Wireless Broadband:

Services and
Technical Challenges

Dr. Kamaljit Singh Bhatia

Associate Professor ECE
GBPIET Pauri, Garhwal
Objectives
• Where is wireless broadband today? Where has it come from
in the last decade? What is its future potential?
• Why is wireless channel different from wired?
• Spectrum limitations for wireless communication.
• How does wireless design overcome the challenges of the
channels and interference?
• Multiple Access Schemes
• Different type of services and their requirements.
• How do they feature in modern/emerging wireless systems
(Wifi: 802.11a/b/g/n, 3G, mobile WIMAX: 802.16e)?
Radio/TV/Wireless Allocations: 30 MHz-30 GHz
Open Spectrum: ISM and UNII Bands
ISM: Industrial, Scientific & Medical Band UNII
UNII: Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure band
ISM
ISM

1 2 3 4 5 GHz
 802.11/802.16
Spectrum UNII

International US International
Licensed Japan ISM
ISM Licensed Licensed
Licensed

1 2 3 4 5 GHz

802.16a has both licensed and license-exempt options

ISM: Industrial, Scientific & Medical Band – Unlicensed band
UNII: Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure band – Unlicensed band
Communication System: Structure

Noise
Transmitted Received Received
Info. signal signal info.
Source
SOURCE Transmitter Channel Receiver User

Transmitter

Source Channel
Formatter Modulator
encoder encoder

Receiver

Source Channel
Formatter Demodulator
decoder decoder
 Wireless Channel is Very
Different!
• Wireless channel “feels” very different from a wired channel.
• Not a point-to-point link: EM signal propagates in patterns determined by the antenna gains and environment
• Noise adds on to the signal (AWGN)
• Signal strength falls off rapidly with distance (especially in cluttered environments): large-scale fading.
• Shadowing effects make this large-scale signal strength drop-off non-isotropic.
• Fast fading leads to huge variations in signal strength over short distance, times, or in the frequency domain.
• Interference due to superimposition of signals, leakage of energy can raise the noise-floor and fundamentally limit
performance:
• Self-interference (inter-symbol, inter-carrier), Co-channel interference (in a cellular system with high frequency
reuse), Cross-system (microwave ovens vs WiFi vs bluetooth)

• Results:
• Variable capacity
• Unreliable channel: errors, outages
• Variable delays.
• Capacity is shared with interferers.
Wireless?
• Characteristics
• Mostly radio transmission, new protocols for data transmission are needed

• Advantages
• Spatial flexibility in radio reception range
• Ad hoc networks without former planning
• No problems with wiring (e.g. historical buildings, fire protection, esthetics)
• Robust against disasters like earthquake, fire – and careless users which
remove connectors!

• Disadvantages
• Generally very low transmission rates for higher numbers of users
• Often proprietary, more powerful approaches, standards are often restricted
• Many national regulations, global regulations are evolving slowly
• Restricted frequency range, interferences of frequencies

• Nevertheless, in the last 10-20 years, it has really been a wireless revolution…
Wireless Link Characteristics (1)
Differences from wired link ….

• decreased signal strength: radio signal attenuates as it propagates

through matter (path loss)
• interference from other sources: standardized wireless network
frequencies (e.g., 2.4 GHz) shared by other devices (e.g., phone);
devices (motors) interfere as well
• multipath propagation: radio signal reflects off objects ground,
arriving ad destination at slightly different times

…. make communication across (even a point to point)

wireless link much more “difficult”
Wireless Link Characteristics (2)
• SNR: signal-to-noise ratio
• larger SNR – easier to extract 10 -1

signal from noise (a “good thing”)

• SNR versus BER tradeoffs 10-2

• given physical layer: increase 10 -3

power -> increase SNR->decrease 10

BER
-4

BER
10 -5

• given SNR: choose physical layer

that meets BER requirement, 10 -6

giving highest thruput

10 -7

• SNR may change with mobility: 10 20

SNR(dB)
30 40

dynamically adapt physical

layer (modulation technique, QAM256 (8 Mbps)

rate) QAM16 (4 Mbps)

BPSK (1 Mbps)
Wireless network characteristics
Multiple wireless senders and receivers create additional
problems (beyond multiple access):

A B C
C

A’s signal C’s signal

B strength strength
A

space
Hidden terminal problem
 B, A hear each other Signal attenuation:
 B, C hear each other  B, A hear each other
 A, C can not hear each other  B, C hear each other
 A, C can not hear each other
means A, C unaware of their
interference at B interfering at B
The Wireless Revolution
• Cellular is the fastest growing sector of communication industry
(exponential growth since 1982, with over 2 billion users worldwide
today)
• Three generations of wireless

