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Brisk advances in computer hardware and wireless network technologies have led
make it possible for mobile users to access information. In this ubiquitous wireless
environment of the future, large number of users equipped with the battery
anytime.
which selective tuning is resorted to conserve the battery power, such that the
mobile unit have the capacity to run for a longer period. Section 2.3 addresses the
information services are also provided in the same Section. Various practical
The wireless communication systems began with the launch of cordless and
cellular telephones. Cordless telephones were initially designed for very limited
range and cellular telephones were largely intended to extend the telephone
service to users in their vehicles. Each cellular phone of this initial generation of
wireless communication systems has a dedicated support (base) station. This first
transmission.
wireless terminals, base stations, and switches. The entire geographical area is
partitioned into cells. Each cell is covered by a base station, which is attached to a
fixed network and provides a wireless communication link between the mobile
users and the rest of the network. The next generation of wireless communication
systems will provide digital speech transmission and increase the range of
applications to data transfer, and video conferencing. These wireless units have
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sophisticated capabilities for transferring information to and from the network.
cellular network, which are in the process of being deployed, are digital networks
bandwidth in the 2 GHz range for the third and last generation wireless
facilitating people to call each other and exchange data irrespective of their
location. These systems are anticipated to include wireless access such as paging
and wireless local area networks, in addition to amalgamation of the previous two
cheap based stations of small radius (picocells). Whereas areas with less density
will be covered by base stations of larger radius, and remote areas, and highways
with satellites that will provide the bridge between these different islands of
population density. pes involve two types of mobility: terminal and personal
Personal mobility allows PCS users to make and receive calls independently of
both their network point of attachment and the specific PCS terminal.
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Wireless infonnation services can be broadly classified into two mam
\Vireless LAN (Local Area Networks) and wireless WAN (Wide Area
Networks) services, and packet over circuit technology are Land Based
The land based wireless infonnation services are very popular and are being used
each cell has only one channel covering entire available bandwidth.
Infra-Red (IR) based LAN and Telesystem's ARLAN are the examples of
o \Vireless WAN schemes include technologies like the Trunk Radio. This
Trunk Radio technology supports both voice and packet data and is useful
for the trucks, police and emergency vehicles. Trunk Radio has a
voice channels. In this, voice has higher priority over data transmission.
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using that channel. V oice transmission can preempt data transmission. In
such cases, another channel must be found for the data transmission.
suitable for paging and other broadcast-only services. Motorola's proposal for a
satellite based service; called the Iridium project, consist of 66 satellites in a low-
Odyssey also has 12 satellites that are orbiting the earth. All the above have the
same goal of providing information services (mostly voice) around the world.
Energy supply is a major bottleneck for mobile wireless computers. Battery is the
largely by the weight of its power source. In the case of palmtops, batteries
constitute the largest weight. Also longer battery life is a most desired feature of
the mobile users. The lifetime of a battery is expected to grow only 20% over the
derive all solutions for mobile computing on palmtops. Thus, energy efficiency is
with a CD-ROM and display. An AA cell is rated to provide 800 mAIHr at 1.2 V
(0.96 WIHr). Assume that the power source of a palmtop with a CD-ROM and a
spinning itself) is about 1 W, and the power dissipation for display is around 2.5
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W. The assumed power source will last for only 2.7 Hours. Thus, to enhance the
battery life, the CD-ROM and the display may have to be powered off for most of
the time.
longer without having to plug into wall power or replace battery. Apart from CD-
ROM and display, the CPU and the wireless receiver of the palmtops also
with power efficient processors. One such processor is the Hobbit Chip from
AT&T that operates in two modes: full operation mode called the active mode,
and the power-conserving mode called the doze mode. This chip utilizes 250 mW
in an active mode and the consumption in doze mode is 50,uW . The ratio of
power consumption in active mode to doze mode is 5000. Due to this, there is also
features. The CPU consumes more power than some receivers do, especially, it
has to be active to examine all incoming buckets. This is true, if on the average,
only a new data buckets are of interest to the units. Therefore, it will be beneficial
if the CPU can slip into the doze mode most of the time and come into the active
mode only when the data of interest arrives on the broadcast channel. This
required for transmitting increases as a fourth power of the distance between the
transmitter and receiver [L89]. However. the number of other aspects like the
terrain, landscape, the height and the kind of trees, foliage, rain etc., play an
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important role in determining the power required by the client in transmitting to
the server. This constitutes a major drain of the power at the unit.
o Selective tuning makes it possible to run the same applications for a larger
period with smaller batteries. Smaller batteries are significant from the
portability point of view since palmtops can be more compact and weigh
work longer without having to plug into wall power or replace battery.
With the same batteries, a client can run for a very long time without the
cumbersome especially if the user is on the move or does not have any
source to plug into the wall power. With power efficient solutions batteries
may have to be recharged only every few days, rather than every few
hours. The frequent memory effect (it occurs when certain batteries are
charged without being fully discharged first. This results, in the batteries,
not being able to be recharged fully, ever again) problem that is prevalent
sho\\'TI in Figure 2.1. The geographical area covered by a base station is called a
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cell. Each cell is managed by a base station called the Mobile Support Station
(MSS) (a fixed host) [IB94]. The MSS is a server (transmitter) as well as the
.. _...................
WIreless Radio cell ..
,,
.
,,
" .
.'
, , WIreless Radio cell
...
\ 1 Mbps .:
,
,
,
" .
WIreless LAN cell
source of all data. The MSS can periodically broadcast data on the wireless
network and the clients (units) can 'filter' the required data items. The MSS can
MSSs also provide commonly used application software, so that a mobile user can
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download the software from the closest MSS and run it on the palmtop. The
hardware, the wireless cells continue to have limited bandwidth [AK93]. These
cells may vary in terms of their wireless networks like satellite channel, radio
channel, infra-red link etc. Wireless information services of the future are
Picoservices: Small picocells may have a very small range covering only
relatively few clients. That is, these services will be very local and picocell
as follows:
include:
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Macroservices: These types of services could be provided in an area
o Regional maps.
o weather information.
very large and these can be offered on a national basis. The examples of
o general political, financial and sports news are all examples of the
Due to the types of data services made available to clients and the cell size,
that in picocells the number of clients may not justify broadcasting and clients
may not change macrocells over and over again. In the architecture, the MSSs
small battery powered palmtops, with wireless connections can move freely
receiver, but equipped with a power efficient chip like the hobbit chip, will
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2.4 An Outline of Communication Issues
in brief.
o Setup Time: The process of tuning out of the broadcast channel or tuning
back in is referred to as setup process. The time taken by CPU for shifting
from doze mode to the active mode or vice -versa is known as set up time.
It also refers to the time required to switch the receiver on (or oft). In all
the algorithms proposed for broadcasting, we assume that the set up time is
negligible. In reality, each tuning out (dozing oft) and tuning in (waking
up) does not occur right away, but takes small amount of time. Typically,
noises, the error rate in wireless transmissions are much higher than the
periodic nature; the client can always wait for the next broadcast in case
data will appear on the broadcast channel at a pre specified time, i.e.,
clients and the server (which broadcast the data) have to be synchronized.
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This calls for the network to be detenninistic. This is reasonable
time because there is only one server and the clients only listen.
synchronization, the clients may tune in, epsilon (bucket) ahead of time
[IVB97] [V94]. That is, the tuning time starts epsilon prior to the expected
Epsilon varies from client to client depending upon the accuracy of its
clock.
has a higher access priority than any client. This is not true for the
Ethernet, where the broadcasting traffic has to be interleaved with the on-
transmission. For such channels, the methods presented in this thesis have
to be modