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Bill McFarland, Director of Algorithms and

Architecture

Atheros Communications, Inc. | www.atheros.com

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„ Market & Regulatory
„ Standards
„ Modulation overview
„ MAC overview (QoS)
„ Throughput and system capacity
„ Security
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„ Client MAC/Baseband chip
„ 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz analog chips
„ Integrated Access Point chip
„ Measured performance


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„ 2002 InStat market report predicts (millions of units):
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„ Laptops are currently the primary driver

„ Future drivers include
„ Hotspot/WAN access (cell phones / PDAs)
„ Home/consumer electronics, particularly digital video


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„ 2.4-2.483 GHz (83 MHz total) has been available in most counties for many years
„ Many countries have created much larger allocations at 5 GHz in the past few
years:
R e g io n 5 .1 5 -5 .2 5 5 .2 5 -5 .3 5 5 .4 7 -5 .7 2 5 5 .7 2 5 -5 .8 2 5 To ta l (M H z )
US A 200m W 1W 4W 300
E u ro p e 200m W 200m W 1W 455
Ja p a n 200m W 100
A s ia P a c ific , in c lu d in g 200m W
K o re a , H o n g K o n g , C h in a , 200m W (S in g a p o re , 1 0 0 m W to 1 W
S in g a p o re , N e w Ze a la n d , (S in g a p o re , A u s tra lia , N Z, (a ll, a t va rio u s
A u s tra lia A u s tra lia , N Z) Ta iw a n ) p o w e r le ve ls ) 300

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„ Radio is fundamentally a shared medium
„ Current 2.4 GHz systems are limited to only 3 independent 11 Mb/s channels
„ Current 5 GHz systems have >13 54 Mb/s channels

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„ 802.11: Original standard provided for 1 and 2 Mb/s PHY layer, CSMA/CA MAC,
adopted in 1997
„ 802.11a: enhancement to provide 54Mb/s in the 5 GHz band, adopted 1999
„ 802.11b: enhancement to provide 11Mb/s in the 2.4 GHz band, adopted 1999
„ 802.11d: Changes for international regulatory compliance, adopted 2001
„ 802.11e: Enhancements to the MAC to provide QoS through prioritized CSMA and
advanced polling techniques, still in debate
„ 802.11f: Recommended practices for Inter-access point communication, nearly
completed
„ 802.11g: PHY layer enhancement to provide 54Mb/s in the 2.4GHz band, still in
debate
„ 802.11h: Enhancements to 802.11a to help with regulatory compliance in Europe,
still in debate
„ 802.11i: Enhancements for greater security, still in debate

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1 Mb/s 1 Mb/s
90 + R adio R adio + 90 Original Data
Data
1 Mb/s 1 Mb/s
(or no data) 11 Mchip/s 11 Mchip/s (or no data)

1,-1,1,1,-1,1,1,1,-1,-1,-1 1,-1,1,1,-1,1,1,1,-1,-1,-1
(11 chip barker sequence) (11 chip barker sequence)

„ Not really CDMA, only one station in a cell transmits at a time

„ Spreading done to meet regulatory rules, and provide some added robustness to
multi-path (echoes)
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4 to 8 complex chip 8 complex chip to 4
Data or or Original Data
90 + R adio R adio + 90
4 or 8 Bits 8 to 8 complex chip 8 complex chip to 8 4 or 8 Bits
per Symbol coder decoder per Symbol
11 Mchip/s 11 Mchip/s
(5.5 or 11Mb/s) (5.5 or 11Mb/s)

„ Code expansion is small, and code is not optimal. Coding gain is limited to ~2 dB.
„ Equalizer is required to deal with multi-path, computational load is proportional to
the square of the data rate

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Serializer Deserializer
Mod- De-
Convolu- ulator iFFT FFT mod-
DAC ADC Viterbi
tional (BPSK (64 (64 ulator
90 + R adio R adio + 90 decoder
coder to 64- point point (1/2 or ¾
(1/2 or ¾ QAM) com- com- De-
rate) Inter-
DAC ADC inter-
rate)
plex) 20 MHz channel BW plex)
leave leave

