Communication Networks

Wireless Local Networks

Supervisor: Andreas Könsgen (ajk@comnets.uni-bremen.de)

Authors: Lars Schuster, Jörg Brüggemann, Andreas Könsgen

English version: Andreas Könsgen

2
Contents

1 Introduction 5
1.1 Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2 Preparation and evaluation of the experiment . . . . . . . . . . . 6

2 Theoretical Basics 7
2.1 Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.2 Network structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.3 ISO/OSI reference model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.3.1 Physical layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.3.2 Data link layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.3.3 Network layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.3.4 Transport layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.3.5 Application oriented layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.4 The IEEE 802.11 standards series . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.4.1 Physical layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.4.2 MAC layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.5 Parameters to describe the WLAN performance . . . . . . . . . . 17

3 Preparatory Problems 19

4 Design of the Experiment 21

4.1 Experimental setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.2 Measurement software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.3 Simulation software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

5 Executing the Experiment 24

5.1 Properties of a wireless LAN connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
5.2 Simulative analysis of the WLAN transmission . . . . . . . . . . 25

6 Evaluation Problems 27

A Abbreviations 29

B References 31
4 CONTENTS
Chapter 1

Introduction

1.1 Motivation
In recent years, the demand for wireless local networks (WLAN) has rapidly
increased. The development of the 802.11 standards series by the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) enabled the dissemination of wire-
less WLAN products in the mass market by ensuring interoperability between
wireless devices of different vendors. The University of Bremen was one of the
first German universities which became equipped with wireless LAN. The ad-
vantages of WLAN are:

ˆ easy integration of laptops, smartphones and other portable devices in

the local network,

ˆ extension of existing LANs without modifying walls in buildings,

ˆ wireless nodes can be connected with each other directly, without infras-
tructure, i. e. switches.

However, there are also disadvantages:

ˆ higher cost,

ˆ lower bandwidth,

ˆ interference by other radio applications in the same frequency band (e. g.,
microwave ovens, Bluetooth, ZigBee, HomeRF).

Considering the pros and cons shows that wireless networks cannot replace
wired networks, they can only be a supplement. In this student’s lab, the be-
haviour of a WLAN shall be investigated in a real-life experiment and in a
simulation. A major focus is the reduction of the throughput due to a degra-
dation of the reception quality.

5
6 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

1.2 Preparation and evaluation of the experiment

As a preparation for this experiment, the lab script should be read entirely and
the preparatory problems should be solved. When the lab takes place, there
will be a discussion about the lab script and the preparation questions where
each student has to answer questions.
When doing the experiment, please keep a USB memory stick ready to store the
measurement values obtained during the experiment. After attending the lab,
a report must be written which should include the answers for the preparatory
problems and for the questions regarding the evaluation of the experiment.
Furthermore, a short description in own words of the experimental setup and
execution must be included. Each group should elaborate and write the report
on their own, copying from other groups is not permitted.
Each group must submit one lab report as a PDF file within two weeks after
the lab by uploading it into the DoIT! section of Stud.IP. The cover sheet of
the report should include the group number and the first name, last name and
student ID number of each group member. The report including all figures must
be edited on the computer, do not submit scanned hand-written material!

We appreciate suggestions on the improvement or correction of the script!

Chapter 2

Theoretical Basics

2.1 Standards

When the first wireless LANs appeared, only proprietary solutions were avail-
able. Later, new standards were developed by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical
and Electronics Engineers) and the European ETSI (European Telecommu-
nications Standards Institute). While the ETSI Hiperlan standard only was
theoretically defined, the 802.11 standard of the IEEE was available in com-
mercial products. Both standards support data rates of 2 Mbit/s and work in
the 2.4 GHz band. The IEEE 802.11 standard was updated some years later:
IEEE 802.11b, which is considered in this experiment, supports data rates up
to 11 Mbit/s in the 2.4 GHz band. Even though a large number of enhanced
versions of the standard have meanwhile been developed, any WLAN device
still is able to fall back to 802.11b in case of bad channel conditions. Further
versions of the standard based on OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Mul-
tiplex) provide 54 Mbit/s on 2.4 GHz (802.11g) and on 5 GHz (802.11a), as well
as 600 Mbit/s (802.11n) and several Gbit/s (802.11ac and ad). Since 802.11g
and 802.11b work on the same frequency band, hardware which supports both
802.11g and 802.11b can be easily manufactured so that compatibility with older
devices which only support 802.11b is provided. In 2009, another enhanced ver-
sion called 802.11n has been released which achieves gross speeds up to 600
Mbit/s using, among other measurements, multiple antennas at the sender and
the receiver. In this way, there is more than one transmission path between the
sender and the receiver available so that the capacity of the transmission link
is increased. Further, the channel access scheme is also improved by aggregat-
ing multiple frames and thus reducing transmission overhead caused by waiting
periods and packet headers. Finally, the newly released standards 802.11ac and
802.11ad provide speeds in the Gbit/s range.
While the 802.11 extensions described up to now define best-effort networks
which do not provide any guarantee for Quality-of-Service (QoS) parameters
such as a minimum thoughput or a maximum delay, another IEEE 802.11 ex-
tension called IEEE 802.11e was defined which supports QoS.

