NAME:__________________________________________________________

EL 604 - Wireless and Mobile Networking

Spring 2002
Mid-Term Exam Solution - March 6, 2002
Instructions:
• Be sure to write your name on your submission.
• This is an open book test. Use your class notes, the EL604 textbook.
• Be neat. Unreadable solutions will not be graded.
• Show all the steps in your solution. Points will be awarded for correct steps.
• Number of problems: 5
• Total number of points: 35

Problem 1 (5 points): Consider a hybrid TDMA/FDMA wireless system that uses TDD. Assume
that the total spectrum available is 20Mhz and that we divide this spectrum into carriers, each with
a 1Mhz bandwidth. Assume that a 1Mbps signal can be carried per carrier. The framing structure
used on each frequency consists of 20 time slots per frequency. For each communication session,
a station requires 100Kbps in the reverse direction and 1Mbps in the forward direction. Also, 10%
of the total wireless link bandwidth needs to be set aside for control messages.

1. What is the maximum number of stations that can be supported?

2. How many time slots are assigned in each direction for each communication session?

3. What is the minimum number of frequencies needed by each station per communica-
tion session?

4. If it is an FDD system instead of TDD, what is the maximum number of stations that
can be supported?

5. For the FDD case, how should the spectrum be partitioned between upstream and
downstream needs?
Answer (1 point each):

1. Total wireless link bandwidth is 20Mhz. Of this 10% is used for control; therefore
18Mhz is available for user traffic. A data rate of 18Mbps can be supported on this
bandwidth. Each call needs 1.1Mbps. Therefore a maximum of ------ 18- = 16 stations
1.1
can be supported.

2. Each time slot is 1000

------------ kb/s or 50kbps. For the upstream direction, we need 2 time slots
20
and we need 20 time slots in the downstream direction.

3. At least two frequencies are needed because each frequency can only support 1Mbps
but each station needs 1.1Mbps.

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4. If the system is FDD, given we have a total of 20 - 2 (for control) = 18 carriers. This
can be divided in the following manner:

Number of
hosts
Number of hosts
Upstream allocation Downstream allocation constrained
limited by upstream
(in carriers) (in carriers) by
allocation
downstream
allocation

1 17 10 17
2 16 20 16
3 15 30 15
etc.

Therefore the maximum number of stations that can be supported occurs when we allocate 2 car-
riers for upstream and 16 for downstream. This maximum is 16 hosts.

5. The allocation is 2 upstream and 16 downstream, and 2 for control (which can be allo-
cated between upstream and downstream in any way 1+1 or 1+ some time slots for one
direction or the other).
Problem 2 (10 points): Consider a 7-cell system covering an area of 3100km2. The average num-
ber of subscribers in the seven cells is as follows:

Cell number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Number of subscribers 473.7 370 132 132 370 473.7 473.7

Each user generates an average of 0.03 Erlangs of traffic, with a mean holding time of 120s. The
system is designed for a grade of service of 0.005.

1. Determine the average number of calls per hour per subscriber.

Since traffic intensity A per subscriber is 0.03 and A = λh , where λ is call arrival
rate per hour and h is the holding time expressed in hours, the average number of calls
made per subscriber is 0.03 ⁄ ( 120 ⁄ 3600 ) = 0.9 calls/hour (1 point)

2. Determine the number of channels required in each cell.

The traffic generated per cell is as follows (determined by multiplying number of sub-
scribers with the number of Erlangs per subscriber) (2 points)

Cell number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Traffic (Erlangs) 14.21 11.1 3.96 3.96 11.1 14.21 14.21

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If P is 0.005 and the erlangs is 14.21, then we need 24 channels (consulting the table
presented in the book Table 10.3 or the table I gave in class in erlang.ppt.). (2 points)

Cell number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Number of channels 24 20 10 10 20 24 24

3. Determine the average number of subscribers per channel across the system. (2 points)
Total number of subscribers is 2416. Total number of channels is 132. Therefore the
average is 18.3.

4. Determine the subscriber density per km2. (1 point)

2416/3100 =0.78.