• First Generation (1G): Analog 25 or 30 KHz FM, voice only, mostly

vehicular communication
• Second Generation (2G): Narrowband TDMA and CDMA, voice and
low bit-rate data, portable units.
2.5G increased data transmission capabilities
• Third Generation (3G): Wideband TDMA and CDMA, voice and high
bit-rate data, portable units
• Fourth Generation (in progress): true broadband wireless: WIMAX
The Wireless Broadband Opportunity
Estimated Global Subscribers mid 2006

2500
2200

2000

[subs x000,000]
1500
Demand
1023
1000 Gap

500
250

0
Internet Cell Phones Broadband

Wireless mobile services grew from 11 million subscribers worldwide in

1990 to over 2 billion in 2005.

In the same period, the Internet grew from being a curious

academic tool to about 1 billion users. Broadband internet access is also
growing rapidly
 Mobile Computing/Entertainment/Commns

iPoD: impact of disk size/cost Samsung Cameraphone

w/ camcorder

• Computing: smaller, faster

• Disks: larger size, small form
• Communications: wireless
voice, data
• Multimedia integration:
voice, data, video, games
SONY PSP: mobile gaming

Blackberry: phone + PDA

Mobile radio systems around
the world

These will soon be wireless-broadband enabled and can play home

movies/videos from the Internet
Multiple Access
Methods
Channel Partitioning MAC protocols: TDMA

TDMA: time division multiple access

• access to channel in "rounds"
• each station gets fixed length slot (length = pkt trans time)
in each round
• unused slots go idle
• example: 6-station LAN, 1,3,4 have pkt, slots 2,5,6 idle

6-slot
frame
1 3 4 1 3 4
Channel Partitioning MAC protocols: FDMA

FDMA: frequency division multiple access

• channel spectrum divided into frequency bands
• each station assigned fixed frequency band
• unused transmission time in frequency bands go idle
• example: 6-station LAN, 1,3,4 have pkt, frequency bands 2,5,6
idle
time
frequency bands

FDM cable
Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)

• used in several wireless broadcast channels (cellular,

satellite, etc) standards
• unique “code” assigned to each user; i.e., code set
partitioning
• all users share same frequency, but each user has own
“chipping” sequence (i.e., code) to encode data
• encoded signal = (original data) X (chipping sequence)
• decoding: inner-product of encoded signal and chipping
sequence
• allows multiple users to “coexist” and transmit
simultaneously with minimal interference (if codes are
“orthogonal”)
 CDMA Encode/Decode
channel output Zi,m
Zi,m= di.cm
data d0 = 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
d1 = -1
bits -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1
sender
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 slot 1 slot 0
code channel channel
-1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1
output output
slot 1 slot 0

M
Di =  Zi,m.cm
m=1
M
received 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
d0 = 1
input -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 d1 = -1

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 slot 1 slot 0
code channel channel
-1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1

receiver output output

slot 1 slot 0
CDMA: two-sender interference
CDMA
spread spectrum

Base-band Spectrum Radio Spectrum

Code B
Code A
B

y
nc
B

ue
A

eq
Code A
A

Fr
B C C
B B C
A A A B
A C
B

Time
Sender Receiver
Summary of Multiple Access
FDMA
power

TDMA
t im u e ncy
e f r eq
power

nc y CDMA
t im qu e
e f re

power cy
t im qu en
e f re
 Orthogonal Frequency -Division Multiplexing
Multi-carrier
transmission: ….

f1 f2 fN

R. W. Chang, “Synthesis of band-limited orthogonal signals for

multichannel data transmission,” Bell Sys. Tech. J. 45, 1775-1796
(1966). 1
Orthogonal Condition: f k  f l m
Ts
f1 f2 …. fN
Wireless History (Brief)
Wireless History
1901: First radio reception across the Atlantic Ocean

1924: First Mobile Radio Telephone

Early Cellular Systems
• 1940s-50s: cellular concept discovered
• 1st Generation: Analog:
• AMPS (Advanced mobile phone systems): FDMA with
30 KHz FM-modulated voice channels.
• 1983: The first analog cellular system deployed in
Chicago: saturated by 1984,
• Federal comunication commission(FCC) increased the
cellular spectral allocation from 40 MHz to 50 MHz.
• Two 25MHz channels: DL and UL (FDD)

