Fall 2011 Patrick Johnson “The wireless telegraph is not difficult to understand. The ordinary telegraph is like a very long cat. You pull the tail in New York, and it meows in Los Angeles. The wireless is the same, only without the cat.” ~ Albert Einstein ~

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Wi-Fi Overview Wi-Fi is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices. Wi-Fi means “wireless fidelity”. Wi-Fi is a trademark of the “Wi-Fi Alliance”. Wi-Fi is used by over 700 million people. Several variations of Wi-Fi exist today.

Wi-Fi b The IEEE governs wireless standards. The standard for wireless is called “b” was targeted for consumer devices b was adopted in Raw data speed is 11Mbps. It uses 2.4Mhz frequency for transmission.

Wi-Fi a The “a” standard came out at the same time as “b”. “a” was targeted more toward corporate environments, but did not experience the massive adoption like “b” a was adopted in Raw data speed is 54Mbps. It uses 5.0Mhz frequency for transmission.

Wi-Fi g The “g” standard followed “b”. They both use the same transmission frequency, but “g” is much faster. This version is most popular in consumer devices g was adopted in Raw data speed is 54Mbps. It uses 2.4Mhz frequency for transmission.

Wi-Fi n The “n” standard sought to fix the shortcomings of both “a” and “g”. It targets both corporate and consumer devices n was adopted in Raw data speed is 600Mbps. It can use both the 2.4Mhz & 5.0Mhz frequencies for transmission.

Cellular Overview Cellular networking is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices over a wide geographic area. A cellular network is a radio network distributed over land areas called cells. When joined together these cells provide radio coverage over a wide geographic area.

Cellular Base Stations Signals are broadcast from base stations. Base stations are also called tranceivers or cell sites.

Cellular Generations Each major change in technology is considered to be a “generation” or “G”. This is where the term 2G, 3G, and 4G originate. Currently, 3G technology is in wide use, but 3.5G and 4G technologies are being slowly being rolled out by carriers globally.

Cellular 2G “2G” cellular telephone networks were first implemented in 1991 and the technology soon experienced global adoption. Radio signals became digital rather than analog as with 1G networks. 2G made better use of the frequency spectrum. This allowed the introduction of mobile data services such as text messaging (SMS).

Cellular 3G “3G” cellular telephone networks were first implemented in Japan in 2001 but experienced slow global adoption. This improvement in cellular technologies provided the following abilities in mobile environments Wireless voice Internet access Video calls Mobile television

Cellular 3.5/4G Some of the newest cellular networks provide Mbps transmission speeds. While these networks are touted as “4G”, they could really be considered “3.5G”. 4G standards specify transmission rates of 100Mbps – 1Gbps.

Bluetooth Overview Bluetooth is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices over short distances. This is another IEEE project coded as V1.0 was created in 1994 by Ericsson as a replacement for cables.

Bluetooth in Consumer Products Bluetooth is used for a variety of consumer applications such as Hands-free sets / Intercoms Replacement for infrared Health monitoring equipment Game consoles controls Mobile phones Printing devices

Bluetooth v1.1and 1.2 Bluetooth v1.1 resolved many of the issues of v1.0 that caused many device incompatibilities for manufacturers. v1.1 was adopted in A signal strength indicator was introduced. Support for non-encrypted channels was new. V1.2 was adopted in 2005 with speeds of 715kbps and increased voice quality.

Bluetooth v2.0 and 2.1 Bluetooth v2.0 is backwards compatible with v1.2. It was introduced with EDR (enhanced data rate) to increase data transmission performance. V2.0 was introduced in Data rates were increased to 3Mbps. V2.1 was introduced in 2007 and improved “pairing” connectivity.

Bluetooth v3.0 Bluetooth v3.0 +HS (high speed) provides higher speed which are carried over (wi-fi) networks. v3.0 was introduced in Data rates were increased to 24Mbps. If +HS is not specified on the device, then the higher data speeds will not apply.

Bluetooth v4.0 Bluetooth v4.0 support previous implementations of Bluetooth classic, high speed, and introduces low energy operation modes. v4.0 was introduced in The “low energy” implementation is provided in two modes to support legacy hardware.