Wireless Communications

A 3G mobile service using the 900MHz band could help network operators reduce costs, as the both the voice and data coverage and the signal penetration for in-building coverage is superior to that of the higher frequency variant of UMTS currently used in European markets. These findings were announced at the Mobile World Congress by Chinese infrastructure supplier Huawei and Qualcomm, US producer of chips for mobile phones and other devices. These two companies carried out field trials in the Extremadura region of Spain along with Spanish telecommunications company Telefonica. The trial results confirmed that UMTS and HSDPA can co-exist with GSM at 900 MHz. Compared with the UTMS technology licensed for 2100MHz in Europe, the lower frequency 3G variant offers an increased cell radius and a better better in-building coverage, which would mean lower infrastructure costs. UMTS-900 would thus seem to be ideal for providers wishing to offer 3G services across large but relatively sparsely p

Apple Airport Extreme Base Station Bands: 802.11a (5Ghz), 802.11b/g (2.4Ghz), and 802.11n operating at either 5Ghz or 2.4Ghz Comments: The wide range of compatibility within this access point cannot go over looked. Combined with its relatively low price, it serves as a good, multi-purpose addition to your toolkit. Downsides: The AP itself is slightly bulky and the Airport Utility must be used for configuration. (Looking for an OpenWRT/DD-WRT flash) Buffalo WHR-G54S running OpenWRT Bands: 802.11b/g(2.4Ghz) Comments: OpenWRT (or DD-WRT) adds such a wealth of functionality to these low cost access points that they immediately become a must have addition to the toolkit. I’ll use this for a variety of quick and dirty tasks, especially when I don’t feel like booting into Windows to use the Airport Utility. (Although there is a Linux version available) Downsides: Only supports 802.11b/g, and it has been discontinued by the manufacturer Due to OpenWRT’s portability, the specific make/model of

Ubiquiti SuperRange Cardbus Basic Specs: Bands: 802.11 a/b/g 2.4 and 5GHZ Transmit Power: 300mW External Connectors: (2x)MMCX Chipset: Atheros AR5213/AR2112 Very popular card due to its high transmit power, dual band support and external connectors. URL:http://ubnt.com/products_src.php4 Netgear WAG511 Basic Specs: Bands: 802.11 a/b/g 2.4 and 5GHZ Chipset: Atheros AR5001X Solid and reliable general use card. Just about every Windows 802.11 application supports it. URL:http://www.netgear.com/Products/Adapters/ AGDualBandWirelessAdapters/WAG511.aspx Alfa 500mW USB Basic Specs: Bands: 802.11b/g 2.4GHZ Transmit Power: 500mW External Connectors: (1x)RP-SMA Chipset: RealTek 8185 Mostly notable because it is compatible within VMware. URL:http://www.data-alliance.net/servlet/the-90/AWUS036H-Alfa-500mW-USB/Detail AirPCAP Basic Specs: Bands: 802.11b/g 2.4ghz Deserves mention as it works well within Windows with tools such as Cain & Abel. URL:http://www.cacetech.com/products/airpcap-classic.ht

Wi-Fi security isn't very secure at all, but if your access point is more secure than others, evil-doing crackers are more likely to move on. In the spirit of "best of what's offered" security, most wireless access points are set to use WEP encryption to password their connections, but WPA (supported on most modern routers and computers) is less easy to crack than WEP. To switch to WPA, on your access point's administration page, change the security level and set your WPA passphrase to something long and difficult to crack.

While there are several software and hardware hacks for boosting your Wi-Fi signal (see below), there are also a few simple adjustments you can make to an unmodded access point to get the best coverage. The NY Times says: Place the base station centrally on an upper floor, or atop furniture, because radio waves spread best laterally and down Reception will be better if the signal does not have to travel at steep angles and if it doesn't have to go through thick walls, mirrors, fish tanks or anything metal Place wireless network components far from other devices in the house that can cause interference, like cordless phones, microwave ovens, baby monitors or halogen lamps Change the default signal channel (usually set to 6) to avoid interference with neighbors' network devices

