Unit 5: Communication Protocols for Mobile IP

and TCP

1. IEEE 802.11
a. System architecture

i.
ii. Wireless networks can exhibit two different basic system
architectures, infrastructure-based or ad-hoc.
iii. Several nodes, called stations (STAi), are connected to
access points (AP).
iv. Stations are terminals with access mechanisms to the wireless
medium and radio contact to the AP.
v. The stations and the AP which are within the same radio
coverage form a basic service set (BSSi).
vi. BSSs are connected via distribution system.
vii. Distribution system + set of connected BSSs = ESS (extended
service set). Every ESS has a unique ESSID, its name.
viii. The distribution system connects the wireless networks via
the APs with a portal, which forms the interworking unit to
other LANs.
ix. the distribution system handles data transfer between the
different APs.
 x. APs provide synchronization within a BSS, support power
management, and can control medium access to support time-
bounded service.

xi.
xii. Independent BSSs (IBSS)
xiii. IBSS comprises a group of stations using the same radio
frequency.
b. Protocol architecture
i. WLAN behaves like a slow wired LAN.
ii. The IEEE 802.11 standard only covers the physical layer PHY
and medium access layer MAC like the other 802.x LANs do.
iii. physical layer is subdivided into the physical layer
convergence protocol (PLCP) and the physical medium
dependent sublayer PMD.
iv. basic tasks of the MAC layer comprise medium access,
fragmentation of user data, and encryption.
 v.
vi. PLCP sublayer provides a carrier sense signal, called clear
channel assessment (CCA), and provides a common PHY
service access point (SAP) independent of the transmission
technology.
vii. PMD sublayer handles modulation and encoding/decoding of
signals.
viii. MAC management supports the association and re-
association of a station to an access point and roaming
between different access points. also controls authentication
mechanisms, encryption, synchronization of a station with
regard to an access point, and power management.
ix. MAC management also maintains the MAC management
information base (MIB).
x. main tasks of the PHY management include channel tuning
and PHY MIB maintenance.
xi. station management interacts with both management layers
and is responsible for additional higher layer functions.

xii.
c. Medium access control layer
i. Tasks & services provided
 1. to control medium access,
2. also offer support for roaming, authentication, and
power conservation
3. mandatory asynchronous data service. (802.11
provides ad hoc mode only)
4. an optional time-bounded service.
5. both service types can be offered using an
infrastructure-based network together with the access
point coordinating medium access.
6. The asynchronous service supports broadcast and multi-
cast packets, and packet exchange is based on a ‘best
effort’ model, i.e., no delay bounds can be given for
transmission.
ii. three basic access mechanisms defined for IEEE 802.11
1. mandatory basic method based on a version of
CSMA/CA
2. an optional method avoiding the hidden terminal
problem
3. a contention free polling method for time-bounded
service.
4. first two methods are also summarized as distributed
coordination function (DCF),
5. the third method is called point coordination
function (PCF).
6. DCF only offers asynchronous service, while PCF offers
both asynchronous and time-bounded service but needs
an access point to control medium access and to avoid
contention
7. The MAC mechanisms are also called distributed
foundation wireless medium access control
(DFWMAC).
 8.

9.
10. Short inter-frame spacing (SIFS): The shortest
waiting time for medium access (so the highest priority)
is defined for short control messages
11. PCF inter-frame spacing (PIFS): A waiting time
between DIFS and SIFS (and thus a medium priority) is
used for a time-bounded service. PIFS is defined as
SIFS plus one slot time.
12. DCF inter-frame spacing (DIFS): This parameter
denotes the longest waiting time and has the lowest
priority for medium access. This waiting time is used for
asynchronous data service within a contention period.
DIFS is defined as SIFS plus two slot times.
iii. Basic DFWMAC-DCF using CSMA/CA (This part is not very
important and holds lesser probability of coming, may be
skipped for later.)

