WLAN Physical

Layer (Including
Wireless Ethernet
frame structure)
Presented by Sandy Zakaria 15p3033

Mina Adel 15p4001

Ahmed Yehia 15p8110

Supervised by Dr. Hussien Elsayed

Eng. Ziad Mohamed

 LAN Type Wired Wireless
Topologies Ring BSS
Common Bus IBSS
Star ESS Introduction
MAC protocol CSMA/CD CSMA/CA
(Ethernet LAN
IEEE Standard 802.3 802.11
vs WLAN)
Signal Electrical signal Radio Frequency
Transmitted Signal
Security More secure Less secure (Signal
can be received by
another transceiver)
 WLAN Topologies
IBSS BSS ESS
An IBSS consists of a group of A BSS is a group of 802.11 stations Multiple infrastructure BSSs can
communicating with one another. A BSS
802.11 stations communicating requires a specialized station known as an
be connected via their uplink
directly with one another. An IBSS access point (AP). The AP is the central point interfaces. In the world of 802.11,
is also referred to as an ad-hoc of communications for all stations in a BSS. the uplink interface connects the
network because it is essentially a The client stations do not communicate BSS to the distribution system
directly other client stations. Rather, they
simple peer-to-peer WLAN. communicate with the AP, and the AP (DS). The collection of BSSs
forwards the frames to the destination interconnected via the DS is
stations. known as the ESS.
IR & Spread Spectrum

 Infrared (IR): It is a form of light… light that we can not see with our eyes. It is
invisible electromagnetic radiation having a wavelength just greater than that of the
red end of the visible light spectrum (rainbow) but less than that of microwaves
 LANs: An individual cell of an IR LAN is limited to a single room, because infrared
light does not penetrate opaque walls.(i.e. line of sight must be maintained
between transmitter and receiver )

 Spread spectrum: It is technique by which electromagnetic energy generated in a

particular bandwidth is deliberately spread in the frequency domain, resulting in a
signal with a wider bandwidth
 It is an important form of encoding for wireless communications.
 LANs: This type of LAN makes use of spread spectrum transmission technology. In
most cases, these LANs operate in the ISM (industrial, scientific, and medical)
microwave bands so that no Federal Communications Commission (FCC) licensing is
required for their use in the United States.
Three physical media that are defined in the
original 802.11 standard:

1)Direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS):

operating in the 2.4-GHz ISM band, at data
rates of 1 Mbps and 2 Mbps.
Physical-Layer
Frame
Structure
2)Frequency-hopping spread spectrum
(FHSS): operating in the 2.4-GHz ISM band, at
data rates of 1 Mbps and 2 Mbps.

3)Infrared: at 1 Mbps and 2 Mbps operating

at a wavelength between 850 and 950 nm.
 Transmission Techniques of IR

Directed Beam Omnidirectional Diffused

 It can be used to create  It involves a single base  All the IR transmitters
point-to-point links. station that is within are focused and aimed
 The range depends on line of sight of all other at a point on a diffusely
the stations on the LAN. reflecting ceiling.
emitted power and on the  This station is mounted  IR radiation striking the
degree of focusing. on the ceiling is reradiated
 A focused IR data link ceiling. omnidirectionally and
can have a range of  The base station acts as picked up by all the
kilometers. a multiport repeater. receivers in the area.
 An IR link can be used  The ceiling transmitter
for cross-building broadcasts an
interconnect between omnidirectional signal
bridges or routers that can be received by
located in buildings all the other IR
within a line of sight of transceivers in the area.
each other.
Spread
Spectrum
Concept
– Input is fed into a channel encoder that produces an analog signal with a
relatively narrow
– bandwidth around some center frequency.
– This signal is further modulated using a sequence of digits known as a
spreading code or spreading sequence. which is generated by a
pseudonoise, or pseudorandom number, generator.
– The effect of this modulation is to increase significantly the bandwidth
(spread the spectrum) of the signal to be transmitted. On the receiving
end, the same digit sequence is used to demodulate the spread spectrum
signal.
– Finally, the signal is fed into a channel decoder to recover the data.
Direct Sequence Spread
Spectrum DSSS
 It is a spread spectrum technique where the original data
signal is multiplied with a pseudo random noise spreading
code. This spreading code has a higher bitrate , which results
in a wideband time continuous signal.
Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum
DSSS Transmitter & Receiver
In FHSS the signal is broadcast over a seemingly random series of
radio frequencies, hopping from frequency to frequency Frequency
Hopping
at fixed intervals. A receiver, hopping between frequencies in
synchronization with the transmitter, picks up the message. Would-
be eavesdroppers hear only unintelligible blips. Attempts to jam the
signal on one frequency succeed only in knocking out few bits
Spread
Spectrum
There are carrier frequencies forming channels.
The transmitter operates in one channel at a time for a fixed
interval; for example, the IEEE 802.11 standard uses
a 300-ms interval.
 Strengths of IR vs Spread Spectrum
IR Spread Spectrum

