WIFI

WIFI WORKSHOP

Topics

A two and a half day programme for engineers adding WiFi to existing cellular or cordless handsets or wanting to qualify the impact of WiFi on radio access network design.

Objective

* To review present and likely future 802.11 a, b and g PHY and MAC options.
* To qualify the practical implementation issues of integrating WiFi into existing small form factor cellular handsets.
* To study the device and design options presently available and related performance and test and measurement issues.
* To consider integration issues with other wide area, (EDGE/HSDPA) local area (DECT) and personal area radio systems (Bluetooth and UWB).
* To compare WiFI PHY and MAC functionality with alternative radio access bearers.
* To assess how adding WiFi to existing devices will change handset hardware and software form factor and functionality
* To review how changes in the Radio Layer and MAC layer will change network hardware and software form factor and functionality.

Scope

This programme is directly relevant to design engineers and product and research team leaders working at silicon level on WiFi chip sets or at system level on WiFi transceiver design. It has particular relevance for engineers and product and market managers involved in defining future WiFi /cellular handset design policy and/or for managers and team leaders with responsibility for strategic technology planning. Typical delegate organisations include silicon vendors, handset and access point manufacturers, OEM and ODM design houses and network engineers with an interest in future WiFi enabled personal area, local area and wide area network evolution.

The companion programme, 'Practical WiFi', covers common ground on Day 1 and Day 2 but analysed from an end user perspective. Day 3 focuses on practical wireless ICT implementation issues(including network deployment).' Practical WiFi' is directly relevant to wireless ICT managers and end users presently deploying WiFi systems into indoor and outdoor (legible city and rural reach wireless broadband) applications.

DAY 1

18.30 Registration and Welcome

19.00 - 21.00 Dinner

21.00 - 22.00
WiFi Market Dynamics

WiFi devices and WiFi standards, present and future addressable markets,application segments, the role of the Hot Spot Operator (HSO), the HSO GUI and its impact on cellular application profiles, plug in WiFi and related lap top and PDA form factors, present cellular products and possible future functionality, SIM/USIM based WiFi and related UMA (Universal Mobile Access) work items, standards and regulatory issues and their possible future market impact.

DAY 2

08.00 - 09.00 Breakfast

09.00 - 10.30
WiFI PHY AND MAC (1)

The 'Old MAC' (contention based break before make) to new MAC (connection based make before break) transition. Present session management protocols, access control, error control, power control, bandwidth/rate control, mobility management, role of the PHY MIB and MAC MIB, carrier sensing and collision avoidance, SIFS, PIFS and DIFS, RTS,CTS and NAV, RTS thresholds, retry counters and default values, access point configuration, beacon intervals, fragmentation thesholds,DTIM intervals, active and passive scanning,differentiating control packets and network management packets, point coordination functions, association/disassociation, time stamping and capability information,status codes and access control, merits/demerits of Point Coordination Functions (PCF) for time bounded services, differentiation with Distributed Coordination Functions (DCF) , slot and timing intervals, 802.11 a inter-frame spacing and slot timing, 802.11 b and g inter-frame spacing and slot timing, contention window sizing, DCF and neighbour lists, frame formats and session progression, power management, synchronisation and beacon management, power saving and wake up patterns, address formats, address overheads and long/short preamble overhead, typical frame lengths for data, typical frame lengths for voice, typical frame lengths for video, overhead versus data throughput (goodput ratios), impact of overheads on PHY and MAC efficiency, impact of retries on PHY and MAC efficiency, basic service sets, extended service sets and independent basic service sets, ad hoc network/mesh network topologies and related protocol scaling issues.

10.30 - 11.00 Coffee

11.00 - 12.30 WiFi PHY AND MAC (2)
'New PHY' and 'new MAC functionality, standards review, 802.11 a, b and g, e (QOS), f (handover), h (power control), i (authentication and encryption), k (measurement reporting), n (MIMO) and s (mesh networking), 802.11 f work items on roaming delay/handover latency for IP voice, 802.11i work items on WPA/AES authentication and encryption, measurement reporting and resource management beacons, possible integration of WiFi and GSM MAHO(mobile assisted handover) measurement protocols, 2 millisecond versus 10 millisecond frame lengths, commonalities between the WiFi 'new MAC' and HSDPA MAC implementation, wireless media extensions, extended data channel access (EDCA), background/best effort, video TXOP and voice TXOP (transmit opportunities), hybrid controlled channel access (HCCA) and hybrid coordination, queue positions, access categories and service types.

