, cdma2000, DECT

1999: Start of WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) and i-mode
First step towards a unified Internet/mobile communication system
Access to many services via the mobile phone

2000 : GSM with higher data rates

 HSCSD offers up to 57.6kbit/s
 First GPRS trials with up to 50 kbit/s (packet oriented!)

22


2000: UMTS auctions/beauty contests

Hype followed by disillusionment (approx. 50 B$ payed in
Germany for 6 UMTS licences)

2001: Start of 3G systems
 Cdma2000 in Korea, UMTS in Europe, Foma (almost
UMTS) in Japan

2005: Broadband wireless
 First public WiMAX/IEEE 802.16 last mile experiments

23

Types and examples of wireless communication

Types of Wireless Communication

Radio Transmission
 Easily generated, Omni-directionally travel long
distances
Easily penetrate buildings
 Problems
Frequency dependent
Relatively low-bandwidth for data communication
Tightly licensed by governments
24


Microwave Transmission
 Widely used for long distance communications
Give a high SNR ratio
Relatively inexpensive
 Problems
Dont pass through building well: LOS Communication
Weather and frequency-dependent

25


Infrared and Millimetre Wave Transmission

 Widely used for millimetre waves : above 30 GHz
Unable to pass through solid objects
 Used for indoor Wireless LANs, not for outdoors: 10m range
 May need a production of new devices

26


Light Wave Transmission

Unguided optical signal, such as laser
 Connect two LANs in two buildings via laser mounted on
the roofs
 Unidirectional, easy to install, dont require license
Problems
Unable to penetrate rain or thick fog
Laser beam can be easily diverted by turbulent air

27

28

Examples of Wireless Networking

1. Cellular systems : Architecture

29


Geographic region divided into cells

 Frequency/timeslots/codes are reused at spatially separated locations
 Co-channel interference between same frequency using cells
 Shrinking cell size increases capacity as well as networking burden

Edges are determined based on
 Link budget: total power emitted and received
 Number of users
 Interference: dictates re-use factor

There is an overlap of cells at the boundary

Handoff takes place during roaming

30


Cellular system :Basic terminology

 Mobile station (MS)
 A station in the cellular radio service intended for use while in
motion at unspecified locations
 They can be either hand-held personal units (portables) or
installed on vehicles (mobiles)
 Base Station (BS)
 A fixed station in a mobile radio system used for radio
communication with the mobile stations
 Base stations are located at the centre or edge of a coverage
region, consists of transmitter and receiver antennas, and are
mounted on top of towers
 Provides gateway functionality between wireless and wire-line
links
 Base stations coordinate handoff and control functions
31

 Mobile Switching Center (MSC)

 Switching center which coordinates the routing of calls in a
large service area
 In a cellular radio system, the MSC connects the BS and MS to
the PSTN (telephone network)
o Mobile Telephone Switching Office (MTSO)

Subscriber
 A user who pays subscription charges for using a mobile
communication system

Transceiver
 A device capable of simultaneously transmitting and receiving
radio signals

32


Handoff/ Handover
 The process of transferring a mobile station from one channel or
base station to another

Roamer
 A mobile station which operates in a service area (market)
other than that from which service has been subscribed

Page
 A brief message which is broadcast over the entire service
area, usually in simulcast fashion by many base stations at the
same time
33

 Channel types

Control channel
 Radio channel used for transmission of call setup, call
request, call initiation and other beacon and control
purposes

Downlink (forward) channel
 Radio channel used for transmission of information from
the base station to the mobile

Uplink (reverse) channel
 Radio channel used for transmission of information from
mobile to base station
34

 Duplexing and Multiplexing Techniques

The information from sender to receiver is carried over a welldefined frequency band
 This is called a channel

Each channel has a fixed frequency bandwidth and capacity
(bit-rate)

Different frequency bands (channels) can be used to transmit
information in parallel and independently
 Duplexing and multiplexing techniques are required
35


Duplexing
 Given a single pair of communicating peers, duplexing
describes rules when each peer is allowed to send to the
other one
 Using the resources like : FDD, TDD

Multiplexing
 Given several pairs, multiplexing describes when which
pair, using which resources (eg. TDMA, FDMA), is
allowed to communicate
 Main resources: Time, frequency, (+ some others)
36

 Duplexing Types for Cellular Systems

 Simplex, half- and full-duplex: Variants of duplexing

Simplex:
 Is a one way communication, i.e., one source transmits
and the other only receives
 Example: remote control, radio broadcast
 To enable two-way communication, we can use
Frequency as in FDD or
Time as in TDD
37


Half duplex systems

 Communication systems which allow two-way communication by
using the same radio channel for both transmission and reception
 At any given time, the user can either transmit or receive
information
 Use one frequency band but peers transmit one after the other,
called TDD

38


Full Duplex Systems

 Communication systems which allow simultaneous two-way
communication
 Transmission and reception is typically on two different
channels (FDD)
 Downlink and uplink channels use different frequency bands.
 Providing two simultaneous but separate channels to both the
users by using FDD or TDD

39


Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD):

 Supports two way communication with two distinct radio channels.
 One channel is transmitted downstream from the BS to the MS.
 The second is used in the upstream direction and supports
transmission from the MS to the BS.
 Hence simultaneous transmission in both directions is possible.
 To mitigate self-interference between upstream and downstream
transmissions, a minimum amount of frequency separation must be
maintained between the frequency pair.