7
8 CHAPTER 2. THEORETICAL BASICS

2.2 Network structure

Wireless networks can be used in ad-hoc mode or in infrastructure mode. In
ad-hoc mode, a group of neighboured WLAN equipped devices spontaneously
form a network without any infrastructure. Any device can send data directly
to any other device inside its range of radio coverage. In the infrastructure
mode which is considered in this experiment, a central instance called access
point connects the wireless nodes together. In this case, data cannot be sent
directly from one node to another. Instead, the originating node sends the data
to the access point which will forward it to the destination node. Furthermore,
the access point provides a link between the WLAN radio network and the
wired backbone network. The structure of an infrastructure network is shown
in figure 2.1. The access point covers a radio cell with a limited range (Basic
Service Set, BSS) and is connected to an existing wired network via a portal.
Inside a BSS, there can be several terminal devices (stations, STA) who have to
share the available channel capacity. To cover larger areas with a radio network,
neighbouring access points are run on different frequencies (cluster structure).
Several BSSes form a ESS (Extended Service Set), in which the user can move
freely. In this case, roaming from one access point to another is provided.

Figure 2.1: Network topology: 802.11 example

2.3 ISO/OSI reference model

The ISO/OSI reference model describes the communication architecture in open
systems. Open system means that the system provides standardised protocols
to the environment, whereas the inner structure is not defined. In the ISO
reference model, the communication system is divided into 7 layers (Fig. 2.2, to
which particular functions are assigned. The idea is that lower layers provide
2.3. ISO/OSI REFERENCE MODEL 9

services to higher layers. For this, a communication between two layers n and
n + 1 is needed. Moreover, one layer of a particular entity can communicate
with the layer of another entity by a so-called peer-to-peer protocol.

Figure 2.2: ISO/OSI reference model

In the following paragraphs, the tasks of the individual layers are described
using a data transfer by the TCP/IP protocol.

2.3.1 Physical layer

The aim of the physical layer is the transmission of the data bits over the
physical channel. This includes the transmission medium, the signal level, the
modulation scheme and, optionally, forward error correction. For instance, Eth-
ernet which is widely used in wired local networks is defined as follows on the
physical layer:

ˆ bitwise modulation with Manchester coding (constant bit values will not
result in a constant sending signal); voltage level between −2.2 and 0 V,

ˆ twisted pair copper wire,

ˆ max. cable length 100 m,

ˆ physical topology: star, logical topology: bus.

2.3.2 Data link layer

The data link layer, DLL is often divided into the sublayers multiple access
(Medium Access Control, MAC) and error detection/correction (Logical Link
Control, LLC). In Ethernet, the MAC layer is standardised by IEEE 802.3, the
LLC layer by 802.2.
10 CHAPTER 2. THEORETICAL BASICS

Multiple access methods. In Ethernet, CSMA/CD (Carrier Sense Multiple

Access with Collision Detection) is applied as the multiple access method. This
is a contention method which monitors the channel before the transmission can
be started. However, problems will arise due to the signal propagation time
between the particular stations. Due to this, a simultaneous start of transmis-
sion of two stations for which the channel apparently is free cannot be avoided.
By the permanent monitoring of the channel, even during a transmission, a
collision can be detected and the transmission can be aborted.
For the multiple access method, a data frame (figure 2.3) is applied, which con-
tains, among others, the MAC address (6 byte, uniquely identifies the network
card) of the transmitter and the receiver), the packet length and a checksum
(frame check sequence, FCS).

Figure 2.3: MAC frame according to IEEE 802.3

Error correction. In the OSI reference model, the LLC layer maintains the
error detection and correction by ARQ (automatic repeat request). Errors are
detected at the receiver, using checksums. In case of an error, the damaged
packet is retransmitted. In contrast to this, in the IEEE 802 protocol stack, the
error detection and ARQ is maintained by the MAC sublayer.