• 2nd generation: digital: early 90s

• higher capacity, improved cost, speed, and power
efficiency of digital hardware
 Wireless Timeline (Partial)
• 1991 - Specification of DECT (cordless phone)
• Digital European Cordless Telephone (today: Digital Enhanced Cordless
Telecommunications). Other cordless standards: PHS (Japan), CT-2 (Europe/Asia)
• 1880-1900MHz, ~100-500m range, 120 duplex channels, 1.2Mbit/s data transmission, voice
encryption, authentication, up to several 10000 user/km 2, used in more than 50 countries.
• 1992 - Start of GSM
• In Germany 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)
• 1997 - Wireless LAN – IEEE 802.11
• IEEE standard, 2.4 - 2.5GHz and infrared, 2Mbit/s
• Already many (proprietary) products available in the beginning
• 1998 - Specification of GSM successors
• UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) as European proposals for IMT-2000
• Iridium: 66 satellites (+6 spare), 1.6GHz to the mobile phone
Wireless Timeline (Partial)
• 1999 - Standardization of additional wireless LANs
• IEEE standard 802.11b, 2.4-2.5GHz, 11Mbit/s
• Bluetooth for piconets, 2.4Ghz, <1Mbit/s
• Decision about IMT-2000
• Several “members” of a “family”: UMTS, cdma2000, DECT, …
• Start of WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) and i-mode
• Access to many (Internet) 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!)
• GSM Enhancements for data transmission pick up (EDGE, GPRS, HSCSD)
• UMTS auctions/beauty contests
• Hype followed by disillusionment (approx. 50 B$ payed in Germany for 6
UMTS licenses!)
• 2001 - Start of 3G systems
• Cdma2000 in Korea, UMTS in Europe, Foma (almost UMTS) in Japan
• 2002 – Standardization of high-capacity wireless networks
• IEEE 802.16 as Wireless MAN
Wireless Evolution Timeline
Modern Wireless Systems
 IEEE Wireless Standards

IEEE 802.15.4 Sensors RFID

(Zigbee Alliance) (AutoID Center)
IEEE 802.21, IEEE 802.18 802.19

RAN
IEEE 802.22
WAN
3GPP (GPRS/UMTS)
IEEE 802.20 3GPP2 (1X--/CDMA2000)
IEEE 802.16e GSMA, OMA

IEEE 802.16d MAN ETSI HiperMAN &

WiMAX HIPERACCESS

IEEE 802.11 LAN ETSI-BRAN

Wi-Fi Alliance HiperLAN2

IEEE 802.15.3 PAN ETSI

UWB, Bluetooth
HiperPAN
Wi-Media,
BTSIG, MBOA
Tradeoffs:
Mobility/Coverage/BitRate
Wireless LAN Standards
• 802.11b (Current Generation)
• Standard for 2.4GHz ISM band (80 MHz)
• Frequency hopped spread spectrum
• 1.6-10 Mbps, 500 ft range

• 802.11a (Emerging Generation)

In 2006,
• Standard for 5GHz NII band (300 MHz) WLAN
• OFDM with time division cards
• 20-70 Mbps, variable range
• Similar to HiperLAN in Europe have all 3
• 802.11g (New Standard) standards
• Standard in 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands
• OFDM
• Speeds up to 54 Mbps
Paging Systems: Coverage, 1-
way
• Broad coverage for short messaging
• Message broadcast from all base stations
• High Tx power (hundreds of watts to kilowatts), low power
pagers
• Simple terminals
• Optimized for 1-way transmission
• Answer-back hard
• Overtaken by cellular
Cellular Systems:
(coverage, 2-way, reuse channels for capacity)
• Geographic region divided into cells
• Frequencies/timeslots/codes reused at spatially-separated locations.
• Co-channel interference between same color cells.
• Base stations/MTSOs coordinate handoff and control functions
• Shrinking cell size increases capacity, as well as networking burden

BASE
STATION
MTSO
Cellular Phone Networks
San Francisco

BS
BS

Internet
New York
MTSO MTSO
PSTN

BS
Inside the BS & MTSO:
GSM System Buzzwords Bonanza!
3GPP, UMTS, IMT-2000

International multiplexing tech

(IMT200).
1G, 2G and 3G
• 3G speeds: 384 Kbps (pedestrian); 144 Kbps (vehicular); 2
Mbps (indoor office).
• 3G appeared earlier in Japan:
2.5G, 2.75G …
(yes, 3.5G, 3.75G too!) 3G
2.75G
Multimedia
Intermediate
2.5G Multimedia