40


Time Division Duplexing (TDD):

 TDD uses a single frequency band to transmit signals in both
the downstream and upstream directions.
 TDD operates by toggling transmission directions over a time
interval.
 This toggling takes place very rapidly and is imperceptible to
the user.

41

42

 Multiplexing

Used for sharing radio resources

Multiplexing: Gives a means to
regulate access to a resource
that is shared by multiple users
 The switching element that serves as a
controller

Main resources to be shared
 Time, frequency, (+some others)

Techniques
 TDMA, FDMA, SDMA, CDMA
43

2. Paging Systems

Broad coverage for short , low rate, one way messaging

Message broadcast from base stations to highly mobile users.

Simple terminals
 Low complexity, very low powered
pagers (receiver) devices

Optimized for one way transmission
 Answer-back hard
 Overtaken by cellular

44

3. Personal Area Networks ( PANs)

Network of devices carried by an individual person
 Music player, cell phone, laptops ....

Networks that connect devices within a small range
 Typically on the order of 10-100 meters

Application areas
 Data and voice access points
Real-time voice and data transmissions
 Cable replacement
Eliminates need for numerous cable attachments
 Ad-hoc networking
Device with PAN radio can establish connection with
another when in range

45

 Wireless Personal Area Networks(PANs)

Cable replacement RF technology (low cost)

Short range (10m, extendable to 100m)

Operates in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz ISM band

Widely supported by telecommunications, PC, and consumer
electronics companies

Provides an ad-hoc approach to enable various devices to
communicate.

46

 Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs)

Network between devices in close physical proximity (offices,
homes, ), usually stationary or moving at low speed, provide
access to fixed infrastructure

Good options for coffee shops, airports, libraries, etc.. . to provide
internet connection (connect local computers in 100m range)

The term Wi-Fi is widely used

47


Channel access is shared (random access)

WLANs provides license-free, low-power short-range data
communication

48

 WLAN Standards

802.11b
 Standard for 2.4GHz ISM band
 Direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS)
 Speeds of 5.5 - 11 Mbps, approx. 100 m

802.11a/g
 Standard for 5GHz band /also 2.4GHz
 OFDM in 20 MHz with adaptive rate/codes
 Speeds of 54 Mbps, approx 100 m range
49


802.11n (recently approved)

 Standard in 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands
 Adaptive OFDM/MIMO in 20/40 MHz (2-4 antennas)
 Speeds up to 600Mbps, approx. 100 m range
 Other advances in packetization , antenna use, etc.

50

 Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks (WMANs)

Network covering a city, metropolitan areas
 Last mile application, usually at best low mobility

Technologies
 Various IEEE 802.11 derivates
 Integration of fixed and mobile systems
 WiMAX: Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access
WiMAX/IEEE 802.16 competes with DSL
 IEEE 802.20 (???)

51

 Wide Area Networks( WAN) : Comparison

Network covering country/continent/earth
 Anytime, anywhere connectivity
 Good for even highly mobile users

Technologies
 Cellular systems (GSM, UMTS, HSDPA)
 Broadcast systems (DVB)
 Satellites

52

4. Satellite Communication Systems

Cover very large areas
 Very useful in sparsely populated areas, rural areas, sea,
mountain areas

Limited-quality voice/data transmission

Has different orbit heights
 GEOs (36000 Km) versus LEOs (2000 Km)

Optimized for one-way transmission
 Radio and movie broadcasts

Expensive Base stations (satellite)
 Moving base stations unlike the cellular system

53


Iridium, Globalstar, Teledesic, Inmarsat

 Examples of LEO satellite constellation for satellite
phone and data communications

54

55

5. Emerging Wireless Networks

 Ad-hoc Wireless systems
 Sensor Networks
 Ultra Wideband (UWB) systems

56

 Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks( MANETs )

Peer-to-peer communications with no backbone infrastructure

Topology is dynamic
 One challenge: Routing which can be multihope

Fully connected with different links SINRs

Example scenarios for MANETs
 Meetings
 Emergency or disaster relief situations
 Military communications
 Wearable computers
 Sensor networks

57


Ad-hoc networks provide a flexible network infrastructure for

many emerging applications

Transmission, access, and routing strategies for these networks
are generally ad hoc

Cross layer design is critical and very challenging

Energy constraints impose interesting design tradeoffs for
communication and networking

58

Ad-Hoc network representation

59

60

 Wireless Sensor Networks

 Nodes powered by non-rechargeable batteries
 Data flows to centralized location, called sink
 Low per-node rates but up to 100,000 nodes
 Data highly correlated in time and space
 Nodes can cooperate in transmission, reception,
compression, and signal processing

61

 Ultra Wide Band (UWB) Systems

 An emerging wireless communication technology that can
transmit data around 100 Mb/s (up to 1000 Mb/s)
 UWB transmits ultra-low power radio signals with very
narrow pulses (nanoseconds)
 Because of its low power requirements, UWB is very
difficult to detect (hence secure)

62

63


Why UWB?
 Exceptional multi-path immunity
 Low power consumption
 Large bandwidth
 Secure communications
 Low interference
 No need for license to operate

64

65

Trends in Cellular Radio Communication Systems

66

67

68

69

First Generation (1G)

 Analog systems, mostly FM
 E.g., NMT, AMPS
 Voice traffic
 FDMA/FDD multiple access
Second Generation (2G)
 Digital systems
 Digital modulation
 Voice traffic
 TDMA/FDD and CDMA/FDD multiple access
70

2.5G
 Digital systems
 Voice + Low-rate data service
Third Generation (3G)
 Digital
 Voice + high-rate data service
 Also multimedia transmission

71

72