Virtually has unlimited bandwidth which can Prevent jamming (i.e. jamming transmission of radio
provide higher data rates signals that disrupt communications by decreasing
the signal-to-noise ratio)

Inherent security due to the confinement of the Longer operative distances (i.e. A spread spectrum
signal inside a room (secure from eavesdropping) device operated in the ISM band is allowed to have
higher transmit power due to its non-interfering
nature)

Diffusely reflected by light-colored objects; thus it Reduced effect of multipath fading as the spread
is possible to use ceiling reflection to achieve spectrum occupy high bandwidth
coverage of an entire room.

separate infrared installation Cross-talk elimination

can be operated in every room in a building without
interference

Equipment is relatively inexpensive Privacy due to pseudo random codes

and simple.

 Both are considered as advantages of the inability of infrared to penetrate

walls
 Weaknesses of IR vs Spread Spectrum

IR Spread Spectrum

Need of direct line of sight Not easy to demodulate

Short range Hard to decode

Blocked bye people, walls and even Complex implementation

plants

Lower data transmission rate than typical Hard to detect

wired transmission
 FHSS vs DSSS

FHSS DSSS

Multiple frequencies are used Single frequency is used

Hard to find the user’s frequency at any instant of time User frequency, once allotted is always the same

Frequency reuse is allowed Frequency reuse is not allowed

Sender need not wait Sender must wait if the spectrum is busy as it commonly use CDMA

Power strength of the signal is high Power strength of the signal is low

Stronger and penetrates through the obstacles It is weaker compared to FHSS

It is never affected by interference It can be affected by interference

It is cheaper It is expensive

This is the commonly used technique This technique is not frequently used
 Ethernet Frame vs Wireless MAC Frame
A) Ethernet Frame

– Preamble : For synchronization of the sampling clock to the data

– Destination Address (DA): It is a 6-byte field that contains the MAC address of the destination for which the data is
destined.
– Source Address (SA): It is a 6-byte field that contains the MAC address of the source which is sending the data.
– Type: This field include the upper layer protocol
– User Data: This block contains the payload data and it may be up to 1500 bytes long. If the length of the field is less
than 46 bytes, then padding data is added to bring its length up to the required minimum of 46 bytes.
– Frame Check Sequence (FCS): This field is four bytes long. It contains a 32-bit Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) which
is generated over the DA, SA, Length / Type and Data fields.
 B) Wireless MAC Frame

– Frame Control: Indicates the type of frame (control, management, or data)

– Duration/Connection ID: If used as a duration field, indicates the time (in microseconds) the
channel will be allocated for successful transmission of a MAC frame.
– Addresses: These are 6 bytes long fields which contain standard IEEE 802 MAC addresses (48
bit each). The meaning of each address depends on the DS (Distribution System) bits in the
frame control field.(As mentioned the MAC header can contain four addresses and these
addresses can change depending on how the To DS and From DS fields are set. )
– Sequence Control: Contains a 4-bit fragment number subfield, used for fragmentation and
reassembly, and a 12-bit sequence number used to number frames sent between a given
transmitter and receiver.
– Frame Body: Contains an MSDU or a fragment of an MSDU.
– Frame Check Sequence: A 32-bit cyclic redundancy check.
IEEE 802.11a
Frame Format