2G Packet Data
1G Digital Voice
Analog Voice
GPRS W-CDMA
GSM
EDGE (UMTS)
115 Kbps
NMT 9.6 Kbps 384 Kbps Up to 2 Mbps

GSM/
TD-SCDMA
TDMA GPRS
(Overlay)
TACS 2 Mbps?
115 Kbps
9.6 Kbps

iDEN iDEN
9.6 Kbps PDC (Overlay)
9.6 Kbps
AMPS CDMA 1xRTT cdma2000
CDMA 1X-EV-DV

14.4 Kbps
PHS
(IP-Based) 144 Kbps Over 2.4 Mbps
/ 64 Kbps
64 Kbps
PHS 2003 - 2004+
2003+
2001+
1992 - 2000+ Source: U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray
1984 - 1996+
Sampling of Technical Differences (2G vs 2.5G)
• 2G: 900 MHz cellular frequency band standards:
• IS-54, which uses a combination of TDMA and FDMA and phase-shift keyed
modulation,
• IS-95, which uses direct-sequence CDMA with binary modulation and coding.
• IS-136 (which is basically the same as IS-54 at a higher frequency (2GHz)),
• European GSM standard (also for 2Ghz digital cellular).
• Proliferation of standards => roaming very tough/impossible!
• 2.5G: GPRS, EDGE, HDR (CDMA 2000 1x EV-DO)
• GSM systems provide data rates of up to 100 Kbps by aggregating all timeslots
together for a single user: enhancement is called GPRS.
• A more fundamental enhancement, Enhanced Data Services for GSM Evolution
(EDGE), further increases data rates using a high-level modulation format
combined with FEC coding.
• This modulation is more sensitive to fading effects
• EDGE uses SNR feedback-based adaptive modulation/coding techniques to
mitigate.
• The IS-54 and IS-136 systems currently provide data rates of 40-60 Kbps by
aggregating time slots and using high-level modulation.
• This evolution of the IS-136 standard is called IS-136HS (high-speed).
• IS-95 systems: higher data w/ a time-division technique called high data rate
(HDR)
Cellular Wireless Data
Networks (3G)
• 2G Wireless:
• GSM or CDMA based mobile phone service. 2 Billion users!
• 3G evolution: (from voice to voice+data)
• GSM operators → UMTS (Universal Mobile Telephone System)
and HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access)
• CDMA operators → 1x EV-DO
• China etc: TD-SCDMA (Time Division - Synchronous CDMA)
Future Generations
Other Tradeoffs:
Rate Rate vs. Coverage
4G Rate vs. Delay
802.11b WLAN Rate vs. Cost
3G Rate vs. Energy

2G

2G Cellular

Mobility
Fundamental Design Breakthroughs Needed
Wireless Broadband:
Technical Challenges & Basic Concepts
Path Loss, Shadowing, Fading
• Variable & rapid decay of signal due to environment, multi-
paths, mobility

