The Need for Wireless Standards and Protocols - Assignment Example

Communication or transmission of information through computer networks is through different channels like wired and wireless channels. The need for wireless standards and protocols is to allow different computers and devices from various vendors and with different operating characteristics to be able to effectively communicate. Therefore, standards and protocols are sets of rules that govern communication. American National Standards Organization American National Standards Organization is based in the USA and is involved in creation of various standards for products, services, processes, systems and personnel in the United States. Networking standards developed by ANSI to manage wireless communications include: ANSI-41 MAP ANSI-41 – is the Mobile Application Part of ANSI-41. ANSI-41/WIN ANSI-136 – is a TDMA air interface protocol standard for mobile stations and base stations ANSI-136 Mode ANSI-136 Foreign Mode ANSI-136 Native Mode ANSI-136 Native Subscriber Breadth of Standards ANSI-41 that is sometimes knows as the IS-41 was developed by ANSI to support interoperability and inter-networking between GSM and ANSI-41 MAP based networks to support subscriber roaming between different networks (Russell 2006). ANSI-41 Functions Manage calls to and from mobile networks. Provide call delivery Short message authentication and delivery Roaming and handover between different systems Subscriber authentication Perform load sharing of outgoing traffic and dynamic handling of started Back Ends and peer local SS7 applications ANSI standards have been developing from previous standards like: TIA/EIA-41.1-D, (12/97) TIA/EIA-41.3-D, (12/97) TIA/EIA-41.5-D, (12/ TDMA Forum, Interim Over-the-Air-Activation specification Advancements Needed Even though this standard supports cross-technology roaming between a GPRS networks and ANSI-41 based networks. GPRS may be coupled with a GSM network and this requires enhancement to interoperability and internetworking Function that supports multi-mode mobile station and subscriber Identity Module (SIM) that has GPRS functionalities. Despite this, there is still need for advancements in the encryption of data to increase security of data transmission. This will increase its reliability and the quality of service of this protocol (Ceruzzi 2003). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers IEEE is an international standardization organization that is involved with development of protocols and standards in various fields of electrical, electronics, communications, and computer engineering and computer science. In wireless communications, IEEE has been involved in creation of the IEEE 802.11 wireless local area network standard (Ceruzzi 2003). Breadth of Standards IEEE developed the first IEEE 802.11 standard in 1997, which was to provide the basis of using Wi-Fi. The first protocol was called 802.11 legacies. 802.11 legacies managed to achieve 1 and 2 Mbit/s and it also managed forward error correction. This standard has become obsolete and is no longer supported by IEEE. The standards that have been developed over the years are: 802.11 legacy 802.11 a (2003) 802.11 b (2003) 802.11 g (2003) 802.11-2007 802.11n (2009) 802.11-2012 Current IEEE Standards that have been implemented 802.11ac 802.11ad 802.11af These standards have been created due to the worlds need for mobile devices that are capable of handling high definition streaming video, voice over IP calls, web page delivery, and very fast data transfers. IEEE 802.11ac uses the 5GHz spectrum, which is, has little interference, and is clearer than the 2.4GHz that is used by previous protocols. 5GHz spectrum provides 11 non-overlapping 40MHz channels. This has been viewed as the solution for high-bandwidth and high quality of service Wi-Fi communications. IEEE 802.11ad uses the 60GHz spectrum. It is able to pack different communication channels side by side and can deliver 7 Gbps even though it is for short distances. IEEE 802.11af is the latest standard to be approved in 2014. It allows for TV operations in the UHF and VHF bands between 54 and 790 MHz. The data rates that are achievable by this standard are as follows: 6 and 7 MHz channels – 26.7 Mbits/s. 8 Mhz channels – 35.6 Mbits/s To achieve maximum data rate there have to be four bonded channels and four spatial streams. The data rates are: 426.7 Mbit/s in 6 and 7 Mhz channels. 568.9 Mbits/s in 8 MHz channel. Standards that are yet to be approved by IEEE 802.11ah 802.11ai 802.11aj 802.11aq 802.11ax Advancements Needed Advancements that are needed for wireless standards should be in security, backward compatibility between new and old systems. The security issues of data encryption and authentication. There is need for an improved throughput that is currently low in the 802.11 ac standard. This improvement will be achieved by IEEE through creation and approval of the 802.11ah, 802.11ai, 802.11aj, 802.11aq and 802.11ax in the coming years (Russell 2006). Formal Wireless Standard and De-Facto Wireless Standard Formal wireless standards are those standards that have been approved by formal standardization bodies like the IEEE, ANSI or ISO. These are sometimes known as open standards. De-facto standards are those are those that have been created outside formal standard bodies but have been accepted by a wide variety of people. These standards can be open or closed. TCP/IP is a formal networking protocol developed by Arpanet as early as 1983. A de-facto protocol of TCP/IP is the OSI protocol. OSI had support from many governments but its rigidness could not keep up with changes of networking technologies. OSI has seven-layer architecture for networks. The layers are Application, Presentation, Session, Transport, Network, Data Link, and Physical. The TCP/IP architecture has five-layer architecture, which are, application, Transport, Internet, Data Link and physical. TCP/IP has enjoyed a large user base due to the first mover advantage and this increased due to a positive feedback. Improvements that can make the OSI more acceptable are if it also adopts a world wide web like the one that sits on top of the TCP/IP since the made TCP/IP the most dominant protocol. Although OSI has a reduced user base, the chances for it becoming obsolete are minimal (ANSI/IEEE, 1999). References ANSI/IEEE STD 802.11, “Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications,” 1999. [Ceruzzi 2003] Paul E. Ceruzzi (2003). A History of Modern Computing: Second Edition. The MIT Press. IEEE STD 802.1X-2001, “Port-Based Network Access Control”, June 2001. [Russell 2006] Russell, Andrew. (2006). Rough Consensus and Running Code and the Internet-OSI Standards War. [Electronic version].IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, Volume: 28, Issue 3. pp. 48. Read More