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- Introduction and History
- Data in Wireless Cellular Systems: AMPS and CDPD
- Data in Wireless Local Area Networks
- Internet Protocols
- Routing and Ad-Hoc Networks
- TCP over Wireless Link
- Services and Service Discovery
- System Support for Mobile Applications
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- FCC allocated spectrum space in the 800 MHz spectrum and issued
licenses for test systems in Chicago and Washington, D.C.
- first commercial systems available 1983, available in all major cities
in US in a few years
- AMPS result of extensive research by Bell Labs in 1960s and 1970s
- 800 MHz band was compromise
- lower frequencies occupied by FM and TV systems
- higher frequencies were deemed too unreliable (information loss due to
weather conditions, multipath fading, etc.) with existing technology
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- A band set up for independent carriers
- B band set up for traditional wireline carriers, such as the Regional
Bell Operating Companies (RBOC)
- idea was to ensure competition in all markets, while restrict potential
proliferation of companies that would complicate spectrum
allocation/management
- today, many independent carriers bought by RBOCs, so it is not uncommon
to have one company operating in Band A in one market and Band B in
another market
- channels always come in pairs, spaced 45 MHz apart
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- three identification numbers are used:
- mobile station’s serial number (SN)
- 32-bit binary number
- uniquely identifies a cellular unit
- established by manufacturer at the factory
- 8-bit manufacturer code, assigned by FCC to manufacturer
- 6 bit reserved (currently all 0)
- 18 bits serial number, assigned by manufacturer
- should not be easily alterable, burned into ROM
- system identification number (SID)
- 15-bit binary number, uniquely identifies cellular system
- FCC assigns SID
- mobile station in the cell must transmit the SID
- mobile identification number (MIN)
- digital representation of mobile’s 10-digit telephone number
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- user enters number and presses SEND
- phone sends number to be called and own identity on access channel
(random access channel), retry in case of collision
- MTSO looks for idle channel (if caller is customer of MTSO’s company or
one of its partners) and sends back channel number on the control
channel
- mobile phone switches to the selected voice channel and waits until the
called party picks up the phone
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- idle phones continuously listen to the paging channel to detect
messages directed at them
- when someone initiates call to mobile, message is sent to home MTSO to
find out where mobile currently is
- a packet is then sent to base station in current cell, which pages the
mobile on the paging channel
- if mobile replies, base assigns channel number and sends it to mobile
- mobile switches to this channel and starts making ringing sound
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- analog cellular phones are completely insecure
- anyone with all-band radio receiver can tune in and listen, just ask
the British Royal Family
- also, combining all-band receiver with a computer, one can monitor the
control channels and record all 32-bit serial numbers and 34-bit MINs
(kind of like monitoring Ethernet for password in clear text, except
that intrusion here is even easier)
- once SN and MIN are known, use them to reprogram cheap phones and
viola: all your calls will be charged to unsuspecting victim, who will
only notice weeks later, when phone bill arrives (big scam in New
York).
- provisions to authenticate a device (shared secret, burned into
hardware), but older phones do not support this and therefore device
authentication not used
- even with device authentication, communication over airlink not
encrypted and therefore still unsafe
- also an issue of vandalism and damage to antennas and base stations
(similar to damaged public phone booths)
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- M-ES: user device, mobile, identified by at least one globally unique
Network Entity Identifier (NEI)
- IS: basically a router, might provide additional services
- MD-IS: only entity that has knowledge of mobility, runs MNLP (Mobile
Network Location Protocol):
- each M-ES belongs to a fixed home area, MHF keeps track of this
information
- MSF handles packet transfer services for visiting M-ES
- requires that M-ES register with serving MD-IS when roaming
- MDBS: supports air interface to M-ES
- resides at the AMPS cell
- uses AMPS transmit and receive equipment
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- follows OSI stack
- CDPD basically specifies physical layer and data link layer protocols
only
- nominal channel rate: 19.2 kbps, maximum throughput after coding &
framing, ignoring contention, is 11.8 kbps on downlink (to mobile),
13.3 kbps on uplink
- standard specifies support for CLNP (ConnectionLess Network Protocol)
and IP (Internet Protocol) at layer 3
- higher layers can be TCP or TP4
- CDPD also specifies a wide variety of upper-layer protocols (directory
management, electronic messaging, etc.), based on OSI and Internet
services
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- forward channel is continuous, contiguous series of blocks, interleaved
with sync. and control flags
- forward synchronization word
- marker for FEC block boundaries and timing references
- binary value: 11101 00001 11000 00100 11001 01010 01111
- each group of five bits XOR-ed with one 5-bit busy/idle flag