2.3.3 Network layer

In the TCP/IP protocol family, IP (Internet Protocol) is used as the network
layer protocol. The network layer maintains the routing and end-to-end trans-
mission of data packets. The IP version 4 addresses used nowadays consist of 4
bytes, which uniquely identify a network element (terminal device like PC/PDA,
or router). The IPv4 address space is divided into classes. The class A provides
7 bit for the network ID (identifies a particular network) and 24 bit for the
host ID (identifies a particular host), i. e. there are 27 = 128 possible class A
networks (network IDs) and 224 = 16777216 possible addresses (host IDs). A
2.3. ISO/OSI REFERENCE MODEL 11

class B network like the one of University of Bremen (134.102.xxx.xxx) supplies

216 = 65536 possible addresses. Since a major part of the addresses has already
been assigned and the address space is going to exhaust, an enhanced version
of IP (Version 6) has been introduced with an address size of 16 Byte = 128
bit.

Figure 2.4: classes of IP addresses (IPv4)

2.3.4 Transport layer

The transport layer has two tasks: Providing a reliable end-to-end connection
for the user and providing flow control. An end-to-end connection can be unreli-
able because packets can be dropped due to congestions or transmission errors.
To prevent congestion, a flow control is needed which controls the traffic load
according to the transmission capacity of the channel and the processing speed
of the receiver. Lost packets must be resent (retransmissions).
Another two problems are the duplication of packets due to errors in the routers
along the path between the originating and the destination node, and the change
of the order of the packets. To explain the latter problem, one must consider
that in packet-switched networks each single packet can take another route, it
can even happen that the order of packets is exchanged. If packet 1 is sent via
a particular route and packet 2 is sent after packet 1 via a faster route, it can
overtake packet 1 and thus arrive at the receiver earlier than packet 1. The
transport layer has to reorder the packets arriving at the receiver.
In the TCP/IP protocol family, there are two transport protocols: TCP and
UDP (User Datagram Protocol). TCP is connection-oriented, UDP (User is
connectionless.
TCP establishes a connection before transferring payload packets, by which an
error-free data transmission is provided. The receiver has to acknowledge cor-
rectly received data packets within a certain time. If there is no acknowledge-
ment, the data packet is retransmitted. TCP contains a flow control mechanism
which assumes that packet loss will only occur due to congestions: In this case,
the sending data rate is reduced by a relatively large amount and then increased
again slowly. Since the flow control cannot distinguish packet losses due to bad
12 CHAPTER 2. THEORETICAL BASICS

radio channels from losses due to congestion, the reaction is the same in both
cases. In case of a packet loss due to a bad channel, this behaviour, however,
will result in an unnecessary reduction of the throughout.
Since there is no connection setup or flow control in case of the connectionless
UDP, a higher throughput can be achieved. Since packets can be lost when
using UDP, this protocol is only suitable for simple applications based on a
request/response scheme.

2.3.5 Application oriented layers

The layers 1 to 4 provide the network connection, thus they are called net-
work oriented protocols. In contrast to this, the layers 5 to 7 manage the data
exchange of a particular application, so they are called application oriented.
The layer 5 (session layer) is for instance responsible for starting a file download
from a server or resuming the download after the connection was interrupted.
Layer 6, the presentation layer, is required to provide a common data format for
several applications. This can be the encoding of text characters (e. g., codes
like ASCII or UTF-8) or the type of compression for a digital speech trans-
mission (source coding). In the layer 7, basic services for certain applications
are provided. For instance, the protocol to connect to a Web server (Hypertext
Transfer Protocol, HTTP), provides services to download a web page, while
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) provides services to send e-mail.

2.4 The IEEE 802.11 standards series

When data shall be transferred over a wireless network, TCP/IP and the ap-
plication oriented protocol layers can still be used. The necessary changes will
only apply to the physical and the data link layer. The reference model of
IEEE 802.11 is shown in Fig. 2.5. The LLC sublayer is also standardised by the
IEEE, but not part of the 802.11 series.

Figure 2.5: IEEE 802.11 reference model

2.4. THE IEEE 802.11 STANDARDS SERIES 13

2.4.1 Physical layer

In the legacy 802.11 standard, besides the radio transmission in the 2.4 GHz
band, an infrared transmission is also defined, which was not widely used in
practice and thus will not be further mentioned here. The 2.4 GHz frequency
band is an ISM band (Industrial, Scientific and Medical), which was originally
intended for radio frequency generating devices which cannot be shielded prop-
erly, for example, microwave ovens or medical microwave therapy devices. Later,
the usage of the band was extended for communication purposes. The band is
unlicensed, which on the one hand reduces the cost in contrast to, for instance,
UMTS frequency bands. On the other hand, a Wireless LAN system operating
on this frequency band will face interference from both competing communi-
cation systems (Bluetooth or analogue home video transmission systems) and
from the “traditional” ISM devices mentioned at the beginning of this section.
For 802.11 and 802.11b ased Wireless LANs, spread spectrum transmission
methods are used. The legacy 802.11 standard defines a frequency hopping
(FHSS) and a direct sequence (DSSS) method. In 802.11b, only the latter is
further supported. A spread spectrum transmission spreads a data signal to a
higher bandwith, which will improve the robustness against frequency-selective
interference.

