Introduction to Wireless Communications

Wireless Communications: An Introduction

This note gives an introduction to wireless communications.
Carrier Frequency
Wireless Communications rely on electromagnetic waves to carry communication
messages. Most of the time the electromagnetic waves are radio waves with frequencies
between about 3MHz and 60GHz (wavelengths from 100 m to 5mm) though frequencies
outside this range are also used for some applications. The carrier frequency at which a
particular wireless communication system operates is defined by regulatory constraints.
This means that a body appointed by government (Ofcom in the UK) is responsible for
over-seeing wireless transmissions; as a result interference can be controlled. For
example many frequency bands (=ranges of frequencies for a particular application)
require a license to operate. Exceptions to this are license exempt bands such as 2.4GHz
used by wireless LAN. Wireless technology is designed to work at the carrier frequency
permitted by regulation and there are strict regulations that ensure that other frequencies
are not emitted; this is part of the equipment type approval or kite-marking process.
Bandwidth
Propagation
Electromagnetic waves emitted by an antenna can be considered to travel through the air
(or through space) in straight lines, provided no objects (or changes in air density) are in
the way. Whilst this is more or less the case for transmissions from satellite to Earth it is
usually an over simplification for wireless LAN (WLAN) or cellular radio. For WLAN, used
indoors, the structure of buildings (walls, floors, doors, windows, furniture) effect the
propagation of the radio-wave. The effects are: absorption where some of the radio wave
power is absorbed by the material in the path, Reflection where some or all the power is
reflected by an object, Refraction where the path is deviated by a transparent (to radio)
material, scattering where a small object (<about 10 wavelengths) disperses the wave in
all directions and diffraction where waves bend around edges of opaque (to radio) objects.
One of the big factors affecting the power of a received radio-wave is the distance over
which it has travelled from the transmitter. This is not due to absorption; generally the air is
a pretty good medium for radio waves with little absorption (the main exception being
frequencies at 60GHz which are strongly absorbed by oxygen in the air).
Imagine a radio transmitter emitting radio-waves with an antenna that transmits equally in
all directions. As we move further away from the transmitter the power density (power per
unit area) decreases (even with a path free from obstructions). A receiver (with antenna to
pick the signals up) collects radio waves from a fixed area. Therefore as the receiver
moves away, the power that is received decreases. We have a reduction in received signal
power simply because we have moved further away from the transmitter. This Free Space
Path Loss is usually the biggest factor affecting our received radio power.
To take this a step further we note that the emitted wave as it moves away from the
transmitter fills a bigger and bigger sphere. Since the surface area is proportional to radius
squared, the received power is proportional to the inverse of the square of distance; the
famous inverse square law. It is worth repeating that this loss of power is due to the
spreading out of the wave and nothing to do with absorption or scattering (it will happen in
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Introduction to Wireless Communications
a vacuum just as well). The effect of the inverse square law is that power decreases most
rapidly close to the transmitter; each doubling of distance results in a four-fold reduction in
power. If we start at 1m from a transmitter and move to 10m we get 100 times less power
go another ten metres and the power is further reduced by four times (not 100 times).
Slightly more mathematically we can say that the power decreases as 1/distance
2
as the
distance between transmitter and receiver gets bigger. So that for free-space propagation
(that is with no obstacles in the path):
P
r
1/distance
2
When measuring radio signal power it is common to use the dBm (dee bee em). The dBm
is the ratio of the power to 1 milliwatt expressed in decibels (dB).
dbm = 10log
10
(actual power in milliwatt/1 milliwatt)
For example: 0dBm= 1mW, 20dBm=100mW, -60dBm = 1nW. When expressed in dB the
free-space equation for received power becomes:
P
r
(dBm) =P
0
(dBm) -20log
10
(distance)
where P
0
is the received power at some reference distance (say 1m) and distance is the
distance from the reference point.
When obstacles are introduced to the path they generally attenuate (reduce) the signal
further, say L dB.
P
r
(dBm) =P
0
(dBm) -20log
10
(distance)-L
The inverse square law applies once we are beyond a certain distance from the antenna
(rule of thumb **). Closer than this then the construction of the antenna has an effect.
