Mobile and Wireless Networks
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Upkar Varshney and Ron Vetter MOBILE AND WIRELESS NETWORKS Wireless and mobile networks are quickly becoming the networks of choice, not only because of large bandwidth, but due to the flexibility and freedom they offer. ith the increasing use of small should be able to select the network (LAN, the portable computers, wireless Internet, PCS, or satellite) that best meets user networks, and satellites, a trend requirements. to support computing on the Wireless and mobile networks have provided the move has emerged—this trend is flexibility required for an increasingly mobile work- known as mobile computing or force. As shown in Figure 1(a), the worldwide number nomadic computing [3]. Also of cellular, GSM, and PCS subscribers increased from Wreferred to as anytime/anywhere computing, mobile 140 million in 1996 to over 300 million in 1999 and computing has several interesting and important is expected to grow to 650 million by 2001 (see applications for business (such as instant claim pro- www.gsmdata.com). In the U.S., capital investment cessing and e-commerce), telecommunications and increased from $6.3 billion in 1990 to $66.8 billion in personal communications, national defense (track- 1999 and service revenues were up from $4.5 billion to ing troop movements), emergency and disaster man- $38.7 billion in 1999 (see www.wow-com.com) as agement, real-time control systems, remote shown in Figure 1(b). During the same period, the operation of appliances, and in accessing the Inter- average local monthly bill diminished from $80 to $39 net. Since a user may not maintain a fixed position as shown in Figure 1(c), indicating the technological in such environments, the mobile and wireless net- maturity and the tremendous competition among ser- working support allowing mobile users to communi- vice providers. cate with other users (fixed or mobile) becomes Many general remarks can be made about wireless crucial. A possible scenario may involve several dif- systems. First, the channel capacity typically avail- ferent networks that can support or can be modified able in wireless systems is much lower than what is to support mobile users. When dealing with differ- ent wireless networks, a universal mobile device COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM June 2000/Vol. 43, No. 6 73 Figure 1. Recent changes in usage. Figure 1(a). Increasing number Figure 1(b). Increasing capital investment Figure 1(c). Decreasing monthly charges for of wireless subscribers. and service revenues in the U.S. wireless phone service in the U.S. 100 70 700 90 60 80 600 World Capital Investment Europe 50 Revenues 70 500 U.S. 60 400 40 50 300 30 40 200 20 30 Investment and Investment 100 10 20 Revenues (in billions) Revenues Subscribers (in millions) 10 Average Local Monthly Bill Local Monthly Average 96 97 98 99 00 01 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 Calendar Year Calendar Year Calendar Year Source: CTIA, GSMDATA Source: CTIA Source: CTIA available in wired networks due to the limited spec- ple, the U.S. standards use FDMA (in AMPS), trum available, power restrictions, and noise levels. TDMA (in PCS), and CDMA (IS-95), while GSM Even with advances in coding schemes, the capacity uses TDMA/FDMA over different frequencies. This remains limited due to these reasons and also directly affects the interoperability and global roam- because users share the available capacity in one way ing of mobile users. These differences are also affect- or another. Second, noise and interference have ing the standardization of the next (third) more impact on systems design for wireless systems generation—3G—of wireless/mobile systems where than on wired systems. Third, before building a North American companies are pushing for CDMA wireless system some sort of frequency allocation (by (or Wideband CDMA) to allow for backward com- the Federal Communications Commission in the patibility with CDMA-based IS-95 while Europe is U.S.) is required. Fourth, security is a greater con- supporting TDMA for GSM compatibility. Some cern in wireless systems than in wired systems since agreements on 3G systems have been reached, allow- information may be traveling in free space (with the ing all of the previously mentioned networks to inter- exception of infrared LANs). More details on these operate with or evolve into 3G wireless networks issues can be found in [2, 9, 10]. (www.itu.org). Mobile users do not necessarily need to use wireless interfaces and wireless interfaces do not necessarily Emerging Mobile and Wireless support mobility. A mobile user can simply connect Networks to fixed networks using wired interfaces as he or she Mobile and wireless networks are also experiencing moves. Likewise, a fixed-location user might use a significant progress in the