Data and Computer Communications

Chapter 17 Wireless LANs

Eighth Edition by William Stallings Lecture slides by Lawrie Brown

High Speed LANs

Investigators have published numerous reports of birds taking turns vocalizing; the bird spoken to gave its full attention to the speaker and never vocalized at the same time, as if the two were holding a conversation Researchers and scholars who have studied the data on avian communication carefully write the (a) the communication code of birds such has crows has not been broken by any means; (b) probably all birds have wider vocabularies than anyone realizes; and (c) greater complexity and depth are recognized in avian communication as research progresses. The Human Nature of Birds, Theodore Barber

Overview of Wireless LANs

use

wireless transmission medium issues of high prices, low data rates, occupational safety concerns, & licensing requirements now addressed key application areas:

LAN extension cross-building interconnect nomadic access ad hoc networking

Single Cell LAN Extension

Multi Cell LAN Extension

Cross-Building Interconnect
connect

LANs in nearby buildings point-to-point wireless link

Not a LAN per se

connect

bridges or routers

Nomadic Access
link

LAN hub & mobile data terminal

laptop or notepad computer enable employee to transfer data from portable computer to server

also

useful in extended environment such as campus or cluster of buildings

users move around with portable computers may wish access to servers on wired LAN

Infrastructure Wireless LAN

Ad Hoc Networking
temporary

peer-to-peer network

Wireless LAN Requirements

throughput - efficient use wireless medium no of nodes - hundreds of nodes across multiple cells connection to backbone LAN - using control modules service area - 100 to 300 m low power consumption - for long battery life on mobiles transmission robustness and security collocated network operation license-free operation handoff/roaming dynamic configuration - addition, deletion, and relocation of end systems without disruption to users

Technology

infrared (IR) LANs

individual cell of IR LAN limited to single room IR light does not penetrate opaque walls mostly operate in ISM (industrial, scientific, and medical) bands no Federal Communications Commission (FCC) licensing is required in USA
microwave frequencies but not use spread spectrum some require FCC licensing

spread spectrum LANs

narrowband microwave

Infrared LANs

constructed using infrared portion of spectrum strengths

spectrum virtually unlimited hence high rates possible unregulated spectrum infrared shares some properties of visible light
reflection covers room, walls isolate networks

inexpensive and simple background radiation, e.g. sunlight, indoor lighting power limited by concerns for eye safety and power consumption

weaknesses

Infrared LANs Transmission Techniques

directed-beam IR

point-to-point links range depends on power and focusing for indoor use can set up token ring LAN IR transceivers positioned so data circulates in ring
single base station with line of sight to other stations acts as a multiport repeater other stations use directional beam to it stations focused / aimed at diffusely reflecting ceiling

omnidirectional

diffused configuration

Spread Spectrum LAN Configuration

usually use multiple-cell arrangement adjacent cells use different center frequencies configurations:

hub
connected to wired LAN connect to stations on wired LAN and in other cells may do automatic handoff

peer-to-peer
no hub MAC algorithm such as CSMA used to control access for ad hoc LANs

Spread Spectrum LANs Transmission Issues

licensing regulations differ between countries USA FCC allows in ISM band:

spread spectrum (1W), very low power (0.5W)

902 - 928 MHz (915-MHz band) 2.4 - 2.4835 GHz (2.4-GHz band) 5.725 - 5.825 GHz (5.8-GHz band)

2.4 GHz also in Europe and Japan

interference

many devices around 900 MHz: cordless telephones, wireless microphones, and amateur radio fewer devices at 2.4 GHz; microwave oven little competition at 5.8 GHz

