1. Making Sense of the New Wireless Standards
WiMax
Making Sense of the New Wireless Standards
802.11g
Bard Moss Network Architect Moss Network Consulting, Inc.
802.16e
Bluetooth
WiFi

2. Making Sense of the New Wireless Standards
Which is not wireless?
802.11b
802.16e
WiMax
802.11n
802.11i
802.3ae
802.11a
WPAN
WiFi
802.11g
Blu-ray
WiMedia
WMAN
802.16a
ZigBee
WLAN
Bluetooth
Bard Moss
Moss Network Consulting
802.20
802.15

3. Evolution of Data Standards
Voice Related Data Standards–
Bell Labs – AT&T
Digitized voice
Codecs
Digital Carriers (T1)
Cellular Vendors
Digital Carriers (GSM, CDMA)
Data along with voice
IM Instant Messaging
Some testing of cellular and WiFi handsets
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
802.x including Ethernet,
WiFi, & WiMax
IETF Internet Engineering Task Force
TCP/IP
ISO International Standards Organization
Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Reference Model –
7 Layers Architecture

4. Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Reference Model
7 Layers Reference Model
File, print, database, application services
Data encryption, compression, translation services
Dialog control
End to end control
Routing
Framing, bridging, transmission
Physical topology
Application
Presentation
Session
Transport
Network
Data Link
Physical

5. Data Link Layer -- OSI Reference Model
2 Data Link Sub Layers
LLC – Logical Link Control
IEEE 802.2
MAC - Media Access Control
IEEE Ethernet
IEEE Token Bus
IEEE Token Ring
IEEE Metropolitan Area Networks
IEEE Wireless LAN
IEEE Wireless PAN
IEEE Broadband Wireless Access
IEEE Mobile Broadband Wireless Access
Application
Presentation
Session
Transport
Network
Data Link
Logical Link Control
Media Access Control
Physical
IEEE 802 standards are restricted to networks carrying variable-size packets

6. IEEE 802.X MAC - Media Access Control
802.11
WLAN
Wireless Local Area Network
WiFi
802.11a
802.11b
802.11g
802.11i
802.11n
802.15
WPAN
Wireless Personal Area Network
Bluetooth
ZigBee
UWB Ultra Wide Band
802.16
WMAN
Wireless Metro Area Network
WIMAX
802.16a
802.16d
802.16e
802.20
MBWA
Mobile Broadband Wireless Access
Service at 155 MPH
Working on standard

7. Wireless Standards Coverage Area
802 protocols are optimized for these distances – no actual distance limits
Wireless Metropolitan Area Network
Wireless Local Area Network
WiMax
Wireless Personal Area Network IEEE
WiFi
Bluetooth
Few Meters
IEEE
Tens of Miles
Hundreds of Meters
IEEE

8. 802.11 WiFi Modulation Techniques
Operational performance depends on signal reception – automatic change in speed (54 – 1 Mbits/sec)
802.11g
OFDM orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing
Data rates of 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, and 54 Mbit/s
802.11b
CCK for 5.5 and 11 Mbit/s
DBPSK/DQPSK+DSSS for 1 and 2 Mbit/s.

9. 802.11 WiFi Frequencies Protocol Release Date Op. Frequency
Data Rate (Typical)
Data Rate (Max)
Legacy
1997
GHz*
1 Mbit/s
2 Mbit/s
802.11a
1999
GHz** GHz** GHz*
25 Mbit/s
54 Mbit/s
802.11b
6.5 Mbit/s
11 Mbit/s
802.11g
2003
802.11n
2008(est)
2.4 or 5 GHz
200 Mbit/s
540 Mbit/s
Protocol overhead limits data throughput
* ISM - Industrial, Scientific, Medical (microwave oven – 2.4)
** U-NII – Unlicensed National Infrastructure

10. WiFi Extensions
Range extender (or wireless repeater) can increase the range of an existing wireless network
Multiple SSIDs (i.e. multiple VLANs – encrypted corporate and open guest)
Proprietary mesh network (wireless backhaul)
802.11s unapproved standard (target 2008)
Proprietary channel bonding
Can boost speeds to 108 Mbits/sec
Proprietary packet bursting techniques
Draft n or Pre-n (including MIMO)

