Key Technical Issues for Wireless Networks

Key Technical Issues for Wireless Networks
As we can see in the two examples mentioned above, a wireless network includes not
only the wireless terminals and radio-frequency (RF) links to fixed antennas, but also
network elements and functions needed to support both interoperation with the existing
fixed-wired networks and mobility for the wireless user. The set of characteristics of the
wireless connection between the mobile terminal and a base station, including all the
PHY- and MAC-layer details of access method, modulation, coding, and transmission
formats, is commonly referred to as the air interface. Thus, we can say that the key
technical issues for wireless networks are networking issues and air-interface design
issues. Although these two sets of issues are not totally independent of each other, they
are largely independent and can be treated separately. As we shall see in subsequent
sections of the book, the networking issues relate primarily to interoperability between
the wireless and wired infrastructures and to support of user mobility. On the other
hand, air-interface issues relate primarily to the quality of service provided to wireless
users and to efficiency in the use of available RF bandwidth.