IEEE 802 Standards

Stand ard Scope Mediu m acc ess c ontro l (MA C): One commo n MAC for WLAN appli catio ns IEEE 802.1 1 Physi cal l ayer: Infr ared at 1 and 2 M b ps Physi cal l ayer: 2.4- GHz F HSS at 1 and 2 Mbp s Physi cal l ayer: 2.4- GHz D SSS at 1 and 2 Mbp s IEEE 802.1 1a IEEE 802.1 1b IEEE 802.1 1c IEEE 802.1 1d IEEE 802.1 1e IEEE 802.1 1f IEEE 802.1 1g IEEE 802.1 1h IEEE 802.1 1i IEEE 802.1 1j Physi cal l ayer: 5-GH z OFD M a t rat es f r om 6 to 5 4 Mbps Physi cal l ayer: 2.4- GHz D SSS at 5 .5 a n d 11 Mbps Bridg e ope ratio n at 802.1 1 M AC l a yer Physi cal l ayer: Exte nd o p era tion of 8 0 2.11 WLANs to n ew regul atory doma ins ( count rie s) MAC: Enhan ce t o impr ove q ual ity o f ser vice and e nhanc e secur ity m echan isms Recom mende d pra ctice s for mu ltive ndor acces s poi nt inter opera bilit y Physi cal l ayer: Exte nd 8 0 2.1 1b t o data rate s >20 Mbps Physi cal/M AC: E nhanc e IEE E 8 02.11 a to add i ndoor and outdo or c h annel sele ction an d to impro ve s p ectru m and trans mit p ower manag ement MAC: Enhan ce s e curit y and au thent icati on m e chani sms Physi cal: Enhan ce I E EE 8 0 2.1 1a t o conf orm t o Jap anese requi remen ts Radio reso urce measu remen t e nhanc ement s to provi de inter face to h i gher layer s f or r a dio a nd n e twork measu remen ts Maint enanc e of IEEE 802.1 1-1 999 s tanda rd w i th t e chnic al and e ditor ial c orrec tions Physi cal/M AC: E nhanc ement s t o ena ble h igher thro ughpu t Physi cal/M AC: W irele ss a c ces s in vehic ular envir onmen ts Physi cal/M AC: F ast r oamin g ( fast BSS t ransi tion) Physi cal/M AC: E SS m e sh n e two rking Recom mende d pra ctice for the Eval uatio n of 802.1 1 wir eless perfo rmanc e Physi cal/M AC: I nterw orkin g w ith e xtern al n e twork s

IEEE 802.1 1k

IEEE 802.1 1m IEEE 802.1 1n IEEE 802.1 1p IEEE 802.1 1r IEEE 802.1 1s IEEE 802.1 1,2 IEEE 802.1 1u

IEEE 802 Terminology

Acces s poi nt ( A P) Any e ntity that has stati on funct ional ity a nd p r ovide s acces s to the d istri butio n s ystem via the w irele ss mediu m for asso ciate d sta tio ns A set of s tatio ns c o ntrol led by a sing le c o ordin ation funct ion The l ogica l fun ction that de termi nes w hen a stat ion opera ting withi n a B SS i s pe rmitt ed t o tran smit and may b e abl e to recei ve P D Us A sys tem u sed t o int ercon nec t a s et o f BSSs and integ rated LANs to c reate an ESS A set of o ne o r more inte rco nnect ed B S Ss a nd integ rated LANs that appe ar as a singl e BSS to t he L LC layer at a ny s t ation asso cia ted w ith o ne o f thes e BSS s The u nit o f dat a exc hange d b etwee n two peer MAC entit es u s ing t he s e rvice s o f the phys ical layer Infor matio n tha t is deliv ere d as a uni t bet ween MAC users Any d evice that cont ains an IEEE 802.1 1 con forma nt M AC and p hysic al l a yer Basic serv ice s et (BSS) Coord inati on f u nctio n

Distr ibuti on s y stem (DS) Exten ded s ervic e set (ESS) MAC p rotoc ol d a ta unit (MPDU ) MAC s ervic e dat a uni t (MSDU ) Stati on

IEEE 802.11 Architecture

IEEE 802.11 - BSS

basic

service set (BSS) building block may be isolated may connect to backbone distribution system (DS) through access point (AP) BSS generally corresponds to cell DS can be switch, wired network, or wireless network have independent BSS (IBSS) with no AP

Extended Service Set (ESS)

possible configurations:

simplest is each station belongs to single BSS can have two BSSs overlap a station can participate in more than one BSS association between station and BSS dynamic

ESS is two or more BSS interconnected by DS appears as single logical LAN to LLC

IEEE 802 Services

Servi ce Assoc iatio n Authe ntica tion Deaut henti catio n Dissa ssoci ation Distr ibuti on Integ ratio n MSDU deliv ery Priva cy Reass ocati on Provi der Distr ibuti on syste m Stati on Stati on Distr ibuti on syste m Distr ibuti on syste m Distr ibuti on syste m Stati on Stati on Distr ibuti on syste m Used to s u pport MSDU deliv ery LAN a ccess and secur ity LAN a ccess and secur ity MSDU deliv ery MSDU deliv ery MSDU deliv ery MSDU deliv ery LAN a ccess and secur ity MSDU deliv ery

Services - Message Distribution

distribution

service

primary service used by stations to exchange MAC frames when frame must traverse DS if stations in same BSS, distribution service logically goes through single AP of that BSS

integration

service

enables transfer of data between 802.11 LAN station and one on an integrated 802.x LAN