With the advent of Wifi technology and the use of 802.11x it is very likely that your Wifi enabled device (laptop, pda, etc.) lights up like the 4th of July when you power it on. Many Wifi networks are not secured to begin with (not because users don’t see the relevance, rather because end-users are typically oblivious to the security ramifications of having an open door into their own private networks). In today’s technology age, where malicious users are around every corner, more and more people are seeing the benefits of security. For most end-users, with little or no computer experience, setting up wireless networks is as simple as going to the nearest brick and mortar (i.e., Bestbuy) and having an in-house technician (i.e., Geek Squad) come out to your place of residence and setting up your wireless router. Although most of these individuals will not leave you completely vulnerable to malicious users on the Internet, they will however take the easiest route to create a perception

Alfa AWUS036H USB 500mw RP-SMA Very powerful card. Linux compatible. Realtek 8187L Windows, Linux

LTE-Advanced should be real broadband wireless networks that provide equal or greater peak data rates than those for wired networks, i.e., FTTH (Fiber To The Home), while maintaining equivalent QoS. Smooth introduction of LTE-Advanced should be possible on top of LTE system. High-level requirements •Reduced network cost (cost per bit) •Better service provisioning •Compatibility with 3GPP systems Spectrum WRC 07 identified the following new bands for use by IMT/IMT-Advanced: 450−470 MHz band, 698−862 MHz band, 790−862 MHz band, 2.3−2.4 GHz band, and 3.4−3.6 GHz band. Not all of these bands are available on a worldwide basis. These bands are in addition to the bands currently specified in 3GPP. Specification for C-band should not be restricted to 3.4 – 3.6 GHz, but cover 3.4 to 3.8 and even 3.4 to 4.2 GHz as these will likely become available in some countries. Channel Bandwidth Channel bandwidths up to 100 MHz to be specified However, for many operators consecutive allocation of 100 MHz

The 3GPP TSG RAN workshop on IMT-Advanced was held (in the week after the RAN WG meetings) on April 7-8, 2008 in Shenzhen, China hosted by ZTE Corporations. The main conclusions from the workshop are: LTE Advanced shall be an evolution of LTE. o LTE terminal shall be supported in LTE-advanced networks. o An LTE-Advanced terminal can work in an LTE part of the network. o Primary focus of LTE-Advanced is low mobility users. All requirements/targets in TR25.913 apply to LTE-Advanced.LTE-Advanced requirements shall fulfill IMT-Advanced requirements within the ITU-R time plan For LTE-Advanced: o Same inter-RAT interworking capability with at least same performance as in LTE Release 8 o Intra-RAT handover performance shall be same or better than LTE Release 8 As a way forward for LTE-Advanced it was agreed: o TSG RAN email reflector for LTE-Advanced will be established (the new reflector is called 3GPP_TSG_RAN_LTE_ADVANCED and it is available since 21.04.2008) § Email discussions on LTE-Adva

802.11a - 54 Mbps standard, 5 GHz signaling (ratified 1999) 802.11b - 11 Mbps standard, 2.4 GHz signaling (1999) 802.11c - operation of bridge connections (moved to 802.1) 802.11d - worldwide compliance with regulations for use of wireless signalspectrum (2001) 802.11e - Quality of Service (QoS) support (2005) 802.11f – Inter access point protocol to support roaming clients (2003) 802.11g - 54 Mbps standard, 2.4 GHz signaling (2003) 802.11h - Enhanced version of 802.11a to support European regulatory requirements (2003) 802.11i - Security improvements for the 802.11 family (2004) 802.11j - Enhancements to 5 GHz signaling to support Japan regulatoryrequirements (2004) 802.11k - WLAN system management 802.11l - Skipped to avoid confusion with 802.11i 802.11m - Maintenance of 802.11 family documentation 802.11n - Future 100+ Mbps standard 802.11o – Voice over WLAN, faster handoff, prioritize voice traffic over data 802.11p – Using 5.9GHz band for ITS (long range) 802.11q – Support for VLA

