CMPE 344 Computer Networks
Spring 2024
Getting Connected
Reading: Peterson and Davie, §2.1, 2.5-2.8
Sources of slides:
Peterson and Davie, Computer Networks: A Systems Approach, 6th ed., Morgan Kaufmann, 2021.
Tanenbaum, Feamster, and Wetherall, Computer Networks, 6th ed., Pearson, 2021.
Kurose and Ross, Computer Networking, 8th ed., Pearson, 2021.
24/02/2024 1
Connecting Hosts to the Internet
2
Problem
• How to connect two (or more) nodes directly to each
other?
• Link layer addresses direct connection issues
– Encoding
– Framing
– Error detection
– Reliable delivery
– Access mediation when several hosts share the
transmission medium
3
Chapter outline
• Host hardware and physical link technologies
• Encoding
• Framing Topics of CMPE 444
• Error detection/correction
• Reliable transmission
• Multiple access techniques
– Ethernet
– Wireless
4
Network nodes
• Node types: End hosts (general-purpose computers),
routers (special-purpose hardware), middleboxes
(recently, commodity hardware with NFV), IoT devices
• End host structure
– Incoming packets stored in memory
(finite and possibly scarce)
– Network adapter connects host to physical medium
delivering packets from memory to physical link and
receiving packets from the link and storing them in
memory
– Small buffer between bus interface and link interface
(I/O bus and link operate at different speeds)
– Link layer functions implemented in adapter hardware
– Device driver manages the adapter
• As network nodes, end hosts run at memory speeds,
not processor speeds!
– Memory delay halves every 10 years, processor speeds
double every 1.5 years
5
Signal propagation
• Binary data is encoded onto signals
• Signals are actually electromagnetic waves
– Speed of electromagnetic waves in vacuum is
3×108 m/s
– In copper and fiber, the speed is 2×108 m/s
• An electromagnetic wave is characterized by its
frequency (in Hertz) or by its wavelength (in
meters)
– Wavelength = SpeedOfWave / Frequency
6
Electromagnetic spectrum
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
f(Hz) 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
Radio Microwave Infrared UV X ray Gamma ray
104 105 106 107 108 109 1010 1011 1012 1013 1014 1015 1016
Satellite Fiber optics
Coax
AM FM Terrestrial microwave
TV
• Modulation involves modifying the signals in terms of their frequency,
amplitude, and phase (responsibility of physical layer)
• Signals must often be modulated to appropriate frequencies before
they can be transmitted
7
mmWaves
• Carrier frequencies above 24 GHz are designed
to provide super wide bandwidths over short,
line-of-sight coverage
• Millimeter waves (mmWaves) exist between 24
GHz and 300 GHz, between microwave and
infrared waves in the spectrum
• 5G cellular standards divide frequencies into two
groups: FR1 (450 MHz-6 GHz) and FR2 (24
GHz-52 GHz). FR2 frequencies are mmWave
frequencies
8
Physical link technologies
• Physical media are used to propagate signals
– Guided propagation versus unguided propagation
• Variety of physical media
– twisted pair (telephone line)
– coaxial cable (TV cable)
– optical fiber
– space (wireless transmission: radio, infrared, microwave)
• Selection of media may be based on type of network
– connections within a building/campus area
– connections across a city/country
– “last mile” connections
9
“Last mile” links
More on FTTH coming up…
10
Long-distance links
• Modern long-distance links are almost exclusively fiber today
(CMPE 447 Fiber Optics)
• T-carriers (Digital Signal (DS) format)
– T1 (or DS1): 1.544 Mbps, 24x 64-Kbps pulse code modulated
(PCM) voice channels
– T2 (or DS2): 6.312 Mbps (4x T1 streams)
– T3 (or DS3): 44.736 Mbps (7x T2 streams), and etc.
• SONET (Synchronous Optical Network)
– STS-1 (OC-1): 51.84 Mbps
– STS-3 (OC-3): 155.52 Mbps
– …
– STS-48 (OC-48): 2488.32 Mbps, and beyond…
STS: Synchronous Transport Signal (Electrical)
OC: Optical Carrier (Optical) 11
Link Capacity
• How much capacity (data rate) can a link support?