FHSS. The frequency hopping method changes the carrier frequency at con-
stant time intervals between a number of subchannels, according to a prede-
fined hopping sequence. The hopping sequence must be synchronised between
the sender and the receiver. Even though this method is no longer supported
in the current WLAN standards, it is used for example in Bluetooth.

DSSS. The direct sequence spread spectrum method is used in the radio
network which is used in the experiment. The spreading can for example be
done by a XOR calculation between the user data bit sequence and a random
data sequence.

1 0
1 bit 1 bit

0100100011110110111000

1011011100010110111000
11 chips 11 chips

11 bit Barker code (PRN)

Figure 2.6: Frequency spreading for DSSS

The random data sequences are not true random, but PN (pseudo random nu-
merical) sequences which can be restored at the receiver. To achieve spreading,
14 CHAPTER 2. THEORETICAL BASICS

the PN sequences must have a higher clock rate than the data sequences. The
spreading sequence in figure 2.6 has 11 signals inside a data bit; this is referred
to as 11 chips per bit. This data stream (11 Mchips/s at a user data rate of 1
Mbit/s) is modulated with a DBPSK (Differential Binary Phase Shift Keying)
and despread with the same sequence at the receiver after the demodulation.
For the transmission of this data sequence an RF bandwidth of 22 MHz is re-
quired.
To implement higher data rates, other modulation schemes such as DQPSK
(Differential Quadrature Phase Shift Keying) are used. In this modulation
scheme, the chiprate is constant, however, the data rate is doubled, since the
chips can be allocated in the complex-valued symbol space, in contrast to the
real-valued symbol space used for DBPSK.
The further modulation schemes are given in table 2.1.

Bit rate Modulation scheme chips/bit chip rate RF bandwidth

Mbit/s Mchips/s MHz
1 DBPSK 11 real 11 22
2 DQPSK 5.5 complex 11 22
5.5 CCK 2 complex 11 22
11 CCK 1 complex 11 22

Table 2.1: Transmission modes

For the transmission with 5.5 and 11 Mbit/s, a modulation scheme called Com-
plementary Coded Keying (CCK) is used. The basic idea is that so called com-
plementary sequences are stored in a table and particular user data sequences
are related to one of these chip sequences. In the second step, two further send-
ing data bits are used for the rotation of the complex signal space. In figure 2.7,
this principle is depicted using the example of a 11 Mbit/s transmission.
When using a higher-rate modulation scheme, it must be considered that the
requirements for the channel increase with the data rate. Thus, a WLAN system
will switch down to a modulation scheme with a lower data rate, but a higher
robustness, if the conditions of the channel become poor.
In figure 2.8 it is shown that a narrowband noise on the transmission channel
becomes broader after the despreading. Most of the noise can be filtered.
In the ISM band from 2400 to 2483.5 MHz, exactly three channels can be used
without overlapping. The DSSS method also allows an overlapping of channels,
so that 13 channels are provided in the standard (figure 2.9).
Another important feature of the physical layer is link adaptation. This means
that the device automatically selects the modulation scheme according to the
channel conditions. The better the C/I on the channel is, the faster can be the
modulation scheme.

2.4.2 MAC layer

The channel access for the wireless LAN is similar to the one used for the
wired LAN. A carrier sense method, namely CSMA/CA (Carrier Sense Multiple
Access with Collision Avoidance) is used.
2.4. THE IEEE 802.11 STANDARDS SERIES 15

Figure 2.7: Complementary Coded Keying at 11 Mbit/s

Interframe space. If, in case of the free channel, all stations which are ready
to send would start to send at once, the probability for a collision would be high.
To prevent this, the stations must not start the transmission before a priority-
dependent waiting period (IFS, Interframe Space) has expired. Transmission
requests with a high priority, i. e. management data like an acknowledgement,
use a SIFS (Short Interframe Space); transmission requests with lower priority
(normal data frames) wait for the duration of a DIFS (Distributed Coordination
Function Interframe Space) before they start the transmission. After the DIFS
has expired, a backoff process is started, where each terminal determines an
equally distributed random number between 0 and a contention window (CW).
The backoff time results from the multiplication of this random number with