5. What is the radius of a cell (assume hexagonal cells)? (2 points)

2
The area of a cell is A = 1.5 3R . With 7 cells covering an area of 3100 km2,
3100- = 442.86 442.86
A = ----------- . Therefore R = ---------------- = 13 km.
7 1.5 3

Problem 3 (7 points): Compare a pull vs. push scheme for an Internet web site access. Assume
that a service provider uses the current NA-TDMA system (IS136) for the pull scheme. Each user
uses a full-rate channel for a data download of 10MB. Assume that there are 20000 users scattered
uniformly in a coverage area of 105 cells (assume a reuse factor of 7 and 21 control channels as
described in the class lecture). The alternative is to use a push scheme in which the 10MB web
site information is pushed on a TV channel at a data rate of 19.2Mbps. The channel has a reach
(coverage area) of all 105 cells. Ignore propagation delays and errors. Compare the best-case total
times taken for all 20000 users to obtain this file in the two schemes.
Answer:
In the push scheme, data can be delivered to all 20000 users with one data transmission
10MB = 4.17s
------------------------- (2 points)
19.2Mb ⁄ s
Pull scheme: if 20000 users are scattered in 105 cells, there are at least 190 users per cell. In NA-
416 × 3 – 21
TDMA system, in each cell there are ------------------------------ = 175.3 channels. The multiplicative factor
7
of 3 explains the three full-rate channels per carrier frequency. Therefore in one parallel time
range (the time for one transmission of the file), only 175 users can receive the information in pull
mode. Either way there will be the remaining 190-175 or 190-176, i.e., 15 or 16 users who will
need to wait and get their files on the next round. Plus, the data rate is much lower than in the push
scheme. Therefore, the total time required is

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10MB - × 2 = 9876 seconds.

---------------------- (1)
16.2kb ⁄ s
Since the NA-TDMA full-rate channel uses 13kbps payload and 3.2kbps for control information, the
correct answer is
10MB × 2 = 12308 seconds.
------------------ (2)
13kb ⁄ s

Problem 4 (10 points): Consider the network shown below. There are 10 IEEE 802.11b 11Mbps

Access Point (AP) 1 Ethernet R Internet

....
MAC . Access Point (AP) 10
MAC
1 10
.....
Server

access points on the Ethernet LAN and 10 hosts within the coverage area of each access point. Thus,
there is a total of 100 hosts (not counting the server shown in the figure). If there are no ARP caches
at any of the nodes in the network, what is the maximum number of IP packets/sec that the server can
send per host if packets are sent uniformly to all hosts. Assume that the Ethernet packet payload is
1500 bytes. Ignore RTS/CTS and interframe spacings. Assume that the server only knows IP
addresses of the hosts and that the Ethernet link is not a bottleneck.
Answer:
(1 point) ARP request length: 28 bytes (also ARP reply length)
(1 point) MAC header: 28 bytes (34 is acceptable but address 4 should be omitted)
(1 point) Payload length: 1500 bytes
(1 point) ACK length: 14 bytes
(1 point) For every packet sent, an ARP request/reply needs to occur, and data packet is ACK’ed.
(1 point) ARP request will use up bandwidth at all 10 APs
(1 point) ARP reply will use bandwidth on only 1 AP
(1 point) ARP reply is ACK’ed because it is a unicast packet
(1 point) ARP request is not ACK’ed because it is a broadcast packet
(1 point) final answer
PHY header: bonus
The ARP request is sent by all 10APs and hence the multiplier is 100 for ARP requests, but the ARP
reply is unicast and hence only impacts one AP. If n is the number of packets/sec sent by the server
per host, the
6
( 100n ( 28 + 28 ) + 10n ( 1500 + 28 + 14 + 28 + 28 + 14 ) )8 = 11 × 10 (3)

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The first term (28+28) is for the ARP request + MAC header. The second term has 1500 for data
payload, 28 for MAC header for the data packet, 14 for ACK, 28 +28 for ARP reply + MAC
header + 14 for ACK for the ARP reply.
Therefore n = 85 packets/sec.

Problem 5 (3 points): Suppose that the ALOHA protocol is used to share a 11Mbps wireless
LAN channel. If packets are 2300 bytes long, what is the maximum throughput of the system in
packets/sec?
The maximum throughput in ALOHA is 18% (1 points), i.e., S = 0.18 . S is the number of pack-
ets transmitted per X sec, where X = 2300 × 8 ⁄ 11 = 1.7ms . Therefore the maximum through-
put in packets/sec is 107.6 packets/sec. (2 points for the answer)

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