Data Data
(6 to 54 52 carriers 52 carriers (6 to 54
Mb/s) (4 pilots, 48 data) 64 time samples, 64 time samples, (4 pilots, 48 data) Mb/s)
Each modulated with BPSK, 9 bit resolution, 9 bit resolution, Each modulated with BPSK,
QPSK, 16-QAM or 64-QAM 1 iFFT each 4us 1 iFFT each 4us QPSK, 16-QAM or 64-QAM
(250KiFFT/s) (250KFFT/s)
„ Data rate on each carrier is very low; multi-path echoes are short compared to the symbol
time. No time domain equalizer is required.
„ The iFFT and FFT are very efficient. The computational load is proportional to (R/2)*log2(R),
where R is the data rate (compared to R2 for an equalized system)
„ A strong convolutional code ( ½ rate or ¾ rate) creates redundancy across the carriers that
resists interference and frequency selective channels (coding gain >5dB)
„ Orthogonal spacing of the carriers allows a high data rate in a narrow channel bandwidth
(54Mb/s in a 20 MHz channel)
„ Atheros Turbo mode doubles the data rate (and consumed bandwidth), providing 108Mb/s in
40MHz channels

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OFDM (52 carrier signals) X1 *

... Time
„ Different data
X2 * per tone (via
FFT)
Each carrier is modulated „ Multipath just
with data according to one of: scales tones
X3 * „ Tones remain
orthogonal
even with
multipath

X4 *
BPSK QPSK 16QAM 64QAM Symbol
6 Mb/s 12 Mb/s 24 Mb/s 48 Mb/s
(1/2 rate code) (1/2 rate code) (1/2 rate code) (2/3 rate code)
or or or or
9 Mb/s 18 Mb/s 36 Mb/s 54 Mb/s
(3/4 rate code) (3/4 rate code) (3/4 rate code) (3/4 rate code)

Lower data rates support longer range. Frequency Frequency

Radios automatically change data rates as required to maintain connection. As transmitted As received

after echoes in channel
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DQG$54 7 random contention
6 window countdown
values 5
4
3
2
Transmission Ack Transmission Ack 1 Transmission Ack

Interframe Space (IFS) Timeslots

802.11a 9 us
802.11b 20 us

„ It is more expensive to build radios that transmit and receive at the same time.
Therefore it is hard to detect collisions.
„ Normal packet loss rates are much higher in radio than in wired systems.
„ Use of ARQ (Acknowledgements) at the PHY layer greatly increases robustness,
but degrades throughput.

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1023

High-priority
window (small)

CW Min x CW Max x

Counter x

Lower-Priority window (larger)

CW Min y CW Max y
Counter y

EDCF has 8 counters and 8 pairs of (CW Min, CW Max) values, one for each of the 802.1p
Traffic Class (TC) priority levels. TC 0 is lowest priority, TC 7 is highest.

High-priority >> small window >> greater access

Exemplifies the IETF concept of Differentiated Service (DIFFSERV).


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7
6
5
4
3
2
Transmission Ack Transmission Ack 1 Transmission Ack

IFS AIFS

AIFS value for each priority class extends the IFS spacing.
Timeslot counting is delayed by the AIFS amount.

AIFS=1 is shown in the picture.