Association Related Services

DS

requires info about stations within ESS provided by association-related services station must associate before communicating 3 mobility transition types:

no transition - stationary or in single BSS BSS transition - between BSS in same ESS ESS transition: between BSS in different ESS

Association Related Services

DS

needs identity of destination statio

stations must maintain association with AP within current BSS

3 services relate to this requirement:

Association - establishes initial association between station and AP Reassociation - to transfer an association to another AP Disassociation - by station or AP

Medium Access Control

MAC

layer covers three functional areas

reliable data delivery access control security

Reliable Data Delivery

802.11 physical / MAC layers unreliable

noise, interference, and other propagation effects result in loss of frames even with error-correction codes, frames may not successfully be received

can be dealt with at a higher layer, e.g. TCP more efficient to deal with errors at MAC level 802.11 includes frame exchange protocol

station receiving frame returns acknowledgment (ACK) frame exchange treated as atomic unit if no ACK within short period of time, retransmit

Four Frame Exchange

can use four-frame exchange for better reliability

source issues a Request to Send (RTS) frame to dest destination responds with Clear to Send (CTS) after receiving CTS, source transmits data destination responds with ACK

RTS alerts all stations within range of source that exchange is under way CTS alerts all stations within range of destination other stations dont transmit to avoid collision RTS/CTS exchange is required function of MAC but may be disabled

Media Access Control

Distributed Coordination Function

DCF

sublayer uses CSMA

if station has frame to send it listens to medium if medium idle, station may transmit else waits until current transmission complete

no

collision detection since on wireless network DCF includes delays that act as a priority scheme

IEEE 802.11 Medium Access Control Logic

Priority IFS Values

SIFS

(short IFS) (point coordination function IFS)

for all immediate response actions (see later) used by the centralized controller in PCF scheme when issuing polls

PIFS

DIFS

(distributed coordination function IFS)

used as minimum delay for asynchronous frames contending for access

SIFS Use

SIFS gives highest priority

over stations waiting PIFS or DIFS time

Acknowledgment (ACK)
station responds with ACK after waiting SIFS gap for efficient collision detect & multi-frame transmission

SIFS used in following circumstances:

Clear to Send (CTS)

station ensures data frame gets through by issuing RTS and waits for CTS response from destination

Poll response
see Point coordination Function (PCF) discussion next

PIFS and DIFS Use

PIFS

used by centralized controller

for issuing polls has precedence over normal contention traffic but not SIFS

DIFS

used for all ordinary asynchronous

traffic

IEEE 802.11 MAC Timing Basic Access Method

Point Coordination Function (PCF)

alternative access method implemented on top of DCF polling by centralized polling master (point coordinator) uses PIFS when issuing polls point coordinator polls in round-robin to stations configured for polling when poll issued, polled station may respond using SIFS if point coordinator receives response, it issues another poll using PIFS if no response during expected turnaround time, coordinator issues poll coordinator could lock out async traffic by issuing polls have a superframe interval defined

PCF Superframe Timing

IEEE 802.11 MAC Frame Format

Control Frames

Power Save-Poll (PS-Poll)

request AP transmit buffered frame when in power-saving mode first frame in four-way frame exchange second frame in four-way exchange

Request to Send (RTS)

Clear to Send (CTS)

Acknowledgment (ACK) Contention-Free (CF)-end

announces end of contention-free period part of PCF acknowledges CF-end to end contention-free period and release stations from associated restrictions

CF-End + CF-Ack:

Data Frames Data Carrying

eight data frame subtypes, in two groups first four carry upper-level data Data

simplest data frame, contention or contention-free use carries data and acknowledges previously received data during contention-free period used by point coordinator to deliver data & req send combines Data + CF-Ack and Data + CF-Poll

Data + CF-Ack

Data + CF-Poll

Data + CF-Ack + CF-Poll

Data Frames Not Data Carrying

other four data frames do not carry user data Null Function

carries no data, polls, or acknowledgments carries power mgmt bit in frame control field to AP indicates station is changing to low-power state

other three frames (CF-Ack, CF-Poll, CF-Ack + CF-Poll) same as corresponding frame in preceding list but without data

Management Frames
used

to manage communications between stations and Aps such as management of associations

requests, response, reassociation, dissociation, and authentication

802.11 Physical Layer

8 0 2. 1 1 A v ai l a bl e b a nd w i dt h 8 3 .5 M Hz 8 0 2. 1 1 a 300 MHz 5 . 15 - 5 . 3 5 G H z O F DM 5 . 72 5 - 5 . 82 5 G H z O F DM 8 0 2. 1 1 b 8 3 .5 M Hz 8 0 2. 1 1 g 8 3 .5 M Hz