Figure 2.8: Narrowband noise in DSSS

16 CHAPTER 2. THEORETICAL BASICS

Figure 2.9: Frequency bands for DSSS

the time slot interval. If the channel is idle, the backoff time is reduced by one
slot interval. When the backoff timer has expired, the transmission is started.
This method (see also fig. 2.10) cannot entirely prevent collisions, however, the
collision probability can be reduced. After a correct transmission the receiver
sends an acknowledgement to the sender. If there is no acknowledgement, the
backoff process is restarted. For collision avoidance, after each transmission
error, the contention window size is doubled.

Virtual carrier sense with RTS and CTS. For performance reasons, colli-
sion detection would be the preferred method in contrast to collision avoidance,
as it is the case for wired LANs. However, in case of wireless LANs, it cannot
be assumed that each station can hear each other station. Hence, it cannot
be guaranteed that each of the stations in a network can detect a collision.
Moreover, simultaneous sending and receiving is not possible in radio networks,
which would be another requirement for a collision detection.
Consider fig. 2.11: When station A sends a packet to station B, station C does
not note this event and will as well send a packet to B, which will result in
a collision. Hence, a virtual carrier sense has been introduced, which works as
follows: first, station A sends a short RTS frame (Ready To Send) to station B.
B responds with a CTS (Clear To Send). All other stations (including C) now
know that the channel is busy. Besides the information about the busy state of
the channel, all stations not participating in the current communication are also
informed for what time duration the channel will presumably be busy. Since no
transmissions are allowed during this time, collisions of the data packets can be
excluded. When transferring the RTS frames, collisions still can appear. In this
case, the RTS/CTS procedure is restarted after the backoff. The disadvantage
of this handshake method is the additional overhead which will take effect
2.5. PARAMETERS TO DESCRIBE THE WLAN PERFORMANCE 17

Figure 2.10: Channel assignment for DCF

particularly in case of small data packets. Therefore, the RTS/CTS mechanism

will only be applied for packets whose length exceed a predefined threshold. In
the experiment, the RTS/CTS is deactivated, because each student’s lab group
works on an own frequency band and thus collisions are avoided.

2.5 Parameters to describe the WLAN performance

During the experiment, certain properties of a WLAN shall be investigated.
They are described in the following section:

Figure 2.11: Hidden Terminals

18 CHAPTER 2. THEORETICAL BASICS

ˆ Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR): logarithm of the ratio between signal and

noise power
Psignal
SN R = 10 log
Pnoise
The noise power can be assumed being independent of the distance to the
sender, whereas the signal power will decay at the square of the distance.
The signal-to-noise ratio is only welldefined under laboratory conditions.
In buildings, a multipath channel has to be assumed on which constructive
and destructive interference can occur. This can result in a high short-
term variation of the received signal level.

ˆ Throughput: data rate at the receiver, usually specified in kbit/s or Mbit/s.

ˆ Packet loss rate: lost packets in relation to the number of transmitted

packets; from the view of the application, the packet loss rate can only
be 6= 0 if the underlying transport protocol is UDP, since for a TCP
connection, lost packets are resent.

ˆ Latency time: the time which elapses between the beginning of the sending
of a data packet and the reception of the acknowledgement.
Chapter 3

Preparatory Problems

Problem 1
Why is in general no collision detection possible in a radio network?

Problem 2
Will, in case of poor reception, the deviation of the throughput and the latency
time be the worse or equal in comparison to the situation of good reception?
Give reasons.

Problem 3
Will, in case of poor reception, the absolute value and the deviation of the
latency time be higher for a TCP or a UDP connection? Give reasons.

Problem 4
Why is it useless to measure the packet loss rate of a TCP connection? Give
reasons.

Problem 5
Why is it useful to assign different, non-overlapping frequency channels to neigh-
boring radio cells?

Problem 6
Determine the average theoretical throughput of payload (in kbyte/s) for a
Wireless LAN connection between an access point and a mobile station. Data
packets are sent from the access point to the mobile station which responds to
each data packet with an acknowledgement. The data packets have a 24-byte
PHY header which is transmitted with a physical bitrate of 1 Mbit/s; after that,
the MAC header (34 bytes) and the user payload (1500 bytes) are transmitted
with a bitrate of 11 Mbit/s. After receiving the data packet, the mobile station
waits for a fixed-length break of 10 microseconds before sending the acknowl-
edgement packet. The acknowledgement includes a 20-byte PHY header which

19
20 CHAPTER 3. PREPARATORY PROBLEMS

is transmitted at 1 Mbit/s and a MAC header of 14 bytes which is transmitted

at 11 Mbit/s. Once the access point has received the acknowledgement, it waits
for a fixed amount of time (50 microseconds). After that, before sending the
next data packet, it waits for a randomly chosen, uniformly distributed amount
of time slots ranging between 0 and 15, where the length of one time slot is 10
microseconds.
What is the throughput which can be achieved considering the above-mentioned
transmission?
In practice, the value calculated in this way cannot be achieved. Due to which
factors will the available rate for the payload data be reduced?