The increased frequency reduces cell range, resulting in a more costly network rollout and makes achieving GSM like coverage (>90% population) very challenging. Additionally, with the rapid roll-out of HSDPA (an evolution bringing broadband like speed to UMTS) and its less robust, higher-order modulation scheme (16QAM), building penetration from macro deployments becomes an issue. W-CDMA (UMTS) in the 900MHz band achieves a 60 per cent reduction in the number of cell sites required to serve rural areas, and can deliver improved quality of service in urban areas by enhancing in-building penetration by 25 per cent. 900MHz is a good frequency for building penetration and decent range, and is used in rural areas where the small-cell-site advantage of 1800MHz is less applicable. Signal coverage of 2 – 4 times the coverage in the 2100MHz band, resulting in a reduced number of base stations required Improved indoor coverage in urban areas. A 2006 study showed a 25% improvement in in-buildi

The Huawei E220 is a Huawei HSDPA access device ( 'modem' ) manufactured by Huawei and notable for using the USB interface (USB modem). Technically it is a modem, USB and (due to the CDFS format) virtual CD-ROM device. The device is used for wireless Internet access using 3.5G, 3G, or 2G mobile telephony networks. It supports UMTS (including HSDPA), EDGE, GPRS and GSM. E220 works well with Linux, as support for it was added in Linux kernel 2.6.20, but there are workarounds for distributions with older kernels (eg for Debian etch's 2.6.18). The card is also supported by Vodafone Mobile Connect Card driver for Linux, and it is possible to monitor the signal strength through other Linux applications. Most 3G network operators bundle the device with a contract, with some operators simlocking the device (ie making it work only with a particular SIM card). E220 connects to the computer with a standard Mini USB cable. The device comes with two cables, one short and one long. The l

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. has released the world's smallest USB modem, the E230, which will support 4.5 Mbps high speed uplink packet access (HSUPA). Shown for the first time at Wireless World, the Huawei E230 USB modem is just 6 cm long with simple and smooth design. Size does not affect performance, as the E230 fully supports various standards such as HSPA, UMTS, EDGE and GPRS. It also supports 7.2 Mbps high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) and 4.5 Mbps HSUPA, which enables faster Internet surfing and clear online streaming of movies. The E230 also has a MicroSD card slot, supporting up to 8 GB memory size. Along with the E230 modem, Huawei will also be demonstrating two industry-leading mobile broadband products – the D100 and E510. The D100 is the first WiFi adapter in the world and is aimed at SOHO users and home networks, enabling interconnection of phones, game consoles, PCs and laptops. The WiFi adapter helps to extend a single user to multiple users. The E510 is

Using 3G/UMTS/HSDPA services over 900Mhz frequency spectrum you will need 3G UMTS/HSDPA terminals (modems) 3G / UMTS / HSDPA 900MHz PHONES Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 will support HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 / 1700 3G Networks OTHER Features OS Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional and Display Type TFT touchscreen, 65K colors Size 800 x 480 pixels, 3 inches, Full QWERTY keyboar, Optical joystick navigation, 400 MB internal memory, 128MB RAM, 256MB storage memory, Qualcomm MSM7200 528MHz processor, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g Nokia 6121 classic will support HSDPA 2100 / 900 3G Networks OTHER Features OS Symbian OS v9.2, S60 rel. 3.1 and ARM 11, 369 MHz CPU Nokia 5320 XpressMusic will support HSDPA 2100 / 900 3G Networks OTHER Features OS Symbian OS 9.3, S60 rel. 3.2 and ARM 11, 369 MHz CPU

UMTS/HSDPA technology at 900 MHz spectrum makes the delivery of voice and high-speed 3G services more cost effective as compared to 2100 MHz because at lower frequencies, the propagation advantage allows for a significant increase in the area covered by a base station. This advantage translates to significant cost savings for operators and better in-building coverage to improve the overall user experience for their customers. Deploying UMTS/HSDPA technology in 900 MHz spectrum can help mobile operators cost-effectively deliver UMTS/HSDPA services because the lower frequency provides a significant increase in the coverage area of a base station and, potentially, enables better signal penetration for in-building coverage. UMTS 900 may help solve the 3G coverage issues in Europe, since providing full coverage at 2100 MHz is very expensive. The financial and network advantages are numerous for operators redeploying in the 900 Mhz band currently used for 2G services. However, consumers will