Slow fading: outage in uncovered areas. A

coding scheme that achieves the outage
capacity is said to be universal since it
communicates reliably over all slow fading
channels that are not in outage.
Fading Channel
“Mobility”
Fundamentals of Diversity Reception
What is diversity?
Diversity is a technique to combine several copies
of the same message received over different
channels.
Why diversity?
To improve link performance
Methods for obtaining multiple replicas
• Antenna Diversity
• Site Diversity
• Frequency Diversity
• Time Diversity
• Polarization Diversity
• Angle Diversity
Antenna (or micro) diversity.
- at the mobile (antenna spacing > l/2)
Covariance of received signal amplitude
J0 2 (2pfD t) = J0 2 (2pd/l).
- at the base station (spacing > few
wavelengths)
Covariance of received signal amplitude
where
x angle of arrival of LOS
d is the antenna spacing
k (k << 1) is the ratio of radius a of scattering
objects and distance between mobile and base
station. Typically, a is 10 .. 100 meters.
Site (or macro) diversity
• Receiving antennas are located at different sites.
For instance, at the different corners of hexagonal cell.
• Advantage: multipath fading, shadowing, path loss and
interference are "independent"
Polarization diversity
• obstacles scatter waves differently depending on
polarization.
Angle diversity
• waves from different angles of arrival are combined
optimally, rather than with random phase
• Directional antennas receive only a fraction of all
scattered energy.
Frequency diversity
• Each message is transmitted at different
carrier frequencies simultaneously
• Frequency separation >> coherence
bandwidth
Time diversity
• Each meesage is transmitted more than once.
• Useful for moving terminals
• Similar concept: Slow frequency hopping
(SFH): blocks of bits are transmitted at different
carrier frequencies.
Selection Methods
• Selection Diversity
• Equal Gain Combining
• Maximum Ratio Combining
• Wiener filtering
if interference is present
• Post-detection combining:
Signals in all branches are detected separately
Baseband signals are combined.
For site diversity: do error detection in each
branch
Pure selection diversity
• Select only the strongest signal
• In practice: select the highest signal +
interference + noise power.
• Use delay and hysteresis to avoid excessive
switching
• Simple implementations: Threshold Diversity
- Switch when current power drops below a
threshold
- This avoids the necessity of separate receivers
for each diversity branch.
PDF of C/N for selection diversity
One branch with Rayleigh fading
The signal-to-noise ratio g has distribution
where
g ¯ i is local-mean signal-to-noise ratio
(g ¯ i = g ¯ = p ¯ / N0 BT )
L brances with i.i.d. Rayleigh fading
The probability that the signal-to-noise ratio gR
is below g0 is
Selection Diversity
Expectation of received signal-to-noise
ratio
EgR = g ¯ [1 + 1/2 + 1/3 + ... 1/L].
Outage probability
• Insert g0 = z in distribution.
• For large fade margins (g ¯ >> z), outage
probability tends
to (z/g ¯ ) L .
PDF of C/N ratio gR
Derivative of the cumulative distribution
Diversity Combining Methods
Each branch is co-pahased with the other
branches and
weighted by factor ai
• Selection diversity
ai = 1 if ri , > rj , for all j ¹ i and 0 otherwise.
• Equal Gain Combining: ai =1 for all i.
• Maximum Ratio Combining: ai = ri .
9
PDF of C/N for diversity reception
• Signal in branch i with amplitude ri is
multiplied by a
diversity combining gain ai .
• Signals are then co-phased and added.
Combined received signal amplitude is
The noise power NR in the combined
signal is
where N is the (i.i.d.) Gaussian noise
power in each branch.
The signal-to-noise ratio in the combined
signal is
10
Optimum branch weight coefficients ai
Cauchy's inequality
(Sai ri ) 2 £ Sai 2 S ri 2
is an equality for ai is a constant times ri .
Hence,
where
gi is instantaneous signal-to-noise ratio in i-
th branch
(gi pi / N0 BT ).
Optimum: Maximum Ratio Combining.
We conclude that gR is maximized for ai =
ri .
11
Maximum Ratio Combining
SNR of combined signal is sum of
SNR's
Inserting ai = ri gives
I.I.D. Rayleigh-fading channel
PDF of the combined SNR is Gamma
distributed, with
12
Equal Gain Combining
For EGC, weight ai = 1 irrespective of ri ,.
The combined-signal-to-noise ratio is
Combined output is the sum of L Rayleigh
variables.
• No closed form solution, except for L = 1
or 2.
14
EGC
• Approximate pdf (Schwartz): for L = 2,
3,... and large
fade margins (g0 = z << g ¯ )
where
(L - 1/2)! G(L + 1/2) = (1.3...(2L - 1))Öp/2
L.
EGC performs slightly worse than MRC.
For large fade margins,
outage probabilities differ by a factor
Öp(L/2)L / G(L + 1/2).
Comparison
i.i.d. Rayleigh fading in L branches.
Technique: Circuit Complexity: C/N
improvement factor:
Threshold simple, cheap 1 + gT /G exp(-gT
/G) for L = 2
single receiver optimum for gT /G: 1 + e
»1.38
Selection L receivers 1 + 1/2 + .. + 1/L
EGC L receivers 1 + (L - 1) p/4
co-phasing
MRC L receivers L
co-phasing
channel estimator
Compared to simple, inxpensive selection
diversity, the
average SNR is much better if MRC is
used .
However if one compares the probability of
a deep fade of the
output signal, selection diversity appears to
perform
reasonably well, despit its relative
simplicity.
17
Ideal Multiple Access
Protocol
Broadcast channel of rate R bps
1. when one node wants to transmit, it can send at rate R.
2. when M nodes want to transmit, each can send at
average rate R/M
3. fully decentralized:
• no special node to coordinate transmissions
• no synchronization of clocks, slots
4. simple
MAC Protocols: a taxonomy
Three broad classes:
• Channel Partitioning
• divide channel into smaller “pieces” (time slots,
frequency, code)
• allocate piece to node for exclusive use
• Random Access
• channel not divided, allow collisions
• “recover” from collisions
• “Taking turns”
• nodes take turns, but nodes with more to send can take
longer turns
Random Access Protocols
• When node has packet to send
• transmit at full channel data rate R.
• no a priori coordination among nodes
• two or more transmitting nodes ➜ “collision”,
• random access MAC protocol specifies:
• how to detect collisions
• how to recover from collisions (e.g., via delayed
retransmissions)
• Examples of random access MAC protocols:
• slotted ALOHA
• ALOHA
• CSMA, CSMA/CD, CSMA/CA
Slotted ALOHA
Assumptions: Operation:
• all frames same size • when node obtains fresh
• time divided into equal size frame, transmits in next slot
slots (time to transmit 1 • if no collision: node can
frame) send new frame in next
• nodes start to transmit only slot
slot beginning
• nodes are synchronized
• if collision: node
retransmits frame in
• if 2 or more nodes transmit
in slot, all nodes detect each subsequent slot
collision with prob. p until
success
Slotted ALOHA

Pros Cons
• single active node can • collisions, wasting slots
continuously transmit at • idle slots
full rate of channel • nodes may be able to
• highly decentralized: only detect collision in less
slots in nodes need to be than time to transmit
packet
in sync
• clock synchronization
• simple
Slotted Aloha efficiency
• max efficiency: find p* that
Efficiency : long-run
maximizes
fraction of successful Np(1-p)N-1
slots • for many nodes, take limit of
(many nodes, all with Np*(1-p*)N-1 as N goes to
infinity, gives:
many frames to send) Max efficiency = 1/e = .37
• suppose: N nodes with many
frames to send, each transmits
in slot with probability p
• prob that given node has
success in a slot = p(1-p)N-1
• prob that any node has a
At best: channel

!
success = Np(1-p)N-1
used for useful
transmissions 37%
of time!
Pure (unslotted) ALOHA
• unslotted Aloha: simpler, no synchronization
• when frame first arrives
• transmit immediately
• collision probability increases:
• frame sent at t0 collides with other frames sent in [t0-1,t0+1]
Pure Aloha efficiency
P(success by given node) = P(node transmits) .
P(no other node transmits in [p0-1,p0] .
P(no other node transmits in [p0-1,p0]
= p . (1-p)N-1 . (1-p)N-1
= p . (1-p)2(N-1)

… choosing optimum p and then letting n -> infty ...

= 1/(2e) = .18

even worse than slotted Aloha!

Duplexing Methods for Radio
Links

Base Station

Forward link
Reverse link

Mobile Station
Frequency Division Duplex
(FDD)
• Forward link frequency and reverse link frequency is different
• In each link, signals are continuously transmitted in parallel.

Forward link (F1)

Reverse link (F2) Base Station

Mobile Station
Example of FDD systems

Mobile Station Base Station

Transmitter BPF BPF Transmitter

F1 F2

Receiver BPF BPF Receiver

F2 F1

BPF: Band Pass Filter

Time Division Duplex (TDD)
• Forward link frequency and reverse link frequency is the same.
• In each link, signals take turns just like a ping-pong game.

Forward link (F1)

Reverse link (F1)

Base Station

Mobile Station
Example of TDD Systems

Mobile Station Base Station

Transmitter Transmitter

BPF BPF
Receiver F1 F1 Receiver

Synchronous Switches

BPF: Band Pass Filter

Multiplexing: Outline
• Single link:
• Channel partitioning (TDM, FDM, WDM)
vs Packets/Queuing/Scheduling
• Series of links:
• Circuit switching vs packet switching
• Statistical Multiplexing (leverage randomness)
• Stability, multiplexing gains, Amdahl’s law
• Distributed multiplexing (MAC protocols)
• Channel partitioning: TDMA, FDMA, CDMA
• Randomized protocols: Aloha, Ethernet (CSMA/CD)
• Taking turns: distributed round-robin: polling, tokens
Multiplexing: TDM
“Multi-carrier”: FDM and
OFDM Ch.1 Ch.2 Ch.3 Ch.4 Ch.5 Ch.6 Ch.7 Ch.8 Ch.9 Ch.10