1.
2. If the medium is busy, nodes have to wait for the
duration of DIFS, entering a contention phase
afterwards. Each node now chooses a random backoff
time within a contention window and delays
medium access for this random amount of time.
3. The node continues to sense the medium. As soon as a
node senses the channel is busy, it has lost this cycle and
has to wait for the next chance, i.e., until the medium is
idle again for at least DIFS.
4. But if the randomized additional waiting time for a node
is over and the medium is still idle, the node can access
the medium immediately (i.e., no other node has a
shorter waiting time).
5. the basic CSMA/CA mechanism is not fair. Independent
of the overall time a node has already waited for
transmission; each node has the same chances for
transmitting data in the next cycle. To provide fairness,
IEEE 802.11 adds a backoff timer.
6. If a certain station does not get access to the medium in
the first cycle, it stops its backoff timer, waits for the
channel to be idle again for DIFS and starts the counter
again.
7. As soon as the counter expires, the node accesses the
medium. This means that deferred stations do not
choose a randomized backoff time again, but continue to
count down. Stations that have waited longer have the
advantage over stations that have just entered, in that
they only have to wait for the remainder of their backoff
timer from the previous cycle(s).

8.
9. contention window starts with a size of, e.g., CWmin =
7. Each time a collision occurs, indicating a higher load
 on the medium, the contention window doubles up to a
maximum of, e.g., CWmax = 255 (the window can take
on the values 7, 15, 31, 63, 127, and 255).
10. Size of CW is proportional to resolution power of the
randomized scheme. It is less likely to choose the same
random backoff time using a large CW.
11. However, under a light load, a small CW ensures
shorter access delays. This algorithm is also called
exponential backoff.
12. Additional feature- ACK

13.
iv. DFWMAC-DCF with RTS/CTS extension
1. After waiting for DIFS (plus a random backoff time if the
medium was busy), the sender can issue a request to
send (RTS) control packet.
2. The RTS packet includes the receiver of the data
transmission to come and the duration of the whole
data transmission.
3. Every node receiving this RTS now has to set its net
allocation vector (NAV) in accordance with the
duration field. The NAV then specifies the earliest point
at which the station can try to access the medium again.

4.
 5. If the receiver of the data transmission receives the RTS,
it answers with a clear to send (CTS) message after
waiting for SIFS.
6. This CTS packet contains the duration field again and all
stations receiving this packet from the receiver of the
intended data transmission have to adjust their NAV.
7. Now all nodes within receiving distance around sender
and receiver are informed that they have to wait more
time before accessing the medium.
8. this mechanism reserves the medium for one sender
exclusively (this is why it is sometimes called a virtual
reservation scheme).
9. collisions can only occur at the beginning while the RTS
is sent.
10. Fragmentation of data mode (only figure for now,
doesn’t seem to be very relevant)

v. DFWMAC-PCF with polling: (Held, doesn’t seem to be very

d. MAC management

i.
2. Bluetooth
a.
b.

c.
d.

e.
f.

g.
h.
i. Introduction
i. The Bluetooth technology discussed here aims at so-called ad-
hoc piconets, which are local area networks with a very
limited coverage and without the need for an infrastructure.
ii. 10 meters, 1MBits/S, Wireless, cheap, alternate for Infrared
data association (IrDA)
iii. single-chip, low-cost, radio-based wireless network technology
 iv.
j. User Scenario
i. Connection of peripheral devices: In a wireless
network, no wires are needed for data transmission.
ii. Support of ad-hoc networking: Imagine several people
coming together, discussing issues, exchanging data (schedules,
sales figures etc.). Wireless networks can support this type of
interaction; small devices might not have WLAN adapters
following the IEEE 802.11 standard, but cheaper Bluetooth
chips built in.
iii. Bridging of networks: Using wireless piconets, a mobile
phone can be connected to a PDA or laptop in a simple way.
Mobile phones will not have full WLAN adapters built in, but
could have a Bluetooth chip. The mobile phone can then act as
a bridge between the local piconet and, e.g., the global GSM
network (see Figure 7.40). For instance, on arrival at an
airport, a person’s mobile phone could receive e-mail via GSM
and forward it to the laptop which is still in a suitcase.

