1. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition Chapter Four IEEE 802.11 Physical Layer Standards

2. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition2 Objectives List and describe the wireless modulation schemes used in IEEE WLANs Tell the difference between frequency hopping spread spectrum and direct sequence spread spectrum Explain how orthogonal frequency division multiplexing is used to increase network throughput List the characteristics of the Physical layer standards in 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11a networks

3. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition3 Introduction Figure 4-2: OSI data flow

4. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition4 Introduction (continued) Table 4-1: OSI layers and functions

5. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition5 Wireless Modulation Schemes Four primary wireless modulation schemes: –Narrowband transmission –Frequency hopping spread spectrum –Direct sequence spread spectrum –Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing Narrowband transmission used primarily by radio stations Other three used in IEEE 802.11 WLANs

6. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition6 Narrowband Transmission Radio signals by nature transmit on only one radio frequency or a narrow portion of frequencies Require more power for the signal to be transmitted –Signal must exceed noise level Total amount of outside interference Vulnerable to interference from another radio signal at or near same frequency IEEE 802.11 standards do not use narrowband transmissions

7. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition7 Narrowband Transmission (continued) Figure 4-3: Narrowband transmission

8. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition8 Spread Spectrum Transmission Figure 4-4: Spread spectrum transmission

9. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition9 Spread Spectrum Transmission (continued) Advantages over narrowband: –Resistance to narrowband interference –Resistance to spread spectrum interference –Lower power requirements –Less interference on other systems –More information transmitted –Increased security –Resistance to multipath distortion

10. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition10 Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) Uses range of frequencies –Change during transmission Hopping code: Sequence of changing frequencies –If interference encountered on particular frequency then that part of signal will be retransmitted on next frequency of hopping code FCC has established restrictions on FHSS to reduce interference Due to speed limitations FHSS not widely implemented in today’s WLAN systems –Bluetooth does use FHSS

11. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition11 Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (continued) Figure 4-6: FHSS error correction

12. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition12 Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) Uses expanded redundant code to transmit data bits Chipping code: Bit pattern substituted for original transmission bits –Advantages of using DSSS with a chipping code: Error correction Less interference on other systems Shared frequency bandwidth –Co-location: Each device assigned unique chipping code Security

13. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition13 Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (continued) Figure 4-7: Direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) transmission

14. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition14 Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) With multipath distortion, receiving device must wait until all reflections received before transmitting –Puts ceiling limit on overall speed of WLAN OFDM: Send multiple signals at same time –Split high-speed digital signal into several slower signals running in parallel OFDM increases throughput by sending data more slowly Avoids problems caused by multipath distortion Used in 802.11a networks

15. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition15 Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (continued) Figure 4-8: Multiple channels

16. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition16 Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (continued) Figure 4-9: Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) vs. single-channel transmissions

17. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition17 Comparison of Wireless Modulation Schemes FHSS transmissions less prone to interference from outside signals than DSSS WLAN systems that use FHSS have potential for higher number of co-location units than DSSS DSSS has potential for greater transmission speeds over FHSS Throughput much greater for DSSS than FHSS –Amount of data a channel can send and receive

18. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition18 Comparison of Wireless Modulation Schemes (continued) DSSS preferred over FHSS for 802.11b WLANs OFDM is currently most popular modulation scheme –High throughput –Supports speeds over 100 Mbps for 802.11a WLANs –Supports speeds over 54 Mbps for 802.11g WLANs

19. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition19 IEEE 802.11 Physical Layer Standards IEEE wireless standards follow OSI model, with some modifications Data Link layer divided into two sublayers: –Logical Link Control (LLC) sublayer: Provides common interface, reliability, and flow control –Media Access Control (MAC) sublayer: Appends physical addresses to frames

20. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition20 IEEE 802.11 Physical Layer Standards (continued) Physical layer divided into two sublayers: –Physical Medium Dependent (PMD) sublayer: Makes up standards for characteristics of wireless medium (such as DSSS or FHSS) and defines method for transmitting and receiving data –Physical Layer Convergence Procedure (PLCP) sublayer: Performs two basic functions Reformats data received from MAC layer into frame that PMD sublayer can transmit “Listens” to determine when data can be sent

21. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition21 IEEE 802.11 Physical Layer Standards (continued) Figure 4-10: Data Link sublayers

22. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition22 IEEE 802.11 Physical Layer Standards (continued) Figure 4-11: PHY sublayers

23. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition23 IEEE 802.11 Physical Layer Standards (continued) Figure 4-12: PLCP sublayer reformats MAC data

24. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition24 IEEE 802.11 Physical Layer Standards (continued) Figure 4-13: IEEE LANs share the same LLC

25. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition25 Legacy WLANs Two “obsolete” WLAN standards: –Original IEEE 802.11: FHSS or DSSS could be used for RF transmissions But not both on same WLAN –HomeRF: Based on Shared Wireless Access Protocol (SWAP) Defines set of specifications for wireless data and voice communications around the home Slow Never gained popularity

26. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition26 IEEE 802.11b Physical Layer Standards Physical Layer Convergence Procedure Standards: Based on DSSS –PLCP must reformat data received from MAC layer into a frame that the PMD sublayer can transmit Figure 4-14: 802.11b PLCP frame

27. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition27 IEEE 802.11b Physical Layer Standards (continued) PLCP frame made up of three parts: –Preamble: prepares receiving device for rest of frame –Header: Provides information about frame –Data: Info being transmitted Synchronization field Start frame delimiter field Signal data rate field Service field Length field Header error check field Data field

28. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition28 IEEE 802.11b Physical Layer Standards (continued) Physical Medium Dependent Standards: PMD translates binary 1’s and 0’s of frame into radio signals for transmission –Can transmit at 11, 5.5, 2, or 1 Mbps –802.11b uses ISM band 14 frequencies can be used –Two types of modulation can be used Differential binary phase shift keying (DBPSK): For transmissions at 1 Mbps Differential quadrature phase shift keying (DQPSK): For transmissions at 2, 5.5, and 11 Mbps

29. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition29 IEEE 802.11b Physical Layer Standards (continued) Table 4-2: 802.11b ISM channels

30. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition30 IEEE 802.11b Physical Layer Standards (continued) Table 4-3: IEEE 802.11b Physical layer standards

31. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition31 IEEE 802.11a Physical Layer Standards IEEE 802.11a achieves increase in speed and flexibility over 802.11b primarily through OFDM –Use higher frequency –Accesses more transmission channels –More efficient error-correction scheme

32. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition32 U-NII Frequency Band Table 4-5: U-NII characteristics Table 4-4: ISM and U-NII WLAN characteristics

33. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition33 U-NII Frequency Band (continued) Total bandwidth available for IEEE 802.11a WLANs using U-NII is almost four times that available for 802.11b networks using ISM band Disadvantages: –In some countries outside U.S., 5 GHz bands allocated to users and technologies other than WLANs –Interference from other devices is growing Interference from other devices one of primary sources of problems for 802.11b and 802.11a WLANs

34. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition34 Channel Allocation Figure 4-16: 802.11a channels

35. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition35 Channel Allocation (continued) Figure 4-17: 802.11b vs. 802.11a channel coverage

36. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition36 Error Correction 802.11a has fewer errors than 802.11b –Transmissions sent over parallel subchannels –Interference tends to only affect one subchannel Forward Error Correction (FEC): Transmits secondary copy along with primary information –4 of 52 channels used for FEC –Secondary copy used to recover lost data Reduces need for retransmission

37. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition37 Physical Layer Standards PLCP for 802.11a based on OFDM Three basic frame components: Preamble, header, and data Figure 4-18: 802.11a PLCP frame

38. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition38 Physical Layer Standards (continued) Table 4-6: 802.11a Rate field values

39. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition39 Physical Layer Standards (continued) Modulation techniques used to encode 802.11a data vary depending upon speed Speeds higher than 54 Mbps may be achieved using 2X modes Table 4-7: 802.11a characteristics

40. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition40 Physical Layer Standards (continued) Figure 4-19: Phase shift keying (PSK)

41. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition41 Physical Layer Standards (continued) Figure 4-20: Quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK)

42. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition42 Physical Layer Standards (continued) Figure 4-21: 16-level quadrature amplitude modulation (16-QAM)

43. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition43 Physical Layer Standards (continued) Figure 4-22: 64-level quadrature amplitude modulation (64-QAM)

44. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition44 IEEE 802.11g Physical Layer Standards 802.11g combines best features of 802.11a and 802.11b Operates entirely in 2.4 GHz ISM frequency Two mandatory modes and one optional mode –CCK mode used at 11 and 5.5 Mbps (mandatory) –OFDM used at 54 Mbps (mandatory) –PBCC-22 (Packet Binary Convolution Coding): Optional mode Can transmit between 6 and 54 Mbps

45. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition45 IEEE 802.11g Physical Layer Standards (continued) Table 4-8: IEEE 802.11g Physical layer standards

46. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition46 IEEE 802.11g Physical Layer Standards (continued) Characteristics of 802.11g standard: –Greater throughput than 802.11b networks –Covers broader area than 802.11a networks –Backward compatible –Only three channels –If 802.11b and 802.11g devices transmitting in same environment, 802.11g devices drop to 11 Mbps speeds –Vendors can implement proprietary higher speed Channel bonding and Dynamic turbo

47. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition47 Summary Three modulation schemes are used in IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs: frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS), direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS), and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) Spread spectrum is a technique that takes a narrow, weaker signal and spreads it over a broader portion of the radio frequency band Spread spectrum transmission uses two different methods to spread the signal over a wider area: FHSS and DSSS

48. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition48 Summary (continued) OFDM splits a single high-speed digital signal into several slower signals running in parallel IEEE has divided the OSI model Data Link layer into two sublayers: the LLC and MAC sublayers The Physical layer is subdivided into the PMD sublayer and the PLCP sublayer The Physical Layer Convergence Procedure Standards (PLCP) for 802.11b are based on DSSS

49. CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, Second Edition49 Summary (continued) IEEE 802.11a networks operate at speeds up to 54 Mbps with an optional 108 Mbps The 802.11g standard specifies that it operates entirely in the 2.4 GHz ISM frequency and not the U-NII band used by 802.11a