Wireless Communications

In Mobile Computing

By
N.Archana & S.Harika
MVGR College Of Engineering
Chintalavalasa
VIZIANAGARAM.

E-Mail ID’s:-
harika_sampath@yahoo.com
nayani_archana@yahoo.co.in

ABSTRACT:
In recent years, mobile computing has become the focus of vigorous research
efforts in various areas of computer science and engineering. These areas include
wireless networking, distributed systems, operating systems, distributed databases,
software engineering, applications development, just to name a few. A new era of human
communications where wireless technologies has become the information skyways. We
have found a new avenue to send ideas and masses of information to remote locations in
a way never imagined. The Internet is becoming an ever-essential integral part of our
lives. With the recent trend towards the rapid and skyrocketing adoption of Internet-
enabled wireless phones, managing and controlling everyday devices is “just a phone call
away”. Many new innovative technologies in the field of communications have come into
existence and mobile communications, which relies on wireless technology, has made
rapid strides to provide excellent means of communication.
Wireless communication is the transmission of information signals or electro
magnetic signals from one location to another location without a physical connection,
through technologies such as cordless telephones, cellular telephones or microwaves. In
general wireless communication and wireless networking goes “hand by hand”, as the
communication is simply because of networking.
This presentation gives the rough overview of “wireless communication”.
Wireless communication includes frequency spectrum, basic cellular system, cells and
coverages. On the other hand wireless networking involves WLAN, WAP, GSM,
GPRS, CDMA . Before going in detail into these technologies, a look towards the
“Basic wireless communication infrastructure” has been made.
This paper will outline the “wireless communication in mobile computing”
with a clear depiction. A greater emphasis is laid on highlighting the credibilities of both
wireless communication and wireless networking mechanisms.
INTRODUCTION:
Wireless communication facilities have become commonplace in many parts of
everyday life. Cordless telephones and pagers are approaching everyday usage by a large
number of people. The various acronyms of the different systems are numerous and one
would be forgiven for not keeping abreast of the most recent systems to emerge on the
market. In future "the users will be able to make or receive calls anywhere and at anytime
should they so choose". Integrated communication systems are becoming increasingly
important in mobile information systems. The benefits of such replacement e.g. mobility,
flexibility, reduced installation costs etc are enormous. Cordless telephones and pagers
have been used within buildings for many years, but have been used randomly and
without regard for the interference they caused. Radio data systems allows for the
possibility of indoor wireless LAN's. Future mobile radio communications systems will
be integrated into the digital telecommunications network (ISDN) resulting in a variety of
effective services will be available. In effect the ultimate goal is to have a Universal
Mobile Telephone System (UMTS).

Wireless Communication:
It is important to realize that rapid technological progress results in the
growth of new telecommunications services, such as mobile communication systems. The
dissemination of these new technologies is accelerated by deregulation and privatization,
which encourages new and competitive markets.

The wireless communication is mainly broken into three categories.

I. Frequency spectrum for data communication
II. Basic cellular system
III. Cells and coverages
Frequency spectrum for data communication:
All wireless communication is based upon the application of a radio operating
on an assigned frequency. The assigned frequency is used to broadcast and receive
messages. The effectiveness of the radio transmission is a function of the antenna,
transmitting power, and interference encountered along the transmission path. The
transmission characteristic of a radio wave and its attenuation in a particular environment
depends upon its frequency. The radiation frequency will determine the size and type of
technology used in the transmitter and receiver.
Figure 2 shows the Electro-magnetic Spectrum and the frequencies used in radio
communication.

The problem with radio communication is that the spectrum available is finite and cannot
be automatically increased as demand increases with the growth of a system. Cellular
radio is one means of providing such efficiency in that it enables high-density frequency
reuse. Adjacent to these are cells with transmitters operating on different frequencies. The
transmitters in adjacent cells do not interfere with each other.
Basic cellular system:
A radio system providing telephone service (usually mobile) via a network
of interconnected, low-powered base stations, each of which serves a geographic area.
Each mobile uses a separate, temporary radio channel to talk to the cell site. The
cell site talks to many mobiles at once, using one channel per mobile. Channels use a pair off
frequencies for communication –one frequency, the forward link, for transmitting from the
cell site and one frequency, the reverse link, for the cell site to receive calls from the users.
Radio energy dissipates over distance, so mobiles must stay near the base station to maintain
communications.

Cells and coverages:

Cells:
 Cell is the basic geographic unit of a cellular system. The term cellular comes
from the honeycomb shape of the areas into which a coverage region is divided. Cells are
base station transmitting over small geographic areas that are represented are hexagons.
Because of constraints imposed by natural terrain and man-made structure, the true shape
of cells is not a perfect hexagon.
Coverages:
One of a series of data themes, such as wetlands or water lines, in a geographic
information system with graphic and attribute data related to that topic.

Fig: coverage area into hexagonal cells

Wireless Networking:
Wireless networks are telephone or computer networks that use radio as their
carrier or physical layer.
WLAN:
A wireless LAN or WLAN is a wireless local area network that uses radio
waves as its carrier: the last link with the users is wireless, to give a network connection
to all users in the surrounding area. Areas may range from a single room to an entire
campus. The backbone network usually uses cables, with one or more wireless access
points connecting the wireless users to the wired network.WLAN is expected to continue
to be an important form of connection in many business areas. The market is expected to
grow as the benefits of WLAN are recognizedSo far WLANs have been installed in
universities, airports, and other major public places. Decreasing costs of WLAN
equipment has also brought it to many homes.
WLAN Architecture:

Originally WLAN hardware was so expensive that it was only used as an

alternative to cabled LAN in places where cabling was difficult or impossible. Such
places could be old protected buildings or classrooms, although the restricted range of the
802.11b (typically 30ft.) limits its use to smaller buildings. WLAN components are now
cheap enough to be used in the home, with many being set-up so that one PC (a parent's
PC, for example) can be used to share an internet connection with the whole family
(whilst retaining access control at the parents' PC).
Comparing WLAN and LAN:
 Wireless networks (WLAN) have become common in organisations and home
use. The price of the wireless equipment is no longer a problem for home users. But even
though the prices have gone down there are still things which have to be taken into
consideration when deciding whether to obtain a wireless or a wired network

Wireless Networks(WLAN) Wired Networks(LAN)

1. These are flexible as the radio waves go 1. These are not as flexible as when
through the walls and the compared to wireless networks.
wireless computer can be
anywhere within range of an
access point. 2. These are less expensive for home
2. These are not so expensive when networks.
implemented in large sites. 3. If one base station goes down then entire
3. These are robust as users can remain network will be affected.
connected if one base station goes down
but it requires careful planning. 4. These are secured and reliable when best
4. These are safe to use in most transmission medium is used.
environments but not liable. 5. As these are wired to hub or switch so
5. Data transfer speed is less as same base transfer speed is more.
station have to share the bandwidth.

Standards and limitations:

There are also limitations concerning the wireless networks. All the wireless
products have to support international standards. The international institutions introduce
practices and also limit the frequencies used in wireless equipment. Publishing and
implementation of regulations of this kind takes time. For this reason some companies are
producing products to which they have applied patents. This means that the products of
two separate companies may not work together at all. In this situation the products should
be ordered only from one company if those products are used in a same wireless network.
Some of the WLAN standards are 802.11, 802.11b, 802.11a, and 802.11g

Wireless Application Protocol:

 Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is an open international standard
for applications that use wireless communication, for example Internet access from a
mobile phone. WAP was designed to provide services equivalent to a Web browser with
some mobile-specific additions, being specifically designed to address the limitations of
very small portable devices. It is now the protocol used for the majority of the world's
mobile Internet sites, otherwise known as wap-sites.

