IEEE 802.

11b/g
Murat Torlak

Physical layer (PHY)

802.11b uses DSSS (Direct Sequence Spread

Spectrum)

802.11a and 802.11g use OFDM (Orthogonal

Frequency Division Multiplexing)

Communication layers
:
IP
LLC
MAC
PHY

802.11b Channels

ISM frequency band: 2.4 2.48 GHz

Channel spacing

= 5 MHz

Channel 1
Channel 2
Channel 3
:
Channel 10
Channel 11
Channel 12
Channel 13

2.412 GHz
2.417 GHz
2.422 GHz
:
2.457 GHz
2.462 GHz
2.467 GHz
2.472 GHz

Power Spectral Density of 802.11b

Power

Main lobe

0 dB

Sidelobes
-30 dB

-50 dB
-22

-11

+11

+22

Frequency (MHz)

Center frequency

Bit rates and modulation in 802.11b

A lower bit rate is used if channel becomes

bad
Modulation

Data rate

DBPSK

1 Mbit/s

DQPSK

2 Mbit/s

CCK

5.5 Mbit/s

CCK

11 Mbit/s

DBPSK= Differential BPSK

DQPSK = Differential QPSK
CCK = Complementary Code Keying

DSSS with 11-chip Barker Sequence

Used only at 1 and 2 Mbit/s, CCK is used

at higher bit rates
Bit sequence

0 bit

1 bit

Barker
sequence
Transmitted chip
sequence

Differential QPSK

Differential modulation is used to enable noncoherent detection at the receiver

QPSK symbols

DQPSK encoding table

Im

Bit
pattern

Phase shift w.r.t.

previous symbol

00
01
11
10

0
p/2
p
3p/2

p/2
p

0 Re

3p/2

1 or 2 Mbit/s ?

Chip rate = 11 Mchips/s

Duration of one chip = 1/11 ms

Duration of 11 chip Barker code word = 1 ms

Code word rate = 1 Mwords/s

Each code word carries the information of 1

bit (DBPSK) or 2 bits (DQPSK)

1 Mbit/s (DBPSK)

2 Mbit/s (DQPSK)
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IEEE 802.11g

It is based on OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division

Multiplexing).

A channel (16.25 MHz wide) is divided into 52

subcarriers (48 subcarriers for data and 4 subcarriers
serving as pilot signals).
Single subchannel

OFDM spectrum
Subcarrier spacing =
1/TFFT
Spectral nulls at
other subcarrier
frequencies

Modulation and Coding Table

Subcarriers are modulated using BPSK, QPSK, 16QAM, or 64-QAM, and coded using convolutional codes
(R = 1/2, 2/3, and 3/4), depending on the data rate.
Modulation

Bit rate

Coding
rate

Coded bits
/ symbol

Data bits /
symbol

BPSK
BPSK
QPSK
QPSK
16-QAM
16-QAM
64-QAM
64-QAM

6 Mbit/s
9 Mbit/s
12 Mbit/s
18 Mbit/s
24 Mbit/s
36 Mbit/s
48 Mbit/s
54 Mbit/s

1/2
3/4
1/2
3/4
1/2
3/4
2/3
3/4

48
48
96
96
192
192
288
288

24
36
48
72
96
144
192
216
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Pilots in Frequency Domain

Presentation pilots and data subcarriers in

frequency domain:

52
subcarriers
Frequency
16.25 MHz

By using pilot subcarriers (-21, -7, 7 and 21) as a reference

for phase and amplitude, the 802.11a/g receiver can
demodulate the data in the other subcarriers.

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OFDM Signal in Time Domain

Guard time for preventing

intersymbol interference
0.8 ms

In the receiver, FFT is calculated only

during this time
3.2 ms
Next symbol
Time

4.0 ms
Symbol duration

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16 QAM Example

Gray mapping is usually used in QAM

systems.
0010

0110

1110

1010

0011

0111

1111

1011

0001

0101

1101

1001

0000

0100

1100

1000

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How do we get 54 Mbit/s?

Symbol duration = 4 ms

Data-carrying subcarriers = 48

Coded bits / subcarrier = 6 (64 QAM)

Coded bits / symbol = 6 x 48 = 288

Data bits / symbol: 3/4 x 288 = 216

bits/symbol

Bit rate = 216 bits / 4 ms = 54 Mbit/s

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IEEE 802.11g PHY

The bandwidth of a 802.11b signal is 22 MHz and that of

a 802.11g signal is 16.25 MHz.

Thus, 802.11g must be able to use the same channel

structure as 802.11b (i.e. at most three channels at the
same time in the same area).

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IEEE 802.11g frame structure (PHY layer)

Pad (n bits)
SERVICE (16 bits)

Tail (6 bits)

PHY payload (MAC protocol data unit)

PLCP preamble

SIGNAL

DATA

16 ms

4 ms

N . 4 ms

6 Mbit/s

6 54 Mbit/s

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Frame Synch in 802.11g

Captured OFDM frame in dB scale

Symbol timing and frame synchronization
example with cross correlation

ERP-OFDM PPDU Header

The ERP-OFDM header consists of 4 rate bits, 1

reserved bit, 12 Length bits, 1 Parity bit, 6 Tail bits,
and 16 Service bits.
The Signal field is one symbol (24 bits) long, is not
scrambled, and has the same contents as the entire
PPDU header minus the Service subfield (16 bits).
The signal field is always transmitted at 6 Mbps
using BPSK modulation.

Short Preamble

Short symbol uses 12 sub-carriers modulated

by the elements of the following sequence

Long Preamble

A long symbol uses 53 sub-carriers modulated by the

elements of the following sequence

Two periods of the long symbols are transmitted for fine

frequency offset estimation and for the channel
estimation.

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10

Frame Synchronization

The IEEE 802.11g preamble contains the two identical

halves and the same structure. In fact, the
synchronization algorithms are essentially based on
finding the highest correlation between two repeated
sample sequences. Therefore, the metric used to
estimate the packet detection and the timing offset is

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