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„ EDCF defines three “knobs”

„ CW Min adjusts contention algorithm
„ CW Max bounds retransmission backoff window
„ AIFS inhibits access by traffic class
„ 802.11e draft defines default values
„ Defaults may be overwritten by AP via Beacon
„ Effects
„ small AIFS values have large effect on latency
„ CW Min values control contention probability
– adjust for small, medium, large number of stations within TC
– adjust for gross differentiation between TCs
„ slow-acting adaptation to traffic is feasible


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6 6 7 3 3 3
2 5 8 2 1st Ring 1 1 1 1
4 2 5 2 2 2
8 7 3 1 3 3 3 3
3 1 6 2nd Ring 1 1 1
5 6 4 8 2 2 2 2
2 5 7 3 3 3
4 8 2 5 3rd Ring 1 1 1 1
7 3 1 2 2 2
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„ Large areas with 802.11a will suffer less Co-Channel Interference (CCI)
than with 802.11b – resulting in higher system capacity
„ Many cell systems can also include multi-story deployments
„ Interference can come from other neighbors in multi-dwelling units


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30
11a - 8 cell - no CCI
11b - 3 cell - no CCI
25
Throughput (Mbps)

11b - 8 cell - CCI

20

15 14x 8x
10 4x

0
0 50 100 150 200 250
Cell Diameter (ft)

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„ All values in Mb/s, operation at the maximum PHY layer rate assumed
„ 11b results assume short preamble mode
„ Mixed 11b/11g assumes short preamble with legacy RTS/CTS

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„ WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy): The original simple encryption method, based
on RC4. No longer considered secure since several attacks are known. Provides
privacy only, no integrity check.
„ TKIP (Temporal Key Exchange Protocol): A “fix” for WEP that scrambles the
key between packets and adds a message integrity check to prevent spoofing.
802.11 considers this a temporary fix.
„ AES (Advanced Encryption Standard): NIST standard symmetric block cipher
intended to replace DES. It is considered to be “military strength” and includes an
integrity check. This is the long term solution chosen by 802.11.
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„ 802.1x: A general purpose and extensible framework for authenticating users and
generating/distributing keys for encryption.
„ SSN/RSN (Simple Secure Network): A recipe for authentication based on 802.1x,
bridging between an 802.11 base station and an authentication server in the
network.

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PC or Laptop
5 GHz
Tx
Mem. Cont. ADC Balun
Hos t PCI T rans mitter
& Match 5 GHz
PCI B ridge Core ADC
Mem. Diplexer
S ynthes izer 2.4 GHz
DAC 5 GHz
CPU HW Rx
R eceiver 5 GHz
Driver MAC DAC 5 GHz
2.4 GHz Diplexer
(S W MAC) Gain Bias / Tx 2.4 GHz
PHY Control Gain Balun
Up Convert
OR Control & Match
Hos t AR 5211 AR 5111
S ynthes izer 2.4 GHz
E E PR OM
Rx
Down Convert
Acces s Point or Gateway
Bias /
E NE T PHY E thernet Gain
GPIO ADC
Control
Mem. Controller AR 2111
F LAS H ADC
UAR T
DR AM DAC
HW = R equired for 2.4 GHz operation
E E PR OM CPU MAC DAC
Driver Gain = R equired for 5 and 2.4 GHz operation
(S W MAC) PHY Control
AR 5311

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PCI Card Bus „ Two 80 Ms/s 9 bit ADCs

53 „ Two 176Ms/s 9 bit DACs
5 „ 196 pin PBGA
EEPROM
PCI 6
interface
„ ~7 M transistors
GPIO
„ 0.25um CMOS
2
LED „ 175 GOPs equivalent
Configuration

MAC RF_RESET_L „ WEP, AES encryption in

PLLBYPASS
hardware
5
„ QoS support via EDCF with
Digital 12 priority queues
JTAG
PHY
4 „ <250 mW
Antenna Control
2 „ 802.11a data rates from 6 to
DAC ADC PLL LNA Control 54Mb/s
2
PA Control „ Turbo data rates from 12 to
4 4 6
108Mb/s
REFCLK „ 11b data rates from 1 to
DAC ADC (32 MHz) RF Data Out 11Mb/s
AR5211 
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QCU DCU
ARB
DMA Tx Descriptor/ QCU DCU Tx State To
Frame Data Logic Machine Baseband
QCU DCU