form of wireless local area wireless interface (via a LAN) while sitting in an networks (WLANs) [4], satellite-based networks office. Therefore, mobile and wireless systems are not [5], Wireless Local Loops (WLL) [6], mobile Inter- the same even though there is considerable overlap. net Protocol (IP) [7], and wireless Asynchronous Mobile networks provide support for routing (how to Transfer Mode (ATM) networks [8, 11]. A compar- maintain communication with mobility) and location ison is shown in Table 2. One emerging wireless management (keeping track of the location) func- technology is Bluetooth (www.bluetooth.net), tions. Wireless networks provide wireless interfaces to which provides low-cost and short-range radio links users (both mobile and stationary) by supporting for wireless connectivity among computers, printers, bandwidth allocation and error-control functions. and scanners. Since the range is small, it can use the When combined, there are several interesting issues unlicensed ISM band in 2.4GHz. that arise, including optimal use of low bandwidth channels due to limited frequency allocation, man- Wireless LANs agement of large bit-error rates due to high noise lev- Wireless local area networks are designed to provide els, application-level quality of service support, coverage in a small area, such as a building, hallway, increased security concerns, and failure or malfunc- park, or office complex by extending or replacing tioning of equipment (Table 1). wired LANs (such as Ethernet). The main attraction The choice of media access control (MAC) can is the flexibility and mobility supported by a wireless affect both performance and use of wireless networks. LAN; bandwidth considerations are secondary. The MAC protocols used in cellular and PCS systems Unlike cellular networks where a frequency (chan- in the U.S. and Europe differ considerably. For exam- nel) is allocated, users in WLANs have to share fre- 74 June 2000/Vol. 43, No. 6 COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM Table 1. Mobile and wireless networking issues. Issues Possible Choices Comments Network Infrastructure-based configuration More scalable but less flexible Configuration Ad-hoc configuration Less scalable but more flexible Limitations of New protocols to handle device limitations Interworking with existing protocols Devices Content adaptation to device capabilities Additional complexity at network/server Bandwidth and Use of existing frequencies Lower bandwidth, higher interference, lower signal Frequency of (regulated/unregulated) loss, lower cost Operation Use of higher frequencies Higher bandwidth possible, lower interference, higher signal loss, higher cost Handoffs Type of handoffs Hard handoff Device can communicate with one access point Handoff Soft handoff Device can communicate with several access points Implementation Network initiated Network to compare signal strength at several points Mobile assisted Mobile to compare signals from several base stations and report to the current one Priority User-based Keep track of different classes of users Application-based Keep track of different classes of applications Channel assignment Fixed-size Easy but not suitable to all applications Variable Difficult but suitable to applications MAC Protocols Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) Analog and amount of interference Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) Synchronization and slot speed match requirements Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) Difficult to satisfy varying bandwidth requirements Error Control Error detection and retransmission Impact on delay (not used for real-time applications) Error correction Amount of excess bandwidth required Error correction and retransmission Adaptive to the channel conditions QOS Admission control techniques Amount of processing (micro-cellular environment) Management Priority to existing user's resource request Knowledge of the traffic in nearby cells/clusters Dynamic advance reservation Difficult to match user's future needs with network resources Adaptive error control techniques Complexity and resource requirements QOS-oriented MAC protocols Amount of protocol processing Channel borrowing from underloaded regions Difficult to implement Mobility Addressing Same address in different Exact location information is required for Management and Routing locations for a mobile user communications Different addresses Complex routing Modification of existing protocols to deal with Differentiation between packet loss due to loss over wireless links congestion and due to wireless links/user movement Location Broadcasting (paging) to locate a user Delay, Amount of paging overhead Tracking Location updating by a user after every move Amount of updating overhead Combination of paging and updating Applications and Applications to adapt