• Shannon’s theorem - classic theorem:
– C = B log2 (1 + S/N)
• Where
– C is link capacity in bps
– B is the bandwidth of the line in Hz
– S is average signal power
– N is average noise power
• S/N is the signal to noise ratio (SNR) (unitless)
– Expressed in decibels: dB = 10 log10 (S/N)
– Signal strength is reported relative to noise
• Example: Typical 30 dB voice grade phone line that supports a
frequency range of 300-3,300 Hz
– Bandwidth B=3,300-300=3000 Hz
– Given: 10 log10 (S/N) = 30. Therefore, S/N = 1000
– From Shannon’s theorem: C = 3000 log2(1+1000) ≅ 30 Kbps
12
Encoding, framing, error detection/correction
• Encoding: representing the binary data that the source node wants
to send into signals that the links are able to carry
(e.g. 1 high voltage=+5V; 0 low voltage=-5V)
• Framing: encapsulate datagram into frame, adding header, trailer
(e.g. Byte-oriented: PPP, Bit-oriented: HDLC, Clock-based: SONET)
• Error control:
– Detection:
errors caused by signal attenuation, noise
receiver detects presence of errors (e.g. using CRC (Cyclic
Redundancy Check))
signals sender for retransmission (e.g. ARQ) or drops frame
– Correction:
receiver identifies and corrects bit error(s) without resorting to
retransmission (Forward Error Correction: FEC)
13
Bit and packet error rate
• A good transmission channel must have a small error
probability (BER: bit error rate)
– Optical: BER ~ 10-9
– Transmission lines: BER ~ 10-7
• Consider synchronous transmission with packets of N
bits
– Assuming that bit errors are independent, we can
calculate the packet error rate (PER)
– The probability that the N bits are not all received
correctly is PER=1-(1-BER)N
– If N×BER<<1, then PER≈N×BER (binomial approx.)
– E.g., if N=105 and BER=10-7, then PER≈10-2
14
A simple (but expensive) error
correction coding example
• Send every packet three times
• Three values are received for each bit
• Probability that a given bit is incorrectly received 2 or 3 times is
3 3
– 𝛜= ×BER2(1-BER)+ ×BER3
2 3
– 𝛜 = 3×BER2(1-BER)+BER3
• Probability that at least one of the N bits of the packet is received
incorrectly two or three times is (higher order terms are neglected)
– PERc=1-(1- 𝛜)N ≈N×𝛜 ≈ 3N×BER2
• E.g., if N=105 and BER=10-7, then PERc≈3×10-9 !
• Price paid: Useful transmission rate reduced by a factor of 3
• There exists much more efficient error correction methods
15
Error control
• We can provide quite strong error detection capability while sending
only k redundant bits for an n-bit message, where k is much smaller
than n
• On an Ethernet, for example, a frame carrying up to 12,000 bits
(1500 bytes) of data requires only a 32-bit cyclic redundancy check
(CRC): CRC-32 will catch majority of errors
• Extra bits sent are redundant because they add no new information
to the message
– Extra bits are derived directly from the original message using
some well-defined algorithm. Both sender and receiver know
exactly what that algorithm is.
– When receiver applies the same algorithm to the received
message, it should come up with the same result as the sender
(no error). Otherwise, message or redundant bits are corrupted.
16
Reliable transmission
• Frames may be corrupted or simply dropped (due to
congestion)
• A link layer protocol that reliably delivers frames must
recover lost frames by retransmitting them
• Two fundamental mechanisms for recovery:
– Acknowledgements (ACKs): short control frame from
the receiver acknowledging a successfully received
frame. When data frames are sent back, an ACK can be
piggybacked onto the data frames
– Timeouts: Sender waits for a “reasonable” time for an
ACK of a sent frame. If an ACK is not received, a timeout
occurs and that frame is retransmitted
• Two error control ARQ (Automatic Repeat Request)
algorithms
– Stop-and-wait and sliding window
17
Stop-and-wait
Sender Receiver Sender Receiver
Fram
e
F ra m
e • Allow only one
ACK AC K
outstanding frame at
any given time
F ra m
e
ACK • If ACK not received
within timeout, send
(a) (c) again
Sender Receiver Sender Receiver
• To solve (c) and (d),
Fram
e
F ra m
e use 1-bit sequence
ACK
numbers: Frame0,
F ra m
e
Ack0; Frame1, Ack1
Fram
e
AC K
ACK
(b) (d)
18
How efficient is Stop-and-Wait?
• Consider a 1.5 Mbps link with 45 ms RTT.
• Bandwidth - Delay product = 67.5 Kb 8KB.
• You can fill 8 Kbytes of data prior to receiving an
ACK.
• However, if your frame size is 1 KB, you are
using only 1/8 of the capacity. Very inefficient!
(i.e. utilization 12.5%)
– Possible remedy : send more than one frame
before receiving ACKs (Sliding window)
19
How efficient is Stop-and-Wait in
channels with errors?
• Let 1 – Pf = probability frame arrives without errors
• Avg. # of transmissions to first correct arrival is then 1/ (1–Pf )
• “If 1-in-10 get through without error, then avg. 10 tries to
success”
• Let t0 be the total time required to transmit one frame
• Avg. Total Time per frame is then t0/(1 – Pf)
• Define the efficiency as follows
– 𝜂0 = Throughput/Bandwidth
• If the efficiency in channels without errors is 𝜂0, then the
efficiency with errors is 𝜂= 𝜂0×(1 – Pf)
Sliding window
• Algorithm that allows the sender to transmit multiple packets (up to
an upper bound called the window size) before receiving an ACK
- the method used in the Internet retransmission schemes
• As ACKs are received window slides, i.e., more frames are
sent
• The algorithm needs Sender Receiver
to know which frames
have been received
and which have not,
so frames are labeled
using sequence
numbers.
21
Roles of sliding window
• Ensures reliability
– Retransmissions
• Preserves the order of frames
– Sequence numbers
• Exercises flow control
– Receiver can throttle the sender
Three functions combined in a single sliding
window protocol!
22
Multiple access links and protocols
Two types of “links”:
• point-to-point
– PPP for dial-up access
– point-to-point link between Ethernet switch and host
• broadcast (shared wire or medium)
– traditional Ethernet
– 802.11 wireless LAN
• Medium access or multiple access problem: In a
broadcast link where the link is shared by multiple
nodes, it is necessary to mediate access to the medium
– MAC = Medium Access Control
– Responsibility of link layer 23
Ethernet overview
• First widely used and “dominant” LAN technology
• Roots in ALOHA, standardized by Xerox, DEC, and Intel
in 1978, (later IEEE 802.3 standard)
• Simpler, cheaper than token LANs and ATM
• Bandwidth: 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, 1Gbps
• Uses CSMA/CD (see next slide)
Metcalfe’s Ethernet
sketch
24
CSMA/CD
• CSMA/CD: Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision
Detection
• A random access MAC mechanism
– Contrast with channel partitioning and polling
• A set of nodes send and receive frames over a shared
link
• Carrier sense means that all nodes can distinguish
between an idle and a busy link
• Collision detection means that a node listens as it
transmits and can therefore detect when a frame it is
transmitting has collided with a frame transmitted by
another node.
25
Classical Ethernet transceiver and
adaptor
• Ethernet segment (different coaxial cables, max 500 m):
– transceiver: detects if line is idle, sends the electrical
signals
– adapter: implements the Ethernet MAC protocol (in
hardware)
26
Ethernet repeaters
• Maximum 4 repeaters can be used. At most 5 segments can be connected
– Maximum reach: 2500 m
• Hubs can be used to create a star (hierarchical) topology
– used in 10BaseT networks with twisted pair cabling
– 10 = 10 Mbps, Base = Baseband system, T=twisted pair (< 100 m)
• Repeaters and hubs are layer 1 devices connecting Ethernet segments
– data transmitted by any host on that Ethernet is received by all hosts
(broadcast)
– all compete for the same resource
– all hosts are in the same collision domain
27
Collision detection time!
Collision detection can still take as long as
28
Ethernet
• Including the propagation delay for 2500 m and the
store-and-forward delay in 4 repeaters, the maximum
time for a bit to travel between any two stations is
max=25.6 µs (or, 51.2 µs Round-trip time)
• Frame size must be at least 512 bits for a 10-Mbps
Ethernet. Why?