GSM:
On the telecom front, numerous wireless technologies have been introduced in the
country. It started with GSM(Global System Mobile technology) based mobile phones
the developers of GSM choose an unproven digital system that had enough flexibility to
allow competitive innovation but at the same time ensured proper internetworking
between the components of the system. At present there are hundreds of functional GSM
networks in an equally large number of countries .
GSM Network Architecture:
This section presents the GSM network architectures:
Mobile Station (MS): MS is the subscriber end of the network and consists of the GSM
device and the SIM (Subscriber Entity Module). Each mobile device has a globally
unique IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) and each SIM has an IMSI
(International Mobile Subscriber Identity). The SIM card may be protected against
unauthorized number using a PIN.
Base Transceiver Station (BTS): BTS is the entity corresponding to one site
communicating with the Mobile Stations. Usually, the BTS will have an antenna with
several radio transceivers (TRXs) that each communicates on radio frequency.
The Base Station Controller (BSC): Each BSC controls the magnitude of several
hundred BTSs. The BSC takes care of a number of different procedures regarding call
setup, location update and handover for each MS.
The Mobile Switching Center(MSC): The Mobile Switching Center is a normal
ISDN-switch with extended functionality to handle mobile subscribers. The basic
function of the MSC is to switch speech and data connections between BSCs, other
MSCs, other Wireless networks and external non-mobile-networks. The MSC and BSCs
are connected via the highly standardized A-interface.

.
GPRS
General Packet Radio Service(GPRS) is relatively a new technology that offers
packet based radio service to mobile networks. Designed to supplement the existing
mobile technologies, like GSM, CDMA, TDMA etc, GPRS aims to provide anytime-
anywhere “ always-on” network connections to mobile devices. GPRS also enables
mobile networks to provide speeds much higher than those offered by GSM alone.
Architecture of GPRS:
 GPRS technology brings many changes to the existing GSM network. The
gateway GPRS support node (GGSN) is similar to The GSM gateway mobile switching
center (GMSC) and provides a gateway between the GPRS network and the public packet
data network (PDN) or other GPRS networks. The GGSN provides authentication and
location management functions, connects to the home location register (HLR) by means
of the Gc interface, and counts the number of packets transmitted for accurate subscriber
billing. The serving GPRS support node (SGSN), like the GSM mobile switching center
and visitor location register (MSC/VLR), controls the connection between the network
and the mobile station (MS). It attaches to the HLR via the Gr interface and to the
MSC/VLR via the Gs interface.

CDMA Overview:
For radio systems there are two resources, frequency and time. Division by
frequency, so that each pair of communicators is allocated part of the spectrum for all of
the time, results in Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA). Division by time, so
that each pair of communicators is allocated all (or at least a large part) of the spectrum
for part of the time results in Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA). In Code Division
Multiple Access (CDMA), every communicator will be allocated the entire spectrum all
of the time. CDMA uses codes to identify connections.

Multiple Access Schemes

In Future……

Wireless and Mobile Communications begins by looking at economic and cost

issues associated with personal communications services. While cellular telephones and
cordless telephones have attracted the largest number of people to wireless
communications, many predict that mobile computing and wireless data services are due
for dramatic growth.
Conclusion:
The area of personal communications is expanding at a rapid rate. Wired
networks(WAN) are more secure, more reliable and offer a higher data transfer speed.
Wireless networks (WLAN) are more convenient when mobility is required, and are
sometimes the only feasible choice (like in old buildings where installing cables is
difficult or impossible). Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is portable and provide
services equivalent to Web Browser. GPRS offers a better data transfer rate and proved to
be a better communication system than GSM. Laptops connected to GPRS phones would
offer speeds fast, and may be even faster, than our PC connected to our landline. Future
mobile communication systems are likely to operate at frequencies above 1GHz because
of a shortage of spectrum at lower frequencies. The services provided will cover voice
data and possibly video.
BIBILOGRAPHY:
Mobile Computing and Wireless –Amjad Umar
Mobile Computing – Corbin Collins
Computer Networks - Andrew .S. Tenenbaum

www.google.co.in
www.wiley.com
www.mobilecomputing.com
www.bitpipe.com