802.

11 Wireless LANs

 802.11b

IEEE 802.11 Wireless LANs

802.11g

2.4 GHz unlicensed band

2.4 GHz unlicensed band
Bit-rates 1-54 Mbps
Bit-rates 1-11 Mbps
direct sequence spread spectrum Extended-Rate PHY (ERP) in
physical layer
(DSSS) in physical layer

802.11a

802.11n (MIMO)

2.4 and 5 GHz unlicensed bands

5 GHz unlicensed band
up to 600 Mbps
Bit-rates 6-54 Mbps
Uses advanced signal processing
and modulation techniques at
Orthogonal Frequency Division
physical layer to exploit multiple
Multiplexing (OFDM) in physical
antennas and wider channels
layer
All use CSMA/CA for multiple access
All have multi-rate support for link adaptation
All allow both infrastructure-mode and ad-hoc mode
operation
2
All have same frame structure

802.11x Standards
IEEE standard

Notes

802.11

First standard (1997). Specified the MAC and the original slower frequency-hopping and directsequence modulation techniques.

802.11a

Second physical layer standard (1999), but products not released until late 2000.

802.11b

Third physical layer standard (1999), but second wave of products.

TGc

Task group that produced a correction to the example encoding in 802.11a. Since the only product was a
correction, there is no 802.11c.

802.11d

International roaming extensions (2001)

802.11e

Quality-of-service (QoS) extensions, including packet bursting (2005)

802.11F

Inter-access point protocol to improve roaming between directly attached access points (2003)

802.11g

54Mbps, 2.4GHz standard, backwards compatible with b (2003)

802.11h

Spectrum managed 802.11a (5 GHz) for European compatibility (2004)

802.11i

Improvements to security at the link layer (2004)

802.11j

Enhancements to 802.11a to conform to Japanese radio emission regulations (2004)

802.11-2007

A new release of the standard that includes amendments a, b, d, e, g, h, i & j. (July 2007)

802.11k

Radio resource measurement enhancements (2008)

802.11r

Fast roaming (2008)

802.11y

3650-3700 MHz operation in the US (2008)

802.11n

High throughput improvements using MIMO (multiple input, multiple output antennas) (Sep 2009)

802.11w

Protected management frames (Sep 2009)

802.11x Standards in the Making

IEEE 802.11p: WAVEWireless Access for the Vehicular Environment (such as

ambulances and passenger cars) (July 2010)
IEEE 802.11z: Extensions to Direct Link Setup (DLS) (September 2010)
IEEE 802.11u: Interworking with non-802 networks (for example, cellular) (~ Dec 2010)
IEEE 802.11v: Wireless network management (~ Dec 2010)
IEEE 802.11s: Mesh Networking, Extended Service Set (ESS) (~ June 2011)
IEEE 802.11mb: Maintenance of the standard. Will become 802.11-2011. (~ Dec 2011)
IEEE 802.11ae: QoS Management (~ Dec 2011)
IEEE 802.11aa: Robust streaming of Audio Video Transport Streams (~ Mar 2012)
IEEE 802.11af: TV Whitespace (~ Mar 2012)
IEEE 802.11ac: Very High Throughput <6 GHz; potential improvements over 802.11n:
better modulation scheme (expected ~10% throughput increase); wider channels (80 or
even 160 MHz), multi user MIMO; (~ Dec 2012)
IEEE 802.11ad: Very High Throughput 60 GHz (~ Dec 2012)
IEEE 802.11ah: Sub 1Ghz (~ July 2013)

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11

802.11 in the Big Picture

MAC: Medium Access Control

PLCP: Physical Layer Convergence Procedure
PMD: Physical Medium Dependent
FHSS: Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum
DSSS: Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum
HR/DSSS: High-Rate DSSS
OFDM: Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
ERP: Extended-Rate PHY

802.11

Access Points (APs)

802.11 Architecture

Similar to base stations in cellular

networks
Perform wireless-to-wired bridging

Distribution System, or backbone

network (typically, Ethernet)
Basic Service Set (BSS)
Group of communicating stations
in a basic service area, similar to a
cell in cellular networks

Extended Service Set (ESS)

All APs in ESS share the same
network name, Service Set
IDentifier (SSID)

ESS

Ad-hoc mode

Infrastructure mode

802.11 Network Services

Service

Station or distribution
service?

Distribution

Distribution

Service used in frame delivery to determine

destination address in infrastructure networks

Integration

Distribution

Frame delivery to an IEEE 802 LAN outside the

wireless network

Association

Distribution

Used to establish the AP which serves as the gateway

to a particular mobile station

Reassociation

Distribution

Used to change the AP which serves as the gateway to

a particular mobile station

Disassociation

Distribution

Removes the wireless station from the network

Authentication

Station

Establishes station identity (MAC address) prior to

establishing association

Deauthentication

Station

Used to terminate authentication, and by extension,

association

Confidentiality

Station

Provides protection against eavesdropping

MSDU delivery

Station

Delivers data to the recipient

Transmit Power
Control (TPC)

Station/spectrum
management

Reduces interference by minimizing station transmit

power

Dynamic Frequency
Selection (DFS)

Station/spectrum
management

Avoids
interfering with radar operation in the 5 GHz
7
band

Description

802.11 Channels (UK)

10mW/10dBm EIRP limit

200mW/23dBm EIRP limit

1W/30dBm EIRP limit

Transmit Spectrum Mask

To limit power leakage into adjacent channels

Transmit spectrum mask for 802.11a

802.11 Association
AP channel determined automatically or assigned by AP
admin
Interference possible: channel can be same as that chosen
by neighboring AP!
Host: must associate with an AP
Scans channels, listening for beacon frames containing APs SSID
and MAC address
Selects an AP to associate with (left unspecified in the standard)
May perform authentication
Associate with the selected AP
Will typically run DHCP to get IP address in APs subnet
10

