Cordless Systems and

Wireless Local Loop (WLL)

Chapter 11
Cordless System Operating Environments
 Residential – a single base station can
provide in-house voice and data support
 Office
 A single base station can support a small office
 Multiple base stations in a cellular
configuration can support a larger office
 Telepoint – a base station set up in a public
place, such as an airport
 Design Considerations for
Cordless Standards
 Modest range of handset from base station, so
low-power designs are used
 Inexpensive handset and base station,
dictating simple technical approaches
 Frequency flexibility is limited, so the system
needs to be able to seek a low-interference
channel when in use
 US Standard: PWT (personal wireless telecommunications)
Parameters: Table 11.1 page 319
Time Division Duplex (TDD)
 TDD also known as time-compression
multiplexing (TCM)
 Data transmitted one direction at a time,
with transmissions going both directions
 Simple TDD
 TDMA TDD
Simple TDD
 Bit stream is divided into equal segments, compressed in
time to a higher transmission rate and transmitted in bursts

 Each side must alternate transmissions thus the data rate at

which blocks can be transmitted by EITHER side is
1/2(Tp+Tb+Tg)

 For one side, the effective bits transmitted per second:

R = B/2(Tp+Tb+Tg)
R = effective data rate
B = block size in bits
Tp = propagation delay
Tb = burst transmission time
Tg = guard time (allow channel to settle down)
Transmission Using TDD
Simple TDD
 Actual data rate of the medium, A:
A = B /Tb (block size in bits / time to transmit block)
 Combined with previous equation:
 T p  Tg 
A  2 R1  
 Tb 
 Thus the actual data rate on the link is more than
double the effective data rate seen by either of the
two sides
 Block Size: as B increased, actual data rate A
decreases but signal delay increases due to
buffering which is bad for voice traffic
TDMA TDD
 Wireless TDD typically used with TDMA
 A number of users receive forward channel

signals in turn and then transmit reverse

channel signals in turn, all on same carrier
frequency
 Advantages of TDMA/TDD:
 Improved ability to cope with fast fading

(spatial diversity with antennas)

 Improved capacity allocation (can allocate

between forward and reverse channels)

Wireless Local Loop
 Wired technologies responding to need for reliable,
high-speed access by residential, business, and
government subscribers
 ISDN, xDSL, cable modems
 Increasing interest shown in competing wireless
technologies for subscriber access
 Wireless local loop (WLL)
 Narrowband – offers a replacement for existing telephony
services
 Broadband – provides high-speed two-way voice and data
service
WLL Configuration

Can use directional

(gain) antennas
 Advantages of WLL over Wired
 Cost – wireless systems are less expensive due to
cost of cable installation that’s avoided (labor)
 Installation time – WLL systems can be installed
in a small fraction of the time required for a new
wired system
 Selective installation – radio units installed for
subscribers who want service at a given time
 With a wired system, cable is laid out in anticipation of
serving every subscriber in a given area
Propagation Considerations for WLL
 Most high-speed WLL schemes use millimeter
wave frequencies (10 GHz to about 300 GHz)
 There are wide unused frequency bands available above
25 GHz
 At these high frequencies, wide channel bandwidths
can be used, providing high data rates
 Small size transceivers and adaptive antenna arrays can
be used
Propagation Considerations for WLL
(continued)

 Millimeter wave systems have some

undesirable propagation characteristics
 Free space loss increases with the square of the
frequency; losses are much higher in millimeter
wave range
 Above 10 GHz, attenuation effects due to
rainfall and atmospheric or gaseous absorption
are large
 Multipath losses can be quite high
Fresnel Zone
 How much space around direct path between transmitter
and receiver should be clear of obstacles including the
ground?
 Objects within a series of concentric circles around the line of
sight between transceivers have constructive/destructive effects
on communication
 For point along the direct path, radius of first Fresnel zone
(most serious interference region):

SD
 S = distance from R 
transmitter
 D = distance from receiverS  D
Zone Concept Applied to GPS Antenna

Choke rings on an ISS GPS Antenna (1 of 4)