Antennas
An antenna is responsible for converting electrical signals in an electrical circuit to an
electromagnetic wave in the air (and vice versa when receiving a signal). There are
hundreds of different types of antennas for different applications and purposes, many text
books dedicated to them and even whole research journals. Familiar antennas include
those found on the roofs of houses for terrestrial TV reception or the dish antennas for
satellite reception and cellular mobile phone mast antennas. Antennas in devices such as
mobile phones and laptop computers tend to be hidden from view but they are still present.
Although there are many different types of antennas their performance from a how they
effect the wireless transmission perspective can be considered through some common
characteristics:
Gain: the relative strength of transmitted signal compared to a reference antenna.
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Introduction to Wireless Communications
Gain pattern: how the antenna focusses radio-waves in particular directions. This is often
drawn as a polar diagram.
Effective Aperture: the effective area of the antenna for collecting radiation
Beam-width: the angular width of the beam pattern in the main direction of the antenna.
To understand antenna properties it is useful to have a reference antenna to which other
antennas can be compared. The most popular reference antenna is the ISOTROPIC
antenna. The isotropic is a theoretical antenna that has two main properties:
it radiates (or captures radiation) equally in all directions, it has a gain of 1 (=0dB).
Practical antennas can be classified as:
Omnidirectional: Radiates equally in all directions in a horizontal plain.Typical of
antennas found in WLAN, and mobile phones. Usually low gain.
Directional: Focusses radiation. Example parabolic dish antenna for satellite reception.
Reduced beamwidth and increased gain.
Modulation and Coding
WLAN operate with carrier frequencies at 2.4GHz (802.11bg) or 5.6GHz (802.11a). This is
the result of historical, regulatory and technological evolution.
Whatever carrier frequency is used a method is required that enables data to be carried on
a carrier wave. This is the job of modulation. The process of modulation amounts to
mapping bits for transmission to symbol states of the carrier-wave. The carrier properties,
amplitude, phase and frequency or, more usually, combinations of these can be used for
this purpose. A modulation symbol can be thought of as a particular amplitude, phase and
frequency of the carrier. Simple modulation schemes involve a single property such as
phase with only two possible symbol states (binary modulation).
Some modulations are able to carry more bits-per-second in a given bandwidth than
others. There is usually a trade-off: more bits-per-second requires larger signal-to-noise
ratio. In some practical systems such as WLAN the modulation and therefore bit-rate can
change depending on the signal-to-noise-ratio.
Coding
Wireless communications are usually designed to operate at low signal-to-noise ratios.
Without coding this would lead to an unacceptable number of transmission errors. Coding
enables very low error rates even with small signal-to-noise ratios.
Media Access Control
If our radio system is a transmission between transmitter and receiver with no other
transmitters involved; no interference, no sharing of the radio channel, things are quite
simple. It is only necessary that the signal at the receiver has sufficient signal-to-noise
ratio so that the error rate is acceptable. When we have multiple transmitters all capable of
transmitting at the same carrier frequency and occupying the same radio channel we need
a more sophisticated mechanism. Examples of where this is the case is in cellular mobile
and WLAN but there are numerous other examples perhaps the most famous example is
the packet radio system ALOHA.
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Introduction to Wireless Communications
How might we share the medium (in wireless, medium means available radio spectrum in
a given area). If we have a fixed number of transmitters we could divide the spectrum up
into chunks separated in frequency and/or time. Using frequency is called Frequency
Division Multiple Access using time is called Time Division Multiple Access. The GSM
cellular mobile is an example of a system that uses both Frequency and Time Division
multiple access. Cellular systems also provide an example of a third possibility Code
division multiple access. Here each mobile uses a unique code to distinguish it from other
mobiles; transmissions happen at the same time and frequency. So there are three basic
ways of physically dividing up the available spectrum. What about allocation of the divided
up spectrum? Who gets what when? This is the job of the Media Access Control protocol.
There are many of these to fit a particular type of wireless system with particular network
traffic to carry.
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