WIFI Standards

The 802.11 standard is defined through several specifications of WLANs. It defines an over-the-
air interface between a wireless client and a base station or between two wireless clients.
There are several specifications in the 802.11 family:
802.11: This pertains to wireless LANs and provides 1- or 2-Mbps transmission in the
2.4-GHz band using either frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) or direct-
sequence spread spectrum (DSSS).
802.11a: This is an extension to 802.11, that pertains to wireless LANs and goes as fast
as 54 Mbps in the 5-GHz band. 802.11a employs the orthogonal frequency division
multiplexing (OFDM) encoding scheme as opposed to either FHSS or DSSS.
802.11b: The 802.11 high rate Wi-Fi is an extension to 802.11 that pertains to wireless
LANs and yields a connection as fast as 11 Mbps transmission (with a fallback to 5.5, 2,
and 1 Mbps depending on strength of signal) in the 2.4-GHz band. The 802.11b
specification uses only DSSS. Note that 802.11b was actually an amendment to the
original 802.11 standard added in 1999 to permit wireless functionality to be analogous to
hard-wired Ethernet connections.
802.11g: This pertains to wireless LANs and provides 20+ Mbps in the 2.4-GHz band.
Here is the technical comparison between the three major Wi-Fi standards.
Freature
Wi-Fi
(802.11b)
Wi-Fi
(802.11a/g)
Primary
Application
Wireless LAN Wireless LAN
Frequency Band 2.4 GHz ISM
2.4 GHz ISM (g)
5 GHz U-NII (a)
Channel
Bandwidth
25 MHz 20 MHz
Half/Full Duplex Half Half
Radio Technology
Direct Sequence
Spread Spectrum
OFDM
(64-channels)
Bandwidth
Efficiency
<=0.44 bps/Hz <=2.7 bps/Hz
Modulation QPSK
BPSK, QPSK,
16-, 64-QAM
FEC None Convolutional Code
Encryption
Optional- RC4
(AES in 802.11i)
Optional- RC4
(AES in 802.11i)
Mobility In development In development
Mesh
Vendor
Proprietary
Vendor Proprietary
Access Protocol CSMA/CA CSMA/CA


WiMAX Technology

WiMAX is a technology based on the IEEE 802.16 specifications to enable the delivery of last-
mile wireless broadband access as an alternative to cable and DSL. The design of WiMAX
network is based on the following major principles:
Spectrum . able to be deployed in both licensed and unlicensed spectra.
Topology . supports different Radio Access Network (RAN) topologies.
Interworking . independent RAN architecture to enable seamless integration and
interworking with WiFi, 3GPP and 3GPP2 networks and existing IP operator core
network.
IP connectivity . supports a mix of IPv4 and IPv6 network interconnects in clients and
application servers.
Mobility management . possibility to extend the fixed access to mobility and broadband
multimedia services delivery.
WiMAX has defined two MAC system profiles the basic ATM and the basic IP. They have also
defined two primary PHY system profiles, the 25 MHz-wide channel for use in (US
deployments) the 10.66 GHz range, and the 28 MHz wide channel for use in (European
deployments) the 10.66 GHz range.
WiMAX Physical and MAC Layers are explained in separate chapters of this tutorial.
The WiMAX technical working group is defining MAC and PHY system profiles for IEEE
802.16a and HiperMan standards. The MAC profile includes an IP-based version for both
wireless MAN (licensed) and wireless HUMAN (licence-exempt).
IEEE Standard 802.16 was designed to evolve as a set of air interfaces standards for WMAN
based on a common MAC protocol but with physical layer specifications dependent on the
spectrum of use and the associated regulations.
The WiMAX framework is based on several core principles:
Support for different RAN topologies.
Well-defined interfaces to enable 802.16 RAN architecture independence while enabling
seamless integration and interworking with WiFi, 3GPP3 and 3GPP2 networks.
Leverage and open, IETF-defined IP technologies to build scalable all-IP 802.16 access
networks using common off the shelf (COTS) equipment.
Support for IPv4 and IPv6 clients and application servers, recommending use of IPv6 in
the infrastructure.
Functional extensibility to support future migration to full mobility and delivery of rich
broadband multimedia.






































LTE network architecture

The high-level network architecture of LTE is comprised of following three main components:
The User Equipment (UE).
The Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN).
The Evolved Packet Core (EPC).
The evolved packet core communicates with packet data networks in the outside world such as
the internet, private corporate networks or the IP multimedia subsystem. The interfaces between
the different parts of the system are denoted Uu, S1 and SGi as shown below:

The User Equipment (UE)
The internal architecture of the user equipment for LTE is identical to the one used by UMTS
and GSM which is actually a Mobile Equipment (ME). The mobile equipment comprised of the
following important modules:
Mobile Termination (MT): This handles all the communication functions.
Terminal Equipment (TE): This terminates the data streams.
Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC): This is also known as the SIM card for
LTE equipments. It runs an application known as the Universal Subscriber Identity
Module (USIM).
A USIM stores user-specific data very similar to 3G SIM card. This keeps information about the
user's phone number, home network identity and security keys etc.
The E-UTRAN (The access network)
The architecture of evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) has been
illustrated below.

The E-UTRAN handles the radio communications between the mobile and the evolved packet
core and just has one component, the evolved base stations, called eNodeB or eNB. Each eNB is
a base station that controls the mobiles in one or more cells. The base station that is
communicating with a mobile is known as its serving eNB.
LTE Mobile communicates with just one base station and one cell at a time and there are
following two main functions supported by eNB:
The eBN sends and receives radio transmissions to all the mobiles using the analogue and
digital signal processing functions of the LTE air interface.
The eNB controls the low-level operation of all its mobiles, by sending them signalling
messages such as handover commands.
Each eBN connects with the EPC by means of the S1 interface and it can also be connected to
nearby base stations by the X2 interface, which is mainly used for signalling and packet
forwarding during handover.
A home eNB (HeNB) is a base station that has been purchased by a user to provide femtocell
coverage within the home. A home eNB belongs to a closed subscriber group (CSG) and can
only be accessed by mobiles with a USIM that also belongs to the closed subscriber group.
The Evolved Packet Core (EPC) (The core network)
The architecture of Evolved Packet Core (EPC) has been illustrated below. There are few more
components which have not been shown in the diagram to keep it simple. These components are
like the Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System (ETWS), the Equipment Identity Register
(EIR) and Policy Control and Charging Rules Function (PCRF).

Below is a brief description of each of the components shown in the above architecture:
The Home Subscriber Server (HSS) component has been carried forward from UMTS
and GSM and is a central database that contains information about all the network
operator's subscribers.
The Packet Data Network (PDN) Gateway (P-GW) communicates with the outside world
ie. packet data networks PDN, using SGi interface. Each packet data network is identified
by an access point name (APN). The PDN gateway has the same role as the GPRS
support node (GGSN) and the serving GPRS support node (SGSN) with UMTS and
GSM.
The serving gateway (S-GW) acts as a router, and forwards data between the base station
and the PDN gateway.
The mobility management entity (MME) controls the high-level operation of the mobile
by means of signalling messages and Home Subscriber Server (HSS).
The Policy Control and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) is a component which is not
shown in the above diagram but it is responsible for policy control decision-making, as
well as for controlling the flow-based charging functionalities in the Policy Control
Enforcement Function (PCEF), which resides in the P-GW.
The interface between the serving and PDN gateways is known as S5/S8. This has two slightly
different implementations, namely S5 if the two devices are in the same network, and S8 if they
are in different networks.