– PLCP (Physical Layer Convergence Protocol) preamble: For synchronization and to acquire the OFDM signal.
– Rate: Specifies the data rate at which the data field portion of the frame is transmitted.
– r: Reserved for future use.
– Length: Number of octets in the MAC PDU.
– P: An even parity bit for the 17 bits in the Rate, r, and Length subfields.
– Tail (in signal field): Consists of 6 zero bits appended to the symbol to bring the convolutional encoder to zero state.
– Service: Consists of 16 bits, with the first 7 bits set to zeros to synchronize the descrambler in the receiver, and the remaining 9 bits (all
zeros) reserved for future use.
– Tail: Produced by replacing the six scrambled bits following the MPDU end with 6 bits of all zeros; used to reinitialize the convolutional
encoder.
– Pad: The number of bits required to make the Data field a multiple of the number of bits in an OFDM symbol (48, 96, 192, or 288).
Channel Structure
– IEEE 802.11a makes use of the frequency band called the Universal Networking Information
Infrastructure (UNNI), which is divided into three parts. The UNNI-1 band (5.15 to 5.25 GHz) is
intended for indoor use; the UNNI-2 band (5.25 to 5.35 GHz) can be used either indoor or outdoor,
and the UNNI-3 band (5.725 to 5.825 GHz) is for outdoor use.

Advantages
– It utilizes more available bandwidth than 802.11b/g
– It provides much higher data rates than 802.11b and the same maximum data rate as 802.11g.

Modulation & Coding

– It uses OFDM , to complement OFDM, the specification supports the use of a variety of modulation
and coding alternatives .The system uses up to 48 subcarriers that are modulated using BPSK, QPSK,
16-QAM, or 64-QAM. Subcarrier frequency spacing is 0.3125 MHz, and each subcarrier transmits at
a rate of 250 kbaud.
 OFDM

OFDM is dividing a channel into subcarriers through a mathematical function known as an inverse
fast Fourier transform (IFFT). The spacing of the subcarriers is orthogonal, so they will not
interfere with one another despite the lack of guard bands between them. This creates signal nulls in
the adjacent subcarrier frequencies, thus preventing inter-carrier interference (ICI).
IEEE 802.11b
Frame Format

– Sync: Bits used for synchronization and to acquire the incoming signal.
– SFD: Bits used to represent start of frame delimiter.
– Signal: Specifies the data rate at which the MPDU portion of the frame is transmitted.
– Service: Only 3 bits of this 8-bit field are used in 802.11b.
One bit indicates whether the transmit frequency and symbol clocks use the same local oscillator.
Another bit indicates whether CCK or PBCC encoding is used.
A third bit acts as an extension to the Length subfield.
– Length: Indicates the length of the MPDU field by specifying the number of microseconds necessary to transmit the
MPDU.
– CRC: A 16-bit error detection code used to protect the Signal, Service, and Length fields.
Channel Structure
– IEEE 802.11b is an extension of the IEEE 802.11, providing data rates of 5.5 and 11 Mbps in the
ISM band. The chipping rate is 11 MHz.

Modulation & Coding

– It uses a modulation scheme known as complementary code keying (CCK) is used

– The CCK modulation scheme is quite complex and is not examined in detail here.
– An optional alternative to CCK is known as packet binary convolutional coding (PBCC). PBCC
provides for potentially more efficient transmission at the cost of increased computation at the
receiver. PBCC was incorporated into 802.11b in anticipation of its need for higher data rates for
future enhancements to the standard.

– Note: IEEE 802.11b defines two physical-layer frame formats, which differ only
in the length of the preamble. The long preamble of 144 bits is the same as used
in the original 802.11 DSSS scheme and allows interoperability with other
legacy systems. The short preamble of 72 bits provides improved throughput
efficiency.
 IEEE 802.11g extends 802.11b to data rates above 20 Mbps, up to 54 Mbps. Like 802.11b,
802.11g operates in the 2.4-GHz range and thus the two are compatible.

IEEE 802.11g
The standard is designed so that 802.11b devices will work when connected to an 802.11g AP,
and 802.11g devices will work when connected to an 802.11b AP, in both cases using the lower
802.11b data rate.

IEEE 802.11g offers a wider array of data rate and modulation scheme options. IEEE 802.11g
provides compatibility with 802.11 and 802.11b by specifying the same modulation and framing
schemes as these standards for 1, 2, 5.5, and 11 Mbps. At data rates of 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48,
and 54 Mbps, 802.11g adopts the802.11a OFDM scheme, adapted for the 2.4 GHz rate; this is
referred to as ERPOFDM ,with ERP standing for extended rate physical layer. In addition, and
ERPPBCC scheme is used to provide data rates of 22 and 33 Mbps.
Comparison Between 802.11 ,802.11a ,802.11b & 802.11g