• We want:
– Sender to be able to detect collisions
– Sender sensing no collision implies successful reception by all
nodes on the wire (LAN)
– At what frame size is the propagation delay equal to the transmit
delay? (Recall Chapter 1)
• Thus:
– Transmissions of packets must be long enough
– Distance between nodes short enough
– Frames that are less than 64 bytes are called runt frames (often
result of collisions)
29
Ethernet frame format
• Frame Format (field lengths in bits)
– max body length 1500 bytes
– min body length 46 bytes (long enough to detect a collision)
Preamble: 64 bits of alternating 0s and 1s which is used to synchronize
receiver with sender
Addresses: unique 48-bit unicast address assigned to each adapter
For broadcast: all bits are set to 1; for multicast: first bit is 1
Adapter forwards to the host all unicast traffic directed to it, all broadcast
traffic and the multicast traffic it has subscribed to
Type: indicates the higher layer protocol, mostly IP but others may be
supported such as Novell IPX and AppleTalk)
CRC: checked at receiver, if error is detected, the frame is simply dropped
30
Ethernet receiver
• Simple
• An Ethernet adaptor receives all frames and
accepts frames addressed to
– Its own address
– To the broadcast address
– A multicast address for which it is
programmed
• If the adaptor is in promiscuous mode, it accepts
all the frames (not just those addressed to it)
31
Ethernet transmitter algorithm-1
• When the adaptor has a frame to send and the line is
idle, it transmits the frame immediately
– The upper bound of 1500 bytes in the message means that the
adaptor can occupy the line for a fixed length of time
– Adaptor must wait 9.6 µs between back-to-back frames (for 10
Mbps Ethernet)
• When the adaptor has a frame to send and the line is
busy, it waits for the line to go idle and then transmits
immediately
• The Ethernet is said to be 1-persistent protocol because
an adaptor with a frame to send transmits with
probability 1 whenever a busy line goes idle
32
Ethernet transmitter algorithm-2
• Since there is no centralized control it is possible for two
(or more) adaptors to begin transmitting at the same time
– Either because both found the line to be idle
– Or, both had been waiting for a busy line to become idle
• When this happens, the two (or more) frames are said to
collide on the network
• Since Ethernet supports collision detection, each sender
is able to determine that a collision is in progress
• At the moment an adaptor detects that its frame is
colliding with another, it first makes sure to transmit a 32-
bit jamming sequence and then stops transmission.
– Thus, a transmitter will minimally send 96 bits in the case of
collision (64-bit preamble + 32-bit jamming sequence)
33
Exponential backoff
• Once an adaptor has detected a collision and stopped
transmission, it waits a certain amount of time and tries
again
• Each time it tries to transmit but fails, the adaptor
doubles the amount of time it waits before trying again
• In fact, more precisely, an Ethernet adapter, after
– 1st collision waits 0 or 51.2 µs
– 2nd collision waits 0 or 51.2 or 102.4, or 153.6 µs
– nth collision waits k×51.2 µs, for randomly selected
k=0...2n-1
– The adapter gives up after several tries (usually 16)
34
Ethernet in practice
• Performance
– Ethernet works best under light load
– 30% load is considered a heavy load and too much of Ethernet’s
capacity is wasted on collisions
– no flow control in Ethernet (flow control implemented by upper
layer, eg. TCP/IP protocols)
• Number of hosts
– theoretical maximum 1024 hosts
– in reality most have < 200 hosts
• Length
– theoretical maximum 2500 m with round-trip delay 51.2 µs
– in practice, delay is closer to 5 µs
• Ethernet advantages:
– easy to manage and administer (add/remove hosts)
– cheap
• Modern Ethernet links are now largely point-to-point:
– Links connect one host to an Ethernet switch, or they
interconnect switches (Switched Ethernet) 35
Wireless links
• Wireless links transmit electromagnetic signals
– Radio, microwave, infrared
• Wireless links all share the same “wire”
– The challenge is to share it efficiently without unduly interfering
with each other
– Most of this sharing is accomplished by dividing the “wire” along
the dimensions of frequency and space
• Frequency ranges are allocated to certain uses by the
government
– AM/FM radio, TV, satellite, cellular, etc.