Problem 7
How does an incorrectly selected PN sequence affect the decoding at the re-
ceiver? Illustrate the effect in a graphical way by spreading a data sequence
{1 0 1} with the spreading sequence {1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0} and despread-
ing with the sequence {0 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 1}. Moreover, determine the RF
bandwith of the modulated signal at a data rate of 1 Mbit/s. A DBPSK is used
as the modulation scheme. Specify the chip rate and the number of chips per bit.

Problem 8
Given are 20 measurement values in floating-point format in a 20-element ar-
ray values. Write program lines in a programming language of your choice
which calculate the mean value and the standard deviation of the 20 values and
store the results in the floating-point variables meanval and stddev. Some lan-
guages provide predefined commands to calculate the mean value and standard
deviation; these commands must not be used.
Chapter 4

Design of the Experiment

This section describes the measurement equipment and the software used for
measurement and simulation.

4.1 Experimental setup

The transmission line for the real experiment consists of a wireless LAN con-
nection between a laptop and a Linux server in the wired network.
Each group is provided with a laptop equipped with a WLAN interface which
communicates with the wired network by an access point (Fig. 4.1). The access
point is separate for each group. The frequency channels are adjusted in a way
that the channels do not overlap.

Figure 4.1: WLAN Access point

Along the corridor, a measuring tape with a length of 30 m is laid out. The
laptop is moved along the tape on a cart. In this way, several properties of the
wireless LAN connection dependent on the distance to the access points shall
be examined.

4.2 Measurement software

In the following, the handling of the measurement software called traffic is
described. This program is based on a client/server principle: The laptop works

21
22 CHAPTER 4. DESIGN OF THE EXPERIMENT

as a client on which the measurements are performed. In the wired network, a

Linux server responds to the measurement requests.

Each group is provided an access point whose frequency channel covers a fre-
quency range which does not overlap with the channels of other access points
(see also fig. 2.9).

For some of the measurements, the measurement software utilises the open
source tool netperf1 by Hewlett-Packard.

At each point of measurement, the measurement process has to be performed

like this: A single traffic call executes a set of several measurements. In this
experiment, 20 measurements shall be executed at each point of measurement.
The result of the measurement set is the mean value and the standard devia-
tion of the measurements and can upon successful completion be stored in a file.
TCP measurements are stored in the file results.tcp, UDP measurements in
the file results.udp.

The options for the traffic program used in the experiment are:

--server <name>

With this option, the name of the server in the fixed network is specified who
shall serve the measurement requests. Alternatively, an IP number can be spec-
ified instead of the name. This option is mandatory.

--[tcp | udp]

By default, both a TCP and a UDP measurement are executed. If, however,
a measurement shall only be executed for one of the transport protocols, this
option can be specified.

--dispvals

This option causes the program to show the results of the individual measure-
ments to be shown on the screen. By default, only the results of the total
measurements are shown.

4.3 Simulation software

For the simulation of wireless LAN scenarios which is done in the second part of
this lab, a simulation tool named OMNET is available, which allows to model
and analyse network scenarios using a graphical user interface.
1
more information about netperf on http://www.netperf.org/
4.3. SIMULATION SOFTWARE 23

For the creation of simulation models, the OMNET tool includes the following
functions:

ˆ a load generator which generates data packets to be transmitted;

ˆ a user-configurable number of stations;

ˆ a channel over which the packets are transferred between the stations;

ˆ a statistical evaluation with which the throughput and the latency can be
measured.

A number of wireless stations (access points or mobile terminals) can be mod-

eled. A number of parameters can be specified for each station, such as the po-
sition, transmission power, physical bitrate, traffic load, receiver sensitivity etc.
In this way, large scenarios can be modeled which is difficult with real setups.
Moreover, the results achieved with a simulation can be exactly reproduced at
each repetition of the experiment, which is not possible in real experiments.
Chapter 5

Executing the Experiment

5.1 Properties of a wireless LAN connection

First, the properties of a wireless LAN connection are investigated. Before be-
ginning with the measurements, print the files in the working directory with
the command
ls.