U n li c e ns e d 2 . 4 - 2. 4 8 35 G Hz f r eq u e nc y of D S SS , FH S S o p er a t io n

2 . 4 - 2. 4 8 35 G Hz 2 . 4 - 2. 4 8 35 G Hz D S SS D S SS , OF D M

4 in d o or N u mb e r o f no n 3 4 3 3 o v er l a pp i n g ( i nd o o r/ o u td o o r) ( i nd o o r/ o u td o o r) ( i nd o o r/ o u td o o r) ( i nd o o r/ o u td o o r) c h an n e ls 4 ou t d oo r D a ta r at e pe r c h an n e l C o mp a t ib i l it y 1 , 2 M bp s 6 , 9 , 12 , 18 , 24, 36, 48, 54 M b ps W i -F i 5 1 , 2 , 5. 5 , 1 1 M b ps W i -F i 1 , 2 , 5. 5 , 6 , 9, 11, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, 54 Mbps W i -F i at 1 1 M b ps a n d b e lo w

8 0 2. 1 1

Original 802.11 Physical Layer - DSSS

Direct-sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) 2.4 GHz ISM band at 1 Mbps and 2 Mbps up to seven channels, each 1 Mbps or 2 Mbps, can be used depends on bandwidth allocated by various national regulations

13 in most European countries one in Japan

each channel bandwidth 5 MHz encoding scheme DBPSK for 1-Mbps and DQPSK for 2-Mbps using an 11-chip Barker seq

Original 802.11 Physical Layer - FHSS

Frequency-hopping spread spectrum

2.4 GHz ISM band at 1 Mbps and 2 Mbps 23 channels in Japan 70 channels in USA signal hopping between multiple channels based on a pseudonoise sequence 1-MHz channels are used

hopping scheme adjustable two-level Gaussian FSK modulation for 1 Mbps four-level GFSK modulation used for 2 Mbps

Original 802.11 Physical Layer Infrared

omnidirectional range up to 20 m 1 Mbps uses 16-PPM (pulse position modulation)

4 data bit group mapped to one of 16-PPM symbols each symbol a string of 16 bits each 16-bit string has fifteen 0s and one binary 1

2-Mbps has each group of 2 data bits is mapped into one of four 4-bit sequences

each sequence consists of three 0s and one binary 1

intensity modulation is used for transmission

802.11a

uses 5-GHz band (different to other variants)

supports higher data rates, is less cluttered multiple carrier signals at different frequencies some bits on each channel

orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)

up to 48 subcarriers modulated using BPSK, QPSK, 16-QAM, or 64-QAM

subcarrier frequency spacing 0.3125 MHz convolutional code at rate of 1/2, 2/3, or 3/4 provides forward error correction combination of modulation technique and coding rate determines data rate

802.11a Physical Frame

802.11b
extension

of 802.11 DS-SS scheme

with data rates of 5.5 and 11 Mbps

chipping

rate 11 MHz

same as original DS-SS scheme Complementary Code Keying (CCK) modulation gives higher data rate with same bandwidth & chipping rate also Packet Binary Convolutional Coding (PBCC) for future higher rate use

11-Mbps CCK Modulation Scheme

802.11b Physical Frame

802.11g
higher-speed

extension to 802.11b operates in 2.4GHz band compatible with 802.11b devices combines physical layer encoding techniques used in 802.11 and 802.11b to provide service at a variety of data rates

ERP-OFDM for 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, 54Mbps rates ERP-PBCC for 22 & 33Mbps rates

Data Rate vs Distance (m)

Data Rate (Mbps ) 1 2 5.5(b )/6(a /g) 9 11(b) /12(a /g) 18 24 36 48 54 802.1 1b 90+ 75 60 50 802.1 1a 60+ 50 45 40 30 25 15 10 802.1 1g 90+ 75 65 55 50 50 45 35 25 20

Access and Privacy Services - Authentication

authentication used to establish station identity wired LANs assume physical connection gives authority to use LAN not a valid assumption for wireless LANs 802.11 supports several authentication schemes does not mandate any particular scheme from relatively insecure handshaking to public-key encryption 802.11 requires mutually acceptable, successful authentication before association

Access and Privacy Services Deauthentication & Privacy

Deauthentication

invoked whenever an existing authentication is to be terminated

Privacy

used to prevent messages being read by others 802.11 allows optional use of encryption

original WEP security features were weak subsequently 802.11i and WPA alternatives evolved giving better security

Summary
wireless

LAN alternatives IEEE 802.11 architecture and services 802.11 Media Access Control 802.11 Physical Layers

802.11, 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g

Security

considerations