– Several frequency bands are license exempt
36
Leading wireless technologies
37
Wireless LANs
• (Original) Wireless LAN standard: IEEE 802.11
– limited geographical coverage
– defines MAC protocol suitable for wireless environment
– additional features: real time support, power management, security
• Physical properties
– bandwidth: 1 or 2 Mbps
– physical media based on spread spectrum radio operating in 2.4 GHz
frequency range or diffused infrared (sender and receiver do not need
to have line of sight contact) with distance limitation approx. 10 m
• Newer standards
– IEEE 802.11a (54 Mbps), IEEE 802.11b (11 Mbps), IEEE 802.11g
(54 Mbps), IEEE 802.11n (150 Mbps), IEEE 802.11ac (450 Mbps), and
802.11ax
– 802.11n uses multiple antennas (MIMO: multiple input multiple
output) to achieve very high data rates
38
Spread spectrum techniques-1
• Spread spectrum technique is used to share the spectrum
• General principles
– signal spread over wider frequency band than required
– minimizes impact of interference from other devices
– originally military technology, deigned to prevent jamming
– transmission “coded” such that the signal appears as noise
to an observer not knowing the “key”
• Frequency hopping
– signal transmitted over random sequence of frequencies
– sender and receiver share
• pseudorandom number generator
• seed
– receiver can hop frequencies in sync
– 802.11 uses 79 x 1MHz-wide frequency bands
39
Spread spectrum techniques-2
• Direct sequence
– for each bit, send XOR of that bit and n random bits
– random sequence known to both sender and receiver
– called n-bit chipping code
– 802.11 defines an 11-bit chipping code
40
Using a base station
• Wireless host communicates with a base
station
• Basic Service Set (BSS) (cell) contains:
– wireless hosts
– base station or access point (AP)
• BSSs combined to form distribution system
(DS)
41
Ad hoc or mesh network
• No AP (i.e., no base station)
• Wireless hosts communicate with each other
– to get packet from wireless host A to B may need
to route through wireless hosts X,Y,Z
• Applications:
– “laptop” meeting in conference room, car
– interconnection of “personal” devices
– battlefield
• IETF MANET
Mobile Ad hoc Networks working group
42
MAC for wireless-1
• In wireless environment not all nodes are always within reach of
each other
• Additional complication: A wireless node cannot transmit and
receive at the same time. This makes collision detection hard
– Power generated by transmitter is much higher than any
received signal and so swamps the receiving circuitry
• Problem 1: hidden nodes
– Assume node A and C want to transmit to B
– A and C are unaware of each other
– Transmissions collide at B, but A and C do not know about that
43
MAC for wireless-2
• Problem 2: exposed nodes
– suppose B is sending to A
– C hears this
– however, C can still transmit to D
• Wireless MAC addresses the problems by collision avoidance
strategy
44
MACAW
• MACAW (MACA for Wireless LANs)
– MACA = Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance
– idea: nodes ask for permission to send
• MACAW operation:
– sender transmits RequestToSend (RTS) frame
– receiver replies with ClearToSend (CTS) frame
– neighboring nodes
• that see CTS: keep quiet (they are too close to sender)
• that see RTS but not CTS: ok to transmit
– receiver sends ACK when it has received the frame
• neighbors silent until see ACK
– Collisions (= multiple RTS frames sent at the same time)
• no collision detection
• known when senders do not receive CTS
• exponential backoff
45
IEEE 802.11 distribution system
Access points connected to a distribution network
46
IEEE 802.11 distribution system
Node mobility and handoff
47
IEEE 802.11 frame format
• Source and Destinations addresses: each 48 bits
• Data: up to 2312 bytes
• CRC: 32 bit
• Control field: 16 bits
– Contains three subfields (of interest)
• 6 bit Type field: indicates whether the frame is an RTS or
CTS frame or being used by the scanning algorithm
• A pair of 1 bit fields : called ToDS and FromDS
48
IEEE 802.11 frame format
• Frame contains four addresses
• How these addresses are interpreted depends on the settings of the
ToDS and FromDS bits in the frame’s Control field
• This is to account for the possibility that the frame had to be
forwarded across the distribution system which would mean that,
– the original sender is not necessarily the same as the most recent
transmitting node
• Same is true for the destination address
• Simplest case
– When one node is sending directly to another, both the DS bits are 0,
Addr1 identifies the target node, and Addr2 identifies the source node
• Most complex case
– Both DS bits are set to 1
– A transmits to E: Addr1: E, Addr2: AP-3, Addr3: AP-1, Addr4: A (see
slide 45) 49
Bluetooth (802.15.1) overview
• Low-power, small radius, • Interference from wireless
wireless networking LANs, digital cordless
technology phones, microwave
– ~10 meters ovens:
• omnidirectional – frequency hopping helps
– Unlike infrared, not line-of- • MAC protocol supports:
sight – error correction
• 2.4 GHz unlicensed radio – ARQ
band • Each node has a 48-bit
• Data rate: 1-3 Mbps unique address
– Slaves are assigned a
temporary 3-bit addresses
for active communication 50
Bluetooth piconet
51
ZigBee (IEEE 802.15.4)
• Designed for situations where the bandwidth
requirements are low and power consumption
must be very low to give very long battery life
• Simpler and cheaper than Bluetooth, making it
feasible to incorporate in cheaper devices such
as sensors
– Sensors are becoming an increasingly
important class of networked devices for
monitoring things like temperature, humidity,
and energy consumption
52
Passive Optical Network (PON)
• Most commonly used to deliver fiber-based
broadband to homes and businesses
• Adopts a point-to-multipoint design, which
means the network is structured as a tree, with a
single point starting in the ISP’s network and
then fanning out to reach up to 1024 homes
• Gets its name from the fact that the splitters are
passive: they forward optical signals
downstream and upstream without actively
storing and forwarding frames
53
PON
ONU: Optical Network Unit OLT: Optical Line Terminal
Agg Switch: Aggregation Switch BNG: Broadband Network Gateway
54
Multiplexing on PON
• PON has to implement a multiaccess protocol
– Upstream and downstream traffic are
transmitted on two different optical
wavelengths
– Downstream traffic starts at OLT, and the
signal is propagated down every link in the
PON. Every frame reaches every ONU and
device then looks at a unique identifier in the
individual frames sent over the wavelength
and either keeps the frame or drops it.