802.11: Passive/Active Scanning

BSS 1
AP 1

BSS 1

BSS 2

1
2

AP 1

AP 2

BSS 2
AP 2

1
2
3

H1

H1

Passive Scanning:

Active Scanning:

(1) Beacon frames sent from APs

(2) Association Request frame sent:
H1 to selected AP
(3) Association Response frame sent:
Selected AP to H1

(1) Probe Request frame broadcast

from H1
(2) Probe response frames sent from
APs
(3) Association Request frame sent:
H1 to selected AP
(4) Association Response frame
sent: Selected AP to H1
11

IEEE 802.11: Multiple Access

Avoid collisions: 2+ nodes transmitting at same time
802.11: CSMA - sense before transmitting
Dont collide with ongoing transmission by other node

802.11: no collision detection!

Difficult to receive (sense collisions) when transmitting due to weak
received signals (fading)
Cant sense all collisions in any case: hidden terminal, fading
Goal: avoid collisions: CSMA/C(ollision)A(voidance)

Uses a link-layer ACK/Retry (ARQ) scheme

A

C
A

Cs signal
strength

As signal
strength

B
12

space

IEEE 802.11 MAC Protocol: CSMA/CA

802.11 sender
1 If sense channel idle for DIFS then
sender
Transmit entire frame (no CD)
If no ACK, increase random backoff interval,DIFS
repeat 2
2 If sense channel busy then
Start random backoff time
Timer counts down while channel idle
Transmit when timer expires

802.11 receiver

receiver

data

SIFS

ACK

If frame received OK
Return ACK after SIFS (ACK needed due to
hidden terminal problem)
13

Avoiding Collisions (more)

Idea: allow sender to reserve channel rather than random access

of data frames: avoid collisions of long data frames

Sender first transmits small request-to-send (RTS) packets to
receiver using CSMA
RTSs may still collide with each other (but they are short)
Receiver broadcasts clear-to-send CTS in response to RTS
CTS heard by all nodes
Sender transmits data frame
Other stations defer transmissions

Avoid data frame collisions completely

using small reservation packets!
14

Collision Avoidance: RTS-CTS Exchange

A

AP

reservation collision

DATA (A)

defer

time

15

802.11 Frame: Addressing

6
2
2
6
6
6
2
frame
address address address seq address
duration
control
1
2
3
4
control

Address 1: MAC address

of wireless host or AP
to receive this frame
Address 2: MAC address
of wireless host or AP
transmitting this frame

0 - 2312

payload

CRC

Address 4: used only

in ad hoc mode
Address 3: MAC address
of router interface to
which AP is attached

16

802.11 Frame: Addressing

R1 router

H1

Internet

AP

R1 MAC addr H1 MAC addr

dest. address

source address

802.3 frame
AP MAC addr H1 MAC addr R1 MAC addr
address 1

address 2

address 3

802.11 frame
17

802.11 Frame: More

duration of reserved transmission
time (RTS/CTS/DATA)

frame seq #
(for duplicate filtering)

6
2
2
6
6
6
2
frame
address address address seq address
duration
control
1
2
3
4
control

2
Protocol
version

Type

Subtype

1
To
AP

0 - 2312

payload

CRC

1
1
1
1
1
1
1
From More
Power More
Retry
WEP Rsvd
AP frag
mgt data

frame type
(RTS, CTS, ACK, data)
18

802.11 Mobility Support

BSS Transition

ESS Transition

19

802.11: Mobility Within Same Subnet

H1 remains in same IP
subnet: IP address can
remain same
Switch: H1 associated
with which AP?

router
hub or
switch
BSS 1

self-learning: switch will

see frame from H1 and
remember which switch
port can be used to reach
H1

AP 1
AP 2
H1

20

BSS 2

802.11 Handoff Procedure and Latency

21

802.11 Rate Adaptation

Wireless channel timevarying, so is received
SNR
AP and stations
dynamically adapt
transmission rate
(modulation and coding
scheme used) to track
SNR variations
Issues:
Responsiveness in
dynamic environments
Separating channel
related losses from
interference losses

BER

10-1
10-2

QAM256 (8 Mbps)
QAM16 (4 Mbps)
BPSK (1 Mbps)

10-3

operating point

10-4
10-5
10-6
10-7
10

20

30

SNR(dB)

40

1. SNR decreases (e.g., as

node moves away from AP),
BER increases
2. When BER becomes too
high, switch to lower
transmission rate but with
lower BER
22

802.11 Rate Adaptation (Contd.)

Office Environment

Home Environment

23

802.11 Power Management

Station-to-AP: I am going to sleep until next
beacon frame (by setting power management bit in
frame header)
AP knows not to transmit frames to that station
during that period, buffers them instead
Station wakes up before next beacon frame
Beacon frame from AP: contains list of stations with
AP-to-station frames buffered
Station will stay awake as long as there are AP-tostation frames to be received; otherwise can sleep
again until next beacon frame
24

802.11 Network Interface Implementation

A Schematic

Amplifier
Frequency conversion
Shielding

(De)modulation
Physical carrier sensing
25

References
J. F. Kurose and K. W. Ross, Computer
Networking: A Top-Down Approach, 5th edition,
Pearson Education, 2010.
M. S. Gast, 802.11 Wireless Networks, OReilly,
2005.
S. Kawade and T. Hodgkinson, License-Exempt
Wireless Communication Systems, BT
Technology Journal, April 2007.
A. Mishra, M. Shin and W. Arbaugh, An
Empirical Analysis of the IEEE 802.11 MAC Layer
Handoff Process, ACM SIGCOMM Computer
Communications Review (CCR), April 2003.
26