Professor Howard Blum 
(212) 346-1871 
hblum@pace.edu
http://csis.pace.edu/~blum
Spring 2012
Mon. 6 - 8:40
CRN 21970
Rm 1420 at 163 Williams St

CS 637 Wireless Communications and Mobile Networking 
DESCRIPTION:
Covers principles of wireless communications and describes the current and emerging technologies and services for mobile networking. Coverage includes mobile network applications, network security strategies, 802.11 (WiFi), 802.16 (WiMax), Bluetooth, cellular system operation, examination of GSM and CDMA systems, 3G cellular systems, mobile Internet, and progress toward 4G cellular and mobile broadband. Includes characteristics, capabilities, and performance models of the technologies, and examples of services and applications.
OUTLINE:
  • Introduction - History of wireless communications. Overview of current and emerging applications. Challenges of wireless. 
  • Data, Signals, and Information Transmission - Binary and m-ary data. Analog and digital signals, frequency and wavelength, spectrum and bandwidth, data rates, impairments. Encoding information. Capacity formulas: Nyquist and Shannon. 
  • Wireless Propagation, Antennas, and Modulation - Electromagnetic waves. Basics of antennas. Modes of wireless propagation and multipath.   Modulation and carriers.
  • Multiple-Access Strategies - Strategies for creating multiple channels: frequency (FDMA), time (TDMA) and code (CDMA). Statistical TDMA and packet switching.
  • Shared-Channel Access Strategies - shared-channel medium access control (MAC) strategies: Aloha, CSMA, CSMA/CD and CSMA/CA. 
  • 802.11 (WiFi) - Architecture and strategies for 802.11 (WiFi). Physical layer versions 802.11a, b, g and 802.11n. MAC strategies. Operation and management of WiFi networks.
  • Bluetooth and WiMax - Architecture, contrasting the physical and MAC layers with WiFi.
  • Wireless Network Security - principles of public and private key encryption, stream ciphers, authentication, signature and hashing. Security in WiFi, Bluetooth, and WiMax. Security applications including Kerberos, Radius, Secure Socket Layer (SSL), IPsec, and virtual private networking (VPN).
  • Digital Voice and Multimedia - PCM and principles of digital coding. Coder/decoders (codecs) for digital voice and video.
  • Introduction to Cellular Systems - frequency reuse and cell design. Architecture and operation of the GSM and CDMA systems.
  • 3G Cellular Systems and Data Services - from 2G to 3G cellular, UMTS and CDMA2000. HSPA for high-speed packet data services.
  • Mobile Internet - mobile IP, TCP issues, HTTP and mobile Web.
  • Emerging 4G Cellular Services - Goals for 4G. Mobile 802.16 and LTE.
  • Other Wireless Services - For example, GPS, RFID and cordless phone.
  • Report - Students are expected to prepare and present a paper describing an application or technology for wireless or mobile systems.
TEXT:
Jochen Schiller, Mobile Communications, 2nd Edition, Addison Wesley;  2003. ISBN-10: 0321123816
Class notes, including materials from H. Blum, Introduction to Data Communications and Networking, 2010.
Reference:
Martin Sauter, From GSM to LTE: An Introduction to Mobile Networks and Mobile Broadband, Wiley; 2011.  978-0470667118

    Last Updated:  12-25-11