55
More on multiplexing on PON
• Upstream traffic is time-division multiplexed on the
upstream wavelength
• Each ONU periodically gets its turn to transmit. For this,
ONT transmits grants to the individual ONUs, giving
them a time interval during which they can transmit.
• Single OLT is responsible for centrally implementing the
round-robin sharing of the shared PON. This includes
the possibility that the OLT can grant each ONU a
different share of time, effectively implementing different
levels of service.
56
57
Cell phone technologies
• Obvious approach to mobile communications
• Use of licensed spectrum:
– Europe: 900/1800 MHz
– North America: 850/1900 MHz
– For traveling users: Tri-band phones can operate at
multiple different frequency bands
• To utilize the scarce radio spectrum (channels) in
wireless networks, cellular architecture is used for
frequency reuse.
• Base station serves a geographic area called a cell
58
Mobile phones in 1970s
59
Frequency reuse
• Frequency reuse: Same carrier frequencies can be
reused when devices are sufficiently far away
• As cellular user moves from one cell to another, a
handoff takes place
– The ongoing call is transferred to the new base
station
60
Cellular technology: generations
• 1G: Analog, voice
– Mostly FDM
– e.g., AMPS
• 2G: Digital, voice
– TDM/FDM and CDMA
– e.g., GSM, D-AMPS, CDMA
• 2.5G: Data
– e.g., GPRS, EDGE, cdma2000 1x
• 3G: Voice, data, multimedia
– e.g., W-CDMA, cdma2000
• 4G (LTE) and 5G: Voice, data, multimedia on an all-IP
network (network convergence)
– OFDMA and MIMO
61
4G cellular networks
BBU: Broadband Base Unit (eNodeB, gNodeB) MME: Mobility Management Entity
HSS: Home Subscriber Server S/PGW: Serving/Packet Gateway 62
Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiple Access (OFDMA)
• State-of-the-art media access mechanism for LTE
• Unlike Wi-Fi, which is contention based, LTE uses
a reservation-based strategy
• Data can simultaneously be sent on behalf of
multiple users, each on a different subcarrier
frequency and for a different duration of time
• The subbands are narrow (e.g., 15 kHz), but the
coding of user data into OFDMA symbols is
designed to minimize the risk of data loss due to
interference between adjacent bands
63
OFDMA and the use of radio
spectrum
The scheduler makes allocation decisions at the granularity of blocks of
64
7 x 12 = 84 resource elements, called a Physical Resource Block (PRB)
MIMO Antennas
• MIMO: Multiple-input-multiple-output
• Key technology in evolving high-speed wireless
networks
• Technique exploits the space dimension to
improve wireless systems in terms of capacity,
range, and reliability
• Cornerstone of emerging broadband wireless
networks
65
Heterogeneous Networks
(HetNets)
• Deployments are driven by the need for more
capacity and better coverage
• 4G/5G enables smooth handovers across small
cells such as picocells, femtocells, relays, and
WLANs
– Recall “horizontal” handoffs: Between different base stations that
use the same technology as UE moves from one cell to another
– “Vertical” handoffs: Change from one technology to another
• If small cell is located close to the hotspot users,
it can offload lot of macro cell traffic!
66
5G and network slicing
• Network slicing refers to creating multiple virtual networks, or network
“slices”, which can be used for distinct applications with specific
requirements
• In 2G, 3G, and 4G, end-to-end network provided the same service to all
users.
• With 5G, operators can create thousands of virtual, independent
networks within the same physical network and the network operator
can guarantee service levels for the slice as if it were a distinct network
• Examples of service levels:
– Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) aims to service more densely
populated metropolitan centers
– Massive Machine Type Communications (mMTC) enables machine-
to-machine (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT) applications
– Ultra-Reliable and Low Latency Communications (URLLC)
addresses critical needs communications where bandwidth is not
quite as important as latency
67
