802.

11 (Wireless LAN)
Presented by:

Department of Computer Rab Nawaz &

Science
Shahzad Ali
DCS
COMSATS Institute of
Information Technology

1
 Presentation Overview

 Introduction
 Architecture
 Types of wireless LANs
A Linksys Residential gateway
 Protocols with an 802.11b radio and a
4-port Ethernet switch.

 Standard and
amendments
 802.11 Layers
A Compaq 802.11b PCI
card.

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 Introduction
 IEEE 802.11 is a set of standards for wireless
local area network (WLAN) computer
communication.

 It is developed by the IEEE LAN/MAN Standards

Committee (IEEE 802) in the 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz
public spectrum bands.

 802.11-1997 was the first wireless networking

standard, but 802.11b was the first widely
accepted one, followed by 802.11g and 802.11n.

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 Wireless LAN
 A wireless LAN or WLAN is a
wireless local area network,
which is the linking of two or
more computers or devices
without using wires.
 WLAN uses spread-spectrum
or OFDM modulation
technology.
 It is based on radio waves to Notebook is connected to the
wireless access point using a PC
enable communication card wireless card.
between devices in a limited
area, also known as the basic
service set.
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 Benefits of WLAN
 Mobility
With the emergence of public wireless networks,
users can access the internet even outside their
normal work environment.
 Productivity
Users connected to a wireless network can
maintain a nearly constant affiliation with their
desired network as they move from place to place.
 Deployment
Initial setup of an infrastructure-based wireless
network requires little more than a single access
point. Wired networks on the other hand, have the
additional cost and complexity of actual physical
cables being run to numerous locations.

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 Benefits of WLAN

 Expandability
Wireless networks can serve a suddenly-
increased number of clients with the existing
equipments. In a wired network, additional
clients would require additional wiring.
 Cost
Wireless networking hardware is at worst a
modest increase from wired networks.

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 Limitations of WLAN
Some of the limitations of the WLAN are!

 Security
Less secure due to wireless environment.
 Range
The typical range of a common 802.11g network with standard
equipment is of tens of metres.
 Speed
The speed on most wireless networks (typically 1-108 Mbit/s) is
reasonably slow compared to the slowest common wired
networks (100 Mbit/s up to several Gbit/s).
 Reliability
Like any radio frequency transmission, wireless networking
signals are subject to a wide variety of interference.

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 Architecture of WLAN
 Stations (STA)
 All components that can connect into a wireless
medium in a network are referred to as stations.
 Wireless stations fall into one of two categories:
access points, and clients.
 BSS
 The basic service set (BSS) is a set of all stations that
can communicate with each other.
 Independent BSS ( IBSS )  Ad-hoc network that
contains no access points.
 infrastructure BSS  An infrastructure BSS can
communicate with other stations of other BSS through
Access point.

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 Independent BSS & Infrastructure
BSS

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 Architecture
 ESS
 An extended service set (ESS) is a set of connected
BSSes.
 Access points in an ESS are connected by a
distribution system.
 Each ESS has an ID called the SSID which is a 32-byte
(maximum) character string.
 Distribution System
 A distribution system (DS) connects access points in
an extended service set.
 The concept of a DS can be to increase network
coverage through roaming between cells.

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 Extended Service Set

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 Distribution System

Access points in an ESS are connected by a distribution system.

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 Types of wireless LANs
 Peer to Peer
 An ad-hoc network is a network where
stations communicate only peer to peer
(P2P).
 There is no Access point.
 This is accomplished using the Independent
Basic Service Set (IBSS).

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 Types of wireless LANs
 Bridge
 A bridge can be used to connect networks,
typically of different types.
 A wireless Ethernet bridge allows the
connection of devices on a wired Ethernet
network to a wireless network.
 The bridge acts as the connection point to the
Wireless LAN.
 Wireless distribution system
 When it is difficult to connect all of the APs in
a network by wires, it is also possible to put up
access points as repeaters.

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 Station Types
802.11 defines three types of stations.
 No-Transition Mobility
 Station is either stationary or moving inside
BSS
 BSS Transition Mobility
 Station can move from one BSS to other
but the movement is confined within one
ESS
 ESS Transition Mobility
 Station can move from one ESS to other

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 Protocols

 802.11-1997 (802.11 legacy)

 802.11a
 802.11b
 802.11g
 802.11-2007
 802.11n

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 802.11-1997 (802.11
legacy)

 The original version of the standard IEEE

802.11, released in 1997 and clarified in
1999.
 Operating frequency is 2.4 GHz.
 Bit rate is 1 or 2 Mbps.
 Forward error correction code
 Legacy 802.11 was rapidly supplemented
by 802.11b.

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 Summary of 802.11 standards
Typ Max net
802.11 Freq.
Release throughput bitrate Mod.
Protocol (GHz)
(Mbit/s) (Mbit/s)

– 1997 2.4 0.9 2

a 1999 5 23 54 OFDM

b 1999 2.4 4.3 11 DSSS

g 2003 2.4 19 54 OFDM

n 2008 2.4, 5 74 248 OFDM

y 2008 3.7 23

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 802.11-2007
 In 2003, task group TGma was authorized to
"roll up" many of the amendments to the
1999 version of the 802.11 standard.
 REVma or 802.11ma, as it was called,
created a single document that merged 8
amendments (802.11a,b,d,e,g,h,i,j) with the
base standard.
 Upon approval on March 08, 2007,
802.11REVma was renamed to the current
standard IEEE 802.11-2007.

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 Standard and amendments
• IEEE 802.11 - THE WLAN STANDARD was
original 1 Mbit/s and 2 Mbit/s, 2.4 GHz RF
and IR standard (1997), all the others listed
below are Amendments to this standard,
except for Recommended Practices 802.11F
and 802.11T.

 IEEE 802.11a - 54 Mbit/s, 5 GHz standard (1999,

shipping products in 2001)
 IEEE 802.11b - Enhancements to 802.11 to support 5.5
and 11 Mbit/s (1999)
 IEEE 802.11c - Bridge operation procedures; included in
the IEEE 802.1D standard (2001)

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 Standard and amendments
 IEEE 802.11d - International (country-to-
country) roaming extensions (2001)
 IEEE 802.11e - Enhancements: QoS, including
packet bursting (2005)
 IEEE 802.11F - Inter-Access Point Protocol
(2003) Withdrawn February 2006
 IEEE 802.11g - 54 Mbit/s, 2.4 GHz standard
(backwards compatible with b) (2003)
 IEEE 802.11h - Spectrum Managed 802.11a (5
GHz) for European compatibility (2004)

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 Standard and amendments
 IEEE 802.11i - Enhanced security (2004)
 IEEE 802.11j - Extensions for Japan (2004)
 IEEE 802.11-2007 - A new release of the standard that
includes amendments a, b, d, e, g, h, i & j. (July 2007)
 IEEE 802.11k - Radio resource measurement
enhancements (2008)
 IEEE 802.11l - (reserved and will not be used)
 IEEE 802.11m - Maintenance of the standard. Recent
edits became 802.11-2007. (ongoing)
 IEEE 802.11n - Higher throughput improvements using
MIMO (multiple input, multiple output antennas)
(November 2009)
 IEEE 802.11o - (reserved and will not be used)

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 Standard and amendments
 IEEE 802.11p - WAVE - Wireless Access for the Vehicular
Environment (such as ambulances and passenger cars)
(working - 2009?)
 IEEE 802.11q - (reserved and will not be used, can be
confused with 802.1Q VLAN trunking)
 IEEE 802.11r - Fast roaming Working "Task Group r" -
(2008)
 IEEE 802.11s - ESS Extended Service Set Mesh
Networking (working - 2008?)
 IEEE 802.11T - Wireless Performance Prediction (WPP) -
test methods and metrics Recommendation (working -
2008?)
 IEEE 802.11u - Interworking with non-802 networks (for
example, cellular) (proposal evaluation - ?)
 IEEE 802.11v - Wireless network management (early
proposal stages - ?)
 IEEE 802.11w - Protected Management Frames (early
proposal
Department stages
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 Standard and amendments
 IEEE 802.11x - (reserved and will not be used, can be
confused with 802.1x Network Access Control).
 IEEE 802.11y - 3650-3700 MHz Operation in the U.S.
(2008).
 IEEE 802.11z - Extensions to Direct Link Setup (DLS)
(Aug. 2007 - Dec. 2011).

 There is no standard or task group named "802.11x.

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 802.11 Layers

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 802.11 Physical Layer
 802.11 Physical layer provides
 An interface to exchange frames with the
upper MAC layer
 It uses signal carrier and spread spectrum
modulation to transmit data frames over the
media
 It provides a carrier sense indication back to
the MAC to verify activity on the media

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 Freq. Hopping Spread Spectrum
(FHSS)
 Uses 79 separate 1 MHz channels from
2.402-2.480 GHz
 Hops about every 0.1 sec (22 hop pattern,
2.5 hop/sec minimum in US)
 Immune to single frequency noise
 Many networks can be located in the
same area
 Uses less power to transmit & less
expensive to build than DSSS

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 Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum-
DSSS
 It is used in for signal generation in 2.4
GHz ISM band
 Each bit sent by sender is replaced by a
sequence of bits called chip code.
 However time needed to send on chip
code must be equal to time needed to
send 1 bit
 The modulation scheme used is PSK at 1
Mbaud/s.

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 OFDM
 It distributes the data over a large number
of carriers that are spaced apart at
precise frequencies
 This spacing provides the "orthogonality"
which prevents the demodulators from
seeing frequencies other than their own
 The benefits of OFDM are
 high spectral efficiency
 resiliency to RF interference
 lower multi-path distortion

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 802.11 MAC Layer
 It provides functionality to allow reliable
data delivery for the upper layers over the
wireless Physical media
 It provides a controlled access method to
the shared wireless media
 It uses Carrier-Sense Multiple Access with
Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA)

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 CSMA/CA

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 Persistence Strategies

Non-persistent – immediately on a non busy medium send the frame!

Persistent -- If medium is busy wait a random time (exponential)
Issues? Inefficiency due to backoff when medium is idle

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 Hidden Terminal Problem

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 Exposed Terminal Problem

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 Overcoming Hidden Terminal
Problem

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 Modified CSMA/CA

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 IEEE 802.11 Frame Structure

Four Addresses

To, or from Power
the Intercell  Management
Data, control network
Payload is WEP encrypted
or management RTS, CTS, Retransmission (Wired Equivalent Privacy)
ACK etc.
More Fragments
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