Atmospheric Absorption
 Radio waves at frequencies above 10 GHz
are subject to molecular absorption
 Peak of water vapor absorption (humidity) at 22 GHz
 Peak of oxygen absorption near 60 GHz
 Favorable windows for communication:
 From 28 GHz to 42 GHz
 From 75 GHz to 95 GHz
Effect of Rain
 Attenuation due to rain
 Presence of raindrops can severely degrade the reliability and
performance of communication links
 The effect of rain depends on drop shape, drop size, rain rate,
and frequency
 Consider seasonal variations for the area: climate zones
 Estimated attenuation due to rain:


A  aR b
A = attenuation (dB/km)
 R = rain rate (mm/hr)
 a and b depend on drop sizes and frequency
Effects of Vegetation
 Trees near subscriber sites can lead to multipath
fading
 Multipath effects from the tree canopy are
diffraction and scattering
 Measurements in orchards found considerable
attenuation values when the foliage is within 60%
of the first Fresnel zone
 Multipath effects highly variable due to wind
 OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing

 Uses multiple carrier signals at different

frequencies transmitting some of the bits on
each channel
 Subchannels are dedicated to a single data
source
 Split the data stream into N substreams (serial to
parallel converter) with R/N bps that is
transmitted on a separate subcarrier
OFDM Hardware Block Diagram
OFDM Spectral Density
 OFDM Advantages
 Peaks of the power spectral density of each subcarrier
are separate
 The precise relationship among the subcarriers is
referred to as orthogonality
 Minimal interferrence between subcarriers
 Frequency fading doesn’t affects the entire channel
 Subcarriers increase the symbol time by a factor of N
which decreases the delay spread of the channel
(compact bandwidth)
Multipoint Distribution Service (MDS)
 Multichannel multipoint distribution service (MMDS)
 Also referred to as wireless cable

 Used mainly by residential subscribers and small

businesses
 Local multipoint distribution service (LMDS)
 Appeals to larger companies with greater bandwidth

demands
 These two wireless broadband technologies are viewed by
many to have essentially failed because the “economics (of
LMDS and MMDS) became very bad very quickly”
Advantages of MMDS
 MMDS signals have larger wavelengths and
can travel farther without losing significant
power
 Equipment at lower frequencies is less
expensive
 MMDS signals don't get blocked as easily
by objects and are less susceptible to rain
absorption
Advantages of LMDS (local)
 Relatively high data rates
 Capable of providing video, telephony, and
data
 Relatively low cost in comparison with
cable alternatives
802.16 Standards Development
 Wireless Broadband, standard still pending
 Basis? ‘the need for speed’
 Use wireless links with microwave or millimeter wave
radios
 Use licensed spectrum
 Metropolitan in scale
 Provide public network service to fee-paying customers
 Use point-to-multipoint architecture with stationary
rooftop or tower-mounted antennas
 WiMAX is the name that has been given to wireless
broadband based on the 802.16 standard
802.16 Standards Development
 Provide efficient transport of heterogeneous traffic
supporting quality of service (QoS)
 Use wireless links with microwave or millimeter
wave radios
 Standards that are capable of broadband
transmissions (>2 Mbps)
IEEE 802.16 Protocol
Architecture
Protocol Architecture
 Physical and transmission layer functions:
 Encoding/decoding of signals
 Preamble generation/removal
 Bit transmission/reception
 Medium access control layer functions:
 On transmission, assemble data into a frame with
address and error detection fields
 On reception, disassemble frame, and perform address
recognition and error detection
 Govern access to the wireless transmission medium
Protocol Architecture
 Convergence layer functions:
 Encapsulate PDU framing of upper layers into
native 802.16 MAC/PHY frames
 Map upper layer’s addresses into 802.16
addresses
 Translate upper layer QoS parameters into
native 802.16 MAC format
 Adapt time dependencies of upper layer traffic
into equivalent MAC service
IEEE 802.16.1 Services (air interface)
 Digital audio/video multicast
 Digital telephony
 ATM
 Internet protocol
 Bridged LAN
 Back-haul
 Frame relay
IEEE 802.16.3 Services
 16.3 is the Air interface for Licensed
Frequencies from 2 to 11 GHz
 Voice transport
 Data transport
 Bridged LAN
IEEE 802.16.1 Frame Format
IEEE 802.16.1 Frame Format
 Header - protocol control information
 Downlink header – used by the base station
 Uplink header – used by the subscriber to convey
bandwidth management needs to base station
 Bandwidth request header – used by subscriber to
request additional bandwidth
 Payload – either higher-level data or a MAC
control message
 CRC – error-detecting code