PCI Registers, Carrier From

WEP/AES Checksum
Core Misc. Control Sense Baseband
Engine Logic

DMA Rx Descriptor/ Rx State From

Rx FIFO Baseband
Frame Data Logic Machine

HIU DMA PCU

„ Each QCU is associated with a individual stream of data

„ Each DCU is associated with a QoS priority level
„ The ARB chooses which packet goes next
„ The MAC generates and sends packets that are time critical: ACKs, CTS, etc., and
handles the automatic retransmission of failed packets (no ACK received) 
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Differential
I and Q to
Analog
FSM Front End
Short Training
Tx data FEC Interleave
Upsample
from Scramble Map DAC
MAC FIR
Encode Scale IFFT
Puncture
Pilots,
Long Training


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Differential
I and Q from Remove
Downsample
Analog ADC DC Rotate To FFT
FIR
Front End Offset

FIR
Frequency
Lock

Auto
Correlate
Signal
Rx Gain to Detect
Analog and
Front End AGC
Signal Pipeline
Timing Control

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From Channel De- Viterbi Rx Data

Rotator FFT
Correct Interleave Decoder to MAC

Channel
Estimate
and
Tracking

Pipeline
Control


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„ MAC and Digital PHY the

RS232 APB same as AR5211
UART
„ 32-bit MIPS R4000 processor
RS232 Reset
UART Timer MIPS 4Kp „ 16kB instruction cache
8 „ 16kB data cache
GPIO
32@80 „ 1 Mb/s UART, can control
32@128
Bluetooth radio
APB to AHB EC to AHB
Bridge Bridge MAC
„ Two Ethernet MACs for
Enet PHY Enet1 32@80 Digital chaining with legacy AP or
APB proc
(MAC i/f) MAC to AHB PHY
AHB dma 32@80 Bridge use as firewall device
Enet2
Enet PHY
(MAC i/f)
„ 32-bit SDRAM interface
SD RAM Controller Flash Controller „ 16-bit FLASH interface
10/100 Mbps
Ethernet EBI „ Can support up to 4 memory
16 (data) Address 32 (data) devices
Async. Control 80 Mhz
EEPROM
„ Second FLASH interface can
FLASH SDRAM be used as local bus
„ ~11M transistors, 0.25um
AR5311 CMOS
„ 388 pin PBGA 
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„ On-chip transmit and receive

To AR5211 filters
2 4 „ Ultra-wide tuning range: 4.9-
RF In Receiver Rx Out
6 GHz
2 „ On-chip Power Amplifier
Xtal delivers 16dBm
To Antenna Frequency
Synthesizer Loop Filter „ On-chip LNA with 5dB NF
4
„ 64 pin QFN
4 Tx In „ Standard 0.25um digital
RF Out Transmitter 2
Pdetect CMOS

9
Bias/Control Control

AR5111


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RF In „ Converts signals between

2 1
Receiver Rx Out 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz
„ Can support 802.11b or
OFDM in the 2.4 GHz
Clk32_in band (802.11g)
To Antenna Frequency „ 48 pin QFN
Synthesizer Loop Filter „ Standard 0.25um digital
To AR5111 CMOS
RF Out 2
2
Transmitter Tx In

8
Bias/Control Control
Clk32_out
To AR5211
AR2111

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802.11a provides 2 to 4.5 times the throughput of 802.11b at the same distance when
tested to 225 feet .
30
Throughput (Mbps)

802.11a
25
802.11b
20

15 ~4.5x
10
~2.5x
5

0
0 50 100 150 200 250
Range (ft)

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„ Two chip 802.11a client solution, three chips for 802.11a/802.11b dual mode
„ Two chip 802.11a Access Point solution
„ Raw data rates from 1 to 108 Mb/s
„ “Military strength” AES encryption and security
„ Priority based Quality of Service

„ More information about the 802.11 standard can be found in the book, “802.11
Handbook, A Designer’s Companion”, Bob O’Hara and Al Petrick, IEEE press,
1999

More information about the Atheros chipset can be found at

www.atheros.com