iv.
k. Architecture
 i. A piconet is a collection of Bluetooth devices which are
synchronized to the same hopping sequence.
ii. One device in the piconet can act as master (M), all other
devices connected to the master must act as slaves (S).
iii. The master determines the unique hopping pattern in the
piconet and the slaves have to synchronize to this unique
pattern.
iv. parked devices (P) can not actively participate in the piconet
(i.e., they do not have a connection), but are known and can be
reactivated within some milliseconds.
v. Devices in stand-by (SB) do not participate in the piconet.
vi. Each piconet has exactly one master and up to seven
simultaneous slaves, 200+ devices can be parked (8 devices are
active because of 3 bit address used in Bluetooth).

vii.
viii. Formation of piconet
 1.

2.
ix. groups of piconets are called scatternet. Only those units
that really must exchange data share the same
piconet, so that many piconets with overlapping
coverage can exist simultaneously.
1. Bluetooth applies FH-CDMA for separation of
piconets.
2. all piconets can share the total of 80 MHz bandwidth
available.
3. A collision occurs if two or more piconets use the same
carrier frequency at the same time.
4. If a device wants to participate in more than one
piconet, it has to synchronize to the hopping sequence
of the piconet it wants to take part in.
 5.
6. A master can also leave its piconet and act as a slave in
another piconet.
7. It’s clearly not possible for a master of one piconet to
act as the master of another piconet as this would lead
to identical behavior (both would have the same hopping
sequence, which is determined by the master per
definition).
l. protocol stack
i. The Bluetooth protocol stack can be divided into a core
specification (Bluetooth, 2001a), which describes the
protocols from physical layer to the data link control
together with management functions, and profile
specifications (Bluetooth, 2001b). The latter describes
many protocols and functions needed to adapt the
wireless Bluetooth technology to legacy and new
applications.
ii. Core Protocols
1. Radio: Specification of the air interface, i.e., frequencies,
modulation, and transmit power
2. Baseband: Description of basic connection
establishment, packet formats timing, and basic QoS
parameters
 3. Link manager protocol: Link set-up and management
between devices including security functions and
parameter negotiation
4. Logical link control and adaptation protocol
(L2CAP): Adaptation of higher layers to the baseband
(connectionless and connection-oriented services
5. Service discovery protocol: Device discovery in
close proximity plus querying of service characteristics
6. The telephony control protocol specification –
binary (TCS BIN) describes a bit-oriented
protocol that defines call control signaling for the
establishment of voice and data calls between
Bluetooth devices. It also describes mobility and
group management functions.
7. host controller interface (HCI) between the
baseband and L2CAP provides a command interface to
the baseband controller and link manager, and access to
the hardware status and control registers.

8.
3. Mobile IP
a. requirements
i. Compatibility:
ii. Transparency
iii. Scalability and efficiency
 iv. Security
b.
4. TCP protocols for mobile communication
a. Mobile TCP

i.
b. Snooping TCP
 i.
c. ITCP
i. I-TCP segments a TCP connection into a fixed part and a
wireless part.
 ii.

iii.
iv. Instead of the mobile host, the access point now terminates
the standard TCP connection, acting as a proxy.
v. This means that the access point is now seen as the mobile
host for the fixed host and as the fixed host for the mobile
host. Between the access point and the mobile host, a special
TCP, adapted to wireless links, is used.
vi. The foreign agent acts as a proxy and relays all data in both
directions
vii. If a packet is lost on the wireless link due to a transmission
error, the correspondent host would not notice this. In this
case, the foreign agent tries to retransmit thispacket locally to
maintain reliable data transport.