12.30 - 13.30 Lunch

13.30 - 15.00
WIFI PHY AND MAC (3)

New PHY optimisation, 802.11 b channel allocations, 3 versus 4 channel deployments, bonded channel options, PHY frame formats, channel coding, Barker codes and Complementary Code Keying, Packet Binary Convolutional Coding, coding gain and processor overhead comparisons, modulation and coding options in 802.11 a and g, data rates, spreading gain and coding gain, typical demodulator error performance and implementation margin, 802.11 a channel/band plans and EIRP constraints, the OFDM multiplex, bit rates, symbol rates and guard periods, typical delay spreads in personal area, local area and wide area networks, (802.16/802.20).

15.00 - 15.30 Tea

15.30 - 17.00 WIFI Power Drain
Typical mobile system power requirements versus battery and power capacity, year on year trends, CPU power drain, memory power drain, adaptive voltage and frequency scaling, power policy management, and operating thesholds ,PHY and MAC power drain, total platform power and duty cycles, MAC address overheads MAC retry overheads, IP address overheads, TCP/IP retry overheads, UDP packet loss overheads, frame lengths and arrival rates, 'real life' PHY/MAC efficiency, power drain and sensitivity (front end design and demodulator implementation),typical impact of WiFi on lap top duty cycles, typical impact of WiFi on PDA duty cycles, typical impact of WiFi on cellular handset duty cycles, power drain and data rate, power drain and distance, typical link budgets for Personal Area, Local Area and Wide Area WiFi, system implementation implications.

19.00 - 21.00 Dinner

21.00 - 22.00 Special Interest Session
Delegates are encouraged to nominate topics of particular interest to be addressed in this session.

DAY 3

08.00 - 09.00 Breakfast

09.00 - 10.30
WiFi LAN Handset Design

RF performance issues of OFDM a and g implementation, peak to average ratios, the impact of clipping on signal integrity and burst error distribution, OFDM carrier spacing and related effects of non linearity and VCO instability, constellation error and transmitter modulation accuracy, centre frequency leakage effects and spectral flatness, impact of higher level modulation techniques on modulator accuracy and demodulator performance, typical sensitivity, selectivity and stability requirements, test and measurement methodologies, error vector magnitude by sub carrier, error vector magnitude at symbol level, characterising phase noise and the effects of noise, filter bandwidths and compression on modulation accuracy, review of present device and design options, typical integration and partitioning options, typical performance benchmarks (power drain versus system gain considerations).

10.30 - 11.00 Coffee

11.00 - 12.30
WiFi PAN Handset Design

The WiFi PAN (personal area network) proposition, review of 802.15 work items, WiFi and Bluetooth co existence issues, WiFi and UWB co existence issues, the Bluetooth PHY and MAC and EDR functionality, commonalties with WiFi EDCA, device management and link management protocols (piconets and scatternets), device discovery, device profiles and application profiles, SIM/USIM based integration options, WiFi/Bluetooth/UWB mobility and UMA integration, commonalities between WiFi, Bluetooth and UWB protocol stacks, implications for GUI design and future application form factor, simultaneous voice, data and device management as a key requirement.

12.30 - 13.30 Lunch

13.30 - 15.00
WiFi Cellular Handset Design

Examples of present WiFi /cellular handsets, commonalities between EDGE/HSDPA and the WiFi MAC(802.11 a and g), implications for future device integration and partitioning, typical DSP and memory requirements in a hybrid WiFi/cellular handset, typical consumer product form factors,typical professional product form factors, typical specialist product form factors, bit rate, symbol rate and processor clock speed constraints and related power budget and delay budget issues, hardware form factor options, software form factor options, 'common denominator' hardware and software platforms, longer term positioning of 802.16 and 802.20 as wide area WiFi access options.

15.00 - 15.30 Tea

15.30 - 17.00
WiFi Network Design

Examples of present WiFi 802.11 a , b and g access points, configuration options and the impact of WiFi radio planning on handset performance, network planning case study and implementation examples of Hot Spot deployments in indoor and outdoor applications, good practice deployment including security considerations, inter system handover principles and practice, Release 7 work items and their relevance to WiFi/cellular handset functionality, likely future hardware/software form factor and functionality.

17.00 Summary and Close