Conventional multicarrier techniques frequency

Ch.2 Ch.4 Ch.6 Ch.8 Ch.10

Ch.1 Ch.3 Ch.5 Ch.7 Ch.9

Saving of bandwidth

Actually these are Sinc pulses 50% in frequency

bandwidthdomain.
saving
Symbols are longer duration in time-domain,
and can eliminate ISI outlast dispersion due to
Orthogonal multicarrier techniques frequency

multipaths (see next slide)…

Detour: Multipath
Propagation & ISI
• Reflections from walls, etc.
• Time dispersive channel
• Impulse response:

p ( ) (PDP)

• Problem with high rate data

 [ns]
transmission:
• multi-path delay spread is of the
order of symbol time
• inter-symbol-interference (ISI)
Detour: Inter-Symbol-Interference (ISI) due to
Multi-Path Fading
Transmitted signal:

Received Signals:
Line-of-sight:

Reflected:

The symbols add up on

the channel Delays
 Distortion!
OFDM: Parallel Tx on Narrow
Bands Channel
Channel impulse transfer function
response Time
Frequency
(Freq selective fading)

1 Channel (serial) Signal is

Frequency
“broadband”

2 Channels Frequency

8 Channels
Frequency

Channels are
“narrowband”
(flat fading, ↓ ISI)
MIMO: Spatial Diversity, Spatial Multiplexing w/
Multiple Antennas

Example: Simple Selection Diversity (Rx only), Diversity Gains..

SISO, MISO, SIMO, MIMO,
SDMA…
SISO
• Single Input, Single
Output

MISO
 Multiple Input,
Single Output
SIMO
 Single Input,
Multiple Output

MIMO
 Multiple Input,
SDMA Multiple Output
Adaptive Antenna Gains (Tx or
Rx) Diversity
• differently fading paths
• fading margin reduction
• no gain when noise-limited

Coherent Gain
• energy focusing
• improved link budget
• reduced radiation

Interference Mitigation
• energy reduction
• enhanced capacity
• improved link budget

Enhanced Rate/Throughput
• co-channel streams
• increased capacity
• increased data rate
 Multiple Access Control (MAC)

Base Station

Forward link
Reverse link
Mobile Station

Mobile Station
Mobile Station Mobile Station
MAC Protocols: a taxonomy
• Channel Partitioning: TDMA, FDMA
• divide channel into “pieces” (time slots, frequency)
• allocate piece to node for exclusive use

• Random Access: Aloha, Ethernet CSMA/CD, WiFi CSMA/CA

• allow collisions
• “recover” from collisions
• Wireless: inefficiencies arise from hidden terminal problem, residual
interference
• Cannot support large numbers of users and at high loads

• “Taking turns”: Token ring, distributed round-robin, CDMA, polling

• Coordinate shared access using turns to avoid collisions.
• Achieve statistical multiplexing gain & large user base, but  complexity
• CDMA can be loosely classified here (orthogonal code = token)
• OFDMA w/ scheduling also in this category
MAC protocols taxonomy (contd)
Channel partitioning MAC protocols:
• share channel efficiently at high load
• inefficient at low load: delay in channel access, 1/N
bandwidth allocated even if only 1 active node!

Random access MAC protocols

• efficient at low load: single node can fully utilize channel
• high load: collision overhead

“Taking turns” protocols

look for best of both worlds!
TDMA Overview

cy
en
qu
A

F re
B f0
C B A C B A C B A C B A

C
Time
Channel Partitioning
MAC protocols. Issues
TDMA: time division multiple access
• Access to channel in "rounds"
• Each station gets fixed length slot (length = pkt trans time)
in each round
• Unused slots go idle
• Example: 6-station LAN, 1,3,4 have pkt, slots 2,5,6 idle
• Does not leverage statistical multiplexing gains here
 FDMA Overview

cy
en
qu
Fre
C C
f2

B B f1

A A f0

Time

Need substantial guard bands: inefficient

 OFDMA
OFDMA: a mix of FDMA/TDMA: (OFDM modulation)
Sub Channels are allocated in the Frequency Domain,
OFDM Symbols allocated in the Time Domain.
Dynamic scheduling leverages statistical multiplexing gains, and allows adaptive
modulation/coding/power control, user diversity

t TDMA

TDMA\OFDMA
m

N
WLAN vs WMAN:

What’s Really Different?

Comparison of Issues/Features
 Scalability

802.11 802.16a
Wide, fixed (20MHz) frequency channels Channel bandwidths can be chosen by operator
(e.g. for sectorization)
1.5 MHz to 20 MHz width channels. MAC
designed for scalability independent of channel
bandwidth

MAC designed to support thousands of users.