11. 802.11n High Speed WiFi Builds on 802.11 standards
Adds MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output).
MIMO uses multiple transmitter and receiver antennas to allow for increased data throughput through spatial multiplexing
Standard not complete (projected 2008)
Vendors have pre-n products on market
Very little interoperation (sometimes within the same vendor)
No guarantee of compatibility to n standard
May not be firmware upgradeable

12. 802.11i WiFi Security
Most access points can also filter by MAC address
included Wired Equivilent Privacy (WEP)
Easily broken
Early equipment defaulted to no encryption
Wireless Protected Access (WPA) encryption
Introduced by the Wi-Fi Alliance
Intermediate solution to WEP insecurities
Newer equipment turn on encryption by default
(i.e. MAC address as key)
IEEE i, also known as WPA2
Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) block cipher
802.1X for authentication (i.e. RADIUS server)
Four-way handshake authentication
As of 2006, WPA and WPA2 encryption are not easily crackable if strong passwords are used

13. 802.15 Wireless Personal Area Network
Dynamic group of less than 255 devices
No online connection with external devices is defined
2.4 GHz frequency
Bluetooth
Low-power wireless technology intended to replace cables and wires
Multiple devices discover and talk to each other (up to 7)
Speeds up to 1M bit/sec
Range of roughly 30 feet

14. 802.15 Wireless Personal Area Network
High Rate WiMedia Alliance
Multimedia streaming over wireless networks
20 to 55 Mbit/sec (2.4 GHz)
Up to 245 wireless fixed and portable devices
About 3 years to develop
Ultra Wide Band (proposed a)
Wide bandwidth, low power, short pulses, high data rate
ZigBee Alliance
Decentralized control mesh - so there's no single point that all information has to flow through
Low bandwidth
Most turn on when needed – efficient power control
Example light switch with no power wires
Light fixture is always on and listening – monitor and forward traffic
Telemetric devices

15. 802.16 Wireless Metropolitan Area Network Plan
WiMax Standard– What Is It?
Point to Multipoint Wireless MAN (not LAN)
Connection Oriented
Supports difficult user environments
High bandwidth, hundreds of users per channel
Continuous and burst traffic
Very efficient use of spectrum
Protocol-Independent core (ATM, IP, Ethernet, …)
Balances between stability of contentionless and
efficiency of contention-based operation
Proponents say signal can extend as far as 30 miles, depending on how wide a spectrum band is used
                                                  

16. 802.16 WMAN - WiMax (Continued)
WiMax standards
802.16d
Eliminates the need for an outdoor antenna
Let vendors build PC Cards to the standard
A unified standard (combines all through d)
802.16e
Standard not complete (projected 2008)
Supports handoffs between base stations, making it truly mobile.

17. 802.16 WMAN - WiMax Future WiMax – Next Big Thing
Base Station to Subscriber Stations
Building or Laptop
Multipoint multichannel distribution system (MMDS) license holders (licensed and unlicensed bands)
Initially to compete with DSL and cable modem service – especially rural areas
Expensive customer installation (outside antenna) not required
Current small operators (ISPs) using to bridge the last mile
From a single base station, an antenna can transmit as much as 75M bit/sec of bandwidth for 2 or 3 miles
Intel a big proponent – plan to install in every laptop
                                                  

18. Cellular Wireless Data
Provider
Cellular Technology
Generation
Speed
Sprint
CDMA
1xRTT 2G
128k
EV-DO 3G k
Verizon
Cingular
GSM
GPRS
40k
EDGE
160k
UMTS/HSPDA
1,800k burst
k ave
Nextel
T-Mobile
Some testing of cellular and WiFi handsets (GSM is world wide standard)

19. 802.20 Mobile Broadband Wireless Access
Designed to provide broadband data in a mobile environment
(hand off at base stations)
Service at 155 MPH
Class of service included in design
One option for 4G cellular technology
Data rate and range is only half that of WiMAX
Working Group re-instated in Sept 2006

20. IEEE 802.X MAC - Media Access Control
802.11
WLAN
Wireless Local Area Network
WiFi
802.11a
802.11b
802.11g
802.11i
802.11n
802.15
WPAN
Wireless Personal Area Network
Bluetooth
ZigBee
UWB Ultra Wide Band
802.16
WMAN
Wireless Metro Area Network
WIMAX
802.16a
802.16d
802.16e
802.20
MBWA
Mobile Broadband Wireless Access
Service at 155 MPH
Working on standard
Questions?