Chapter One

Basics of Wireless Communications

The term wireless refers to a method of transmitting information from one point to another
without using any connection like wires, cables or any physical medium.

Radio waves, infrared waves and microwaves are used to carry a signal (information), instead of
cables or wires, to connect communication devices.

The radio waves have frequency range from 3 KHz and 1 GHz. These waves are easy to
generate and these can travel along long distances. These waves are omnidirectional in nature
which means that they can travel in all the directions. These waves are usually used for AM and
FM radio, television, cellular phones and wireless LAN.

Microwaves are the electromagnetic waves which have frequency range between 1 GHz to 300
GHz. These can travel along long distances. These are unidirectional in nature which means that
they can travel only in straight line. At very high frequency that cannot penetrate into walls.
These waves are usually used for one to one communication between sender and receiver,
cellular phones, satellite networks and wireless LAN.

Infrared Waves are the electromagnetic waves which have frequency range between 300 GHz to
400 GHz. These cannot travel along long distances. These waves are used for short range
communication and they also use line-of-sight of propagation. These waves cannot pass through
solid objects like walls etc. These also not penetrate through walls. The most common
application of the IR waves is remote controls that are used for TV, DVD players and stereo
system.

Wireless networking is the transmission of data using a physical topology (carrier), not direct
physical links

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 Signal Propagation Range

• Transmission range
– communication possible

– low error rate

• Detection range
– detection of the signal possible

– no communication possible

• Interference range
– signal may not be detected

– signal adds to the background noise

Physical Layer Terms and Terminologies

Modulation: is the process of converting data into electrical signal optimized for transmission.
Why modulation?

 Antenna size get reduced

 No signal mixing occurs
 Multiplexing of signals increases
 Adjustment in the bandwidth allowed
 Reception quality improves

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Components of Wireless Communications

Wireless communication systems consist of

– Transmitters

– Antennas: radiates electromagnetic energy into air

– Receivers

In some cases, transmitters and receivers are on same device, called transceivers.

Antennas

• An antenna is an electrical conductor or system of conductors to send/receive RF signals

• Transmission - radiates electromagnetic energy into space

• Reception - collects electromagnetic energy from space

• In two-way communication, the same antenna can be used for transmission and reception

Types of Wireless Communications

• Depends on the mobile station (receiver and sender) technology type, we can divide wireless
communication as analog and digital.

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 Wireless analog communications

The first generation (1G) mobile cellular standards like AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone
System) and NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephone) were based on analog communication
technologies.

Broadcasting (AM, FM) Radio: Radio waves are electromagnetic signals, allows to obtain an
audio signal.

Wireless digital communications: Most of modern wireless communication systems are digital.

Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 2G, 3G, 4G, etc.

Electromagnetic Spectrum

The range of electromagnetic signals encompassing all frequencies is referred to as the

electromagnetic spectrum. Frequency Ranges from 30 Hz to 300 GHz

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Limitations of Wireless Networks

Wireless vs. Wired Networks

• Regulations of frequencies

– Limited availability, coordination is required

– Useful frequencies are almost all occupied

• Bandwidth and delays

– Low transmission rates: few Kbits/s to some Mbit/s.

– Higher delays: several hundred milliseconds

– Higher loss rates: susceptible to interference, e.g., engines, lightning

• Always shared medium

– Lower security, simpler active attacking

– Radio interface accessible for everyone

– Secure access mechanisms important

Examples of Wireless Networks

• Bluetooth: Small scale network E.g. between headset and mobile phone.

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 • IR (Infrared): In the electromagnetic spectrum, IR radiation lies between microwaves and
visible light. It is used for security control, TV remote control and short range
communications.

• Wireless Sensor Networks: Collecting Information from less power mobile sensor devices.

• Satellite: Collecting Information from the satellite up in the sky to GPS receiver or to
other satellite phones.

Modulation and Multiplexing

• We’ve talked about signals representing bits (modulations).

• Carrier is simply a signal oscillating at a desired frequency

We can modulate it by changing: Amplitude, frequency, or phase

Two kinds of Wireless Modulation

– Analog Modulation (Wireless Analog Communication)

– Digital Modulation (Wireless Digital communication)

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 Analog Modulations
Amplitude Modulation (AM)

Amplitude modulation is the process of varying the amplitude of a carrier wave in proportion to
the amplitude of a baseband signal. The frequency of the carrier remains constant.

Frequency Modulation (FM)

Frequency modulation is the process of varying the frequency of a carrier wave in proportion to
the amplitude of a baseband signal. The amplitude of the carrier remains constant.

Phase Modulation (PM)

Another form of analog modulation technique which works by altering the phase of the signal

Amplitude Modulation

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Frequency Modulation

AM vs. FM

 AM requires a simple circuit, and is very easy to generate.

 AM is simple to tune, and is used in almost all short wave broadcasting.

 The area of coverage of AM (longer wavelength) is greater than FM (high frequencies).

However, it is quite inefficient, and is susceptible to static and other forms of electrical
noise.

 The main advantage of FM is its audio quality and immunity to noise. Most forms of
static and electrical noise are naturally AM, and an FM receiver will not respond to AM
signals.

 The audio quality of a FM signal increases as the frequency deviation increases

(deviation from the center frequency), which is why FM broadcast stations use such large
deviation.

 The main disadvantage of FM is the larger bandwidth it requires.

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Wireless Digital Communication

Wireless Digital Modulation

• Amplitude shift keying (ASK) is similar to AM analog, in that changes in the carrier’s
height represent a 1 or 0 bit. Instead of both a 1 and 0 bit having a carrier signal,
however, the 1 bit has a carrier signal while the 0 bit does not with ASK.

• Frequency shift keying (FSK) changes the frequency of the carrier signal. Because it is
sending a binary signal, the carrier signal starts and stops.

• Phase shift keying (PSK) is similar to phase modulation. Another form of digital
modulation technique. Two binary digits are represented by shifting the phase of the
carrier signal. Frequency and Amplitude remains fixed.

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 I/Q-Modulation diagram

Polar diagram: Phase and Amplitude are specified by a Q and I value.

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 Illustration

Amplitude and Phase modulation combined

8-PSK

• 8-PSK combines 8 phases, at each phase change 3 bits can be transmitted

2N =M

Ex: with one bit, only 21=2 conditions are possible

With three bits,23=8 conditions are possible, and so on.

• Theoretically, there can be any number of signal states (phases)

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 • However, in reality it is difficult for the receiver to distinguish two states which are close
to each other

Multiplexing in Wireless Networks

Multiplexing is a method of by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one
signal over shared medium and it is the network word for the sharing resource

Classic scenario is sharing a link among different users:

– Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM)

– Time Division Multiplexing (TDM)

FDM
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 • Put different users on different frequency bands.

• Each signal is modulated to a different carrier frequency

• Carrier frequencies separated so signals do not overlap (guard bands)

E.g. scenario

– 12 voice channels (4kHz each) = 48kHz

– Range 60kHz to 108kHz

• Channel allocated even if no data

FDM Diagram

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 FDM System

TDM

• Users take turns on a fixed schedule

• Data rate of medium exceeds data rate of digital signal to be transmitted

• Multiple digital signals interleaved in time

• May be at bit level of blocks

• Time slots pre assigned to sources and fixed

• Time slots allocated even if no data

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TDM Diagram

TDM vs FDM

• In TDM a user sends at a high rate a fraction of the time; in FDM, a user sends at a low
rate all the time

Widely used in telecommunications

– TV and radio stations (FDM)

– GSM (2G cellular) allocates calls using TDM within FDM

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