If there are output files of the traffic program named results.tcp and
results.udp, delete them with the command
rm ./results.*

Measure the following values using the traffic program:

ˆ for a TCP connection, mean value and standard deviation of the values
signal/noise ratio, packet throughput and latency time.

ˆ for a UDP connection, in addition, mean value and standard deviation of

the packet loss rate.

Start with the measurements at the zero mark of the measuring tape and use
the following command to take 20 measurements at each measuring point.
./traffic --server <name> --samples 20 --dispvals

Notice: The name of the server is provided to you by the lab supervisor.

The program should now begin with the TCP measurement. Once it is finished,
the measurement results can be stored in the file results.tcp. To do so, press
y and finally <Enter>. If the measurement result is not satisfactory, saving can
be abandoned by pressing n and <Enter>. After that, the programme executes
the UDP measurements in the same way, whose results are stored in the file
results.udp.

Important: When storing the measurement results, the measurement pro-

gramme prints a number of the measurement series, with which the measured

24
5.2. SIMULATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE WLAN TRANSMISSION 25

values are stored in the file. Write down the numbers of the measurement se-
ries and the corresponding distance from the zero mark of the measuring tape,
since in the evaluation some values shall be displayed depending on the distance!

Important: During an ongoing measurement, the cart and the laptop must
not be moved, because this would falsify the measurement results significantly.

Repeat the measurements along the measuring tape in distances of 3 m and

6 m; for the further measurements, increase the distance in steps of 2 m.

When measuring at 10 m distance from the zero mark, write down the first 10
individual measurements of the TCP delay which are displayed on the computer
screen. These values are needed for the later evaluation of the experiment. After
that, continue with the experiment as described above.
The higher the distance from the access point becomes, the worse the trans-
mission quality becomes. At large distances, the measurements will take in-
creasingly more time until finally the measurement software ‘hangs’, because
the connection between laptop and server broke down and can no longer be
established.

In this case, the ongoing measurement can be aborted by pressing the keys
<Ctrl + C>. Do not save the results, but repeat the measurement instead. If
this also does not succeed, the measurement series can be ended at this point.
Notice: It can happen that the measurement will succeed for one of the pro-
tocols, but not for the other. In this case, only repeat the failed measurement
by appending the option --tcp or --udp to the call of the traffic program.
Then, the measurement will only be executed for the specified protocol.
After finishing the measurements, do not forget to copy the measurement data
files to your memory stick so that you have them available for further analysis
when preparing your report.

5.2 Simulative analysis of the WLAN transmission

In the second part of the experiment, the data transmission between a single
access point and a mobile node shall be compared with simulative results. To
do so, a scenario similar to the one which was investigated in the physical
experiment is modelled in the OMNET tool:
ˆ A wired station is connected to a wireless station through an access point.
The access point is at a fixed position; the wireless station is at a fixed po-
sition as well in the first part of the experiment and moving with constant
speed away from the access point in the second part.
ˆ There is a unidirectional data flow from the mobile station to the fixed
one.
ˆ The transmitting station always has a packet which is ready to send.
Concerning the simulation configuration this means that the offered traffic
26 CHAPTER 5. EXECUTING THE EXPERIMENT

load of the load generator has to be configured to a value which is greater

or equal than the capacity of the transmission channel.

For the fixed-station scenario, the results, i. e. the throughput, the delay and
the respective standard deviations, can be displayed as numerical values. For
the mobility scenario, graphs can be plotted which show the throughput and
delay as a function of the time. Considering constant speed, this can easily be
interpreted as a function of distance.
For each group, a computer with the OMNET simulator is provided. Details
how to work with OMNET and how to implement, run and evaluate the scenario
described above are given in a separate documentation file
omnet-tutorial.pdf which can be found in the “Files” section of Stud.IP.
The simulation models resemble the physical experiment: a file transfer which
is based on TCP is investigated as well as a streaming scenario where UDP
is used. For each scenario, two simulations are run: In the first simulation, the
wireless station is located at a fixed position close to the access point. Determine
the mean value and the standard deviation of the throughput and the delay as
described in the OMNET instruction sheet and write down the values. In the
second simulation, the wireless station is mobile and moves away from the access
point at a constant speed. Obtain the files with the throughput and delay values
as a function of the time resp. distance as described in the tutorial. Do not forget
to take the files home for later analysis in your lab report.
Chapter 6

Evaluation Problems

Problems about the Real Experiment

Problem 1.1
List 10 individual measurement values of the TCP delay measurement at the
distance of 10 m. Calculate the mean value and the standard deviation of the
10 individual measurement results and specify the formulas which are used to
do so.

Problem 1.2
Show the mean value and standard deviation of the measured values dependent
on the distance in a table:

ˆ For the TCP measurement: signal-to-noise ratio, packet throughput and

latency;

ˆ for the UDP measurement: signal-to-noise ratio, packet throughput, la-

tency and packet loss rate.

Problem 1.3
Consider the packet loss rates measured for the UDP transmission. What effect
not typical for UDP transmissions will occur? Give a reason!

Problem 1.4
Show the measured results graphically while displaying the standard deviation
as error bars. TCP and UDP measurements shall be entered in the same diagram
for a better overview. The diagrams have to be supplied with a complete legend.
TCP and UDP curves and the respective error bars have to be identified by
different colours or line styles. Draw the following diagrams:

ˆ signal-noise ratio as a function of the distance,

27
28 CHAPTER 6. EVALUATION PROBLEMS

ˆ throughput as a function of the distance,

ˆ throughput as a function of the signal/noise ratio,

ˆ latency time as a function of the distance.

Important: Before plotting the graph which shows the throughput as a func-
tion of the signal-to-noise ratio, sort the entries of the measurement logfile in
ascending order of the signal-to-noise ratios.

Which effects can be observed concerning the shape of the curves and the stan-
dard deviation? Which different or common properties can be observed between
the two transport protocols? Give a reason!

Problem 1.5
Are there “runaways” in your curves, i. e. values which deviate largely from the
ideal shape of the curve? Explain these runaways considering the experimental
setup and the physical environment of the experiments.

Problems about the Simulation

Problem 2.1
Compare the values measured in the simulated fixed-distance scenario against
the values of the physical measurement at the distance of 3 meters, respectively
for TCP and UDP.

Problem 2.2
Show the curves for the throughput and the delay which you measured for the
TCP and UDP mobility scenario simulations. What is the maximum range of
the connection? Compare the shape of the curves with those which you got for
the physical measurement. Does the simulation model reflect the real behaviour
of the WLAN transmission well?
Appendix A

Abbreviations

ACK Acknowledge
AP Access Point
ARQ Automatic Repeat Request
BSS Basic Service Set
CCK Complementary Coded Keying
CSMA/CA Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance
CSMA/CD Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection
CTS Clear To Send
CW Contention Window
DCF Distributed Coordination Function
DIFS Distributed Coordination Function Interframe Space
DLL Data Link Layer
DBPSK Differential Binary Phase Shift Keying
DQPSK Differential Quadrature Phase Shift Keying
DSSS Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum
ESS Extended Service Set
ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute
FCS Frame Check Sequence
FTP File Transfer Protocol
FHSS Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum
GSM Global System Mobile
HIPERLAN HIgh PErformace Local Area Network
HTTP Hyper Text Transfer Protocol
IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
IFS Interframe Space
IP Internet Protocol
ISM Industrial, Scientific and Medical
ISO International Standardization Organization
LAN Lacal Area Network
LLC Logical Link Control
MAC Medium Access Control

29
30 APPENDIX A. ABBREVIATIONS

OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing

OSI Open Systems Interconnection
PCF Point Coordination Function
PIFS Point Coordination Function Interframe Space
PLCP Physical Layer Convergence Protocol
PMD Physical Medium Dependant
PN Pseudo Noise
QoS Quality of Service
RTS Ready To Send
SIFS Short Interframe Space
SNR Signal-to-Noise-Ratio
STA Station
TCP Transport Control Protocol
TELNET Terminal Emulation Protocol
UDP User Datagram Protocol
UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunication System
WLAN Wireless Local Area Network
Appendix B

References

ˆ A. B. Hettich, Leistungsvergleich der Standards HIPERLAN/2 und IEEE

802.11 für drahtlose lokale Netze (Performance Comparison of the Stan-
dards Hiperlan/2 and IEEE 802.11 for Wireless Local Networks). Ph. D.
thesis, Aachen University of Technology, 2000.

ˆ T. Karl, Seminar Rechnernetze I – Drahtlose Hochleistungskommunika-

tion (Seminar on Computer Networks I – Wireless High-Performance
Communication)

ˆ A. Könsgen, Drahtlose lokale Netze (Wireless Local Networks). Presenta-

tion Slides, University of Bremen, 2001.

ˆ Matthew S. Gast, 802.11 Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide. O’Reilly,

Sebastopol, CA, USA, 2005.

ˆ http://www.lanline.de

ˆ http://www.tecchannel.de

ˆ http://www.opnet.com

31