MAC designed to support 10’s of users

802.16a is designed for subscriber density

Bit Rate: Relative Performance
Channel Maximum Maximum
Bandwidth Data Rate bps/Hz

802.11a 20 MHz 54 Mbps ~2.7 bps/Hz

10, 20 MHz;
802.16a 1.75, 3.5, 7, 14 MHz; 63 Mbps* ~5.0 bps/Hz
3, 6 MHz

* Assuming a 14 MHz channel

802.16a is designed for metropolitan performance

Interesting rule of thumb: the actual capacity (Mbps per channel per
sector) in a multi-cell environment for most wireless technologies is
about 20% to 30% of the peak theoretical data rate.
Adaptive Modulation/Coding
Modulation / QPSK 1/2 QPSK 3/4 16 QAM 16 QAM 64 QAM 64 QAM
Code Rate 1/2 3/4 2/3 3/4

1.75 MHz 1.04 2.18 2.91 4.36 5.94 6.55

3.5 MHz 2.08 4.37 5.82 8.73 11.88 13.09

7.0 MHz 4.15 8.73 11.64 17.45 23.75 26.18

10.0 MHz 8.31 12.47 16.63 24.94 33.25 37.40

20.0 MHz 16.62 24.94 33.25 49.87 66.49 74.81

Rate Calculator
Bandw idth (MHz) Oversam pling Code Rate Modulation Density Guard Tim e Bit Rate (Mbps)
5.00 1 1/7 3/4 6 1/32 18.70
 Coverage
802.11 802.16a

 Optimized for indoor performance  Optimized for outdoor NLOS performance

 Standard supports mesh network topology

 No mesh topology support within ratified
standards  Standard supports advanced antenna techniques

802.16a is designed for market coverage

 Range 802.11 802.16a
 Optimized for ~100 meters  Optimized for up to 50 Km

 No “near-far” compensation  Designed to handle many users spread out

over kilometers

  Designed to tolerate greater

Designed to handle indoor multi-path
(delay spread of 0.8μ seconds) multi-path delay spread (signal reflections) up
to 10.0μ seconds
 Optimization centers around PHY and
 PHY and MAC designed with multi-mile
MAC layer for 100m range
range in mind
 Range can be extended by cranking up
the power – but MAC may be non-
standard  Standard MAC; Sectoring/MIMO/AMC for
Rate/Range dynamic tradeoff

802.16a is designed for distance

 Quality of Service (QoS)
802.11 802.16a
 Contention-based MAC (CSMA/CA) => no  Grant-request MAC
guaranteed QoS

 Standard cannot currently guarantee latency  Designed to support Voice and Video from
for Voice, Video ground up

 Standard does not allow for differentiated  Supports differentiated service levels: e.g. T1
levels of service on a per-user basis for business customers; best effort for
residential.

 TDD only – asymmetric  TDD/FDD/HFDD – symmetric or asymmetric

 Centrally-enforced QoS
 802.11e (proposed) QoS is prioritization only

802.16a is designed for carrier class operation

QoS Requirements: Voice vs
Data
• Voice systems have relatively low data rate requirements
(around 20 Kbps) and can tolerate a fairly high probability of
bit error (bit error rates, or BERs, of around 10−3), but the total
delay must be less than around 30 msec or it becomes
noticeable to the end user.
• On the other hand, data systems typically require much higher
data rates (1-100 Mbps) and very small BERs (the target BER is
10−8 and all bits received in error must be retransmitted) but
do not have a fixed delay requirement.
 Security
802.11 802.16a

 Existing standard is WPA + WEP  Triple-DES (128-bit) and RSA

(1024-bit)
 802.11i in process of addressing security

802.16a maintains fixed wireless security

802.11 vs 802.16: Summary

802.11 and 802.16 both gain broader industry

acceptance through conformance and
interoperability by multiple vendors

802.16 complements 802.11 by creating a

complete MAN-LAN solution

• 802.11 is optimized for license-exempt LAN operation

• 802.16 is optimized for license-exempt and licensed
MAN operation.
Status of Wireless Broadband
Today
• Despite many promising technologies, the reality of a
wide-area network that …
… services many users at high data rates …
…. (fixed and mobile) …
… with reasonable bandwidth and power resources…
… while maintaining high coverage and quality of
service

….. has not yet been achieved.

– J. Andrews, A. Ghosh, R. Muhamed (Fundamentals of

WIMAX, 2007, to appear)