- control flags
- busy/idle status flag: signals status of reverse channel
- channel busy = 00000, channel idle = 11111
- block decode status flag: could received block be decoded (burst
errors and collision both prevent successful decoding)
- success = 00000, failure = 11111
- transfer 6 or 7 bits, but ignore extra bits (flag is one 5-bit word)
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- downlink/forward channel: no contention, only one sender: the MDBS. All
frames are broadcasted, each M-ES picks out the ones destined for it or
for everyone
- uplink/reverse channel: contention is a problem
- access to channel follows a DSMA/CD protocol:
- uses time slots of 60 bit times (see structure of forward channel)
- “digital sense”: watch forward channel to determine whether reverse
channel is busy or idle (busy/idle flags every 60 bits)
- if busy, skip a random number of slots and try again. If still busy,
wait for longer period (statistically twice as long) and retry
- if idle, start transmitting
- “collision detection”: decode flag in forward channel indicates with
delay whether there was a collision
- keep sending until collision is detected or until maximum number of
slots is set or until MDBS
tells M-ES to shut down
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- each cell can have multiple pairs of up- and downlink channels for data
transmission (channel streams), each stream managed by one logical MDBS
- MDBS can find out what channels are currently not assigned by
sniffing/monitoring control channels
- before channel is used, connection setup through control channels
- MDBS monitors active voice channels by “sniffing” low-level radio
frequencies (even if no voice activity, AMPS uses in-band signaling at
low frequencies)
- narrowband sniffing: scans each 30 kHz channel, one at a time
- wideband sniffing: analyze all radio frequencies in the complete 12.5
MHz spectrum
- if voice channels become active, MDBS initiates hop
- timing is crucial to avoid interfering with AMPS system
- MDBS has a ramp-up and ramp-down time of 10 ms
- M-ES has ramp-up and ramp-down time of 2 ms
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- two types of channel hops:
- forced channel hop is the one described before: get out of the way of
voice channel that is about to be used
- planned channel hop: initiated by MDBS periodically. Timer value
typically set to a value less than an AMPS user’s perception that the
CDPD traffic is interference (“cross-channel interference”?)
- specifications are based on notion that CDPD users are second-class
citizens. However, if CDPD becomes more popular, nothing prevents
network providers from dedicating channels to CDPD (except that as is,
voice is the big cash cow......)
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- NEI (Network Entity Identifier): identifies mobile
- LCI (Local Cell Identifier): unique cell identifier for all cells
controlled by the same MDBS
- CSI (Channel Stream Identifier): unique 6-bit identifier for all
channel streams in a cell
- LCI and CSI together uniquely identify all channels on any given cell
or its adjacent cells
- LSAI (Local Service Area Identifier): 16-bit unique number for all
service areas in a CDPD network
- SPNI (Service Provider Network Identifier): 16-bit unique CDPD network
identifier
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- cell transfer decision: compare relevant parameters on previous RF
channel and current RF channel (after channel hop):
- no change in LCI, CSI, cell
group color or area color: channel hop occurred within current cell
- area color is the same, but LCI and CSI are different: intra-area cell
transfer is performed
- different area colors: inter-area cell transfer procedure is performed
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- intra-area cell transfer: controlled by same MD-IS
- M-ES initiates transfer if channel becomes bad (extended loss of
channel synchronization and/or unacceptable error rate)
- to assist M-ES in locating CDPD channel, MDBS periodically broadcasts
RF channel number in use or as candidates for use in adjacent cell
- after M-ES synchronized with new RF channel, sends link-layer receive
ready to serving MD-IS
- MD-IS acknowledges frame and updates its information for M-ES (physical
media association)
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- starts out identical to intra-area cell transfer
- once M-ES synchronized with new channel, mobile sends “end system
hello” (ESH) to new serving MD-IS
- ESH informs MD-IS of presence of M-ES, register its address (NEI)
- new serving MD-IS sends message to home MD-IS to tell it where data for
M-ES should be redirected
- home MD-IS acknowledges if registration is successful
- new serving MD-IS confirms successful registration to M-ES
- home MD-IS “flushes” previous serving MD-IS, telling it that messages
are no longer forwarded for this M-ES
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- based on widespread system, AMPS
- provides reasonable data rate at variable cost (12 to 19 cents/US per
kilobyte of data)
- Available (at end of 1997) in US (166 “regions”, Canada (30 sites in
Alberta, 2 in BC), Ecuador (4 cities), Indonesia (trial in Jakarta),
Mexico (2 cities), and New Zealand (trial in 4 cities)
- What does the future hold?
- Andrew Tanenbaum: “use is growing rapidly”
- Ulysses Black: whether CDPD will be the technology of choice for
wireless data remains to be seen
- Bob Egan, DEC: CDPD will become competitor to packet radio systems such
as ARDIS or MOBITEX in short term, but will be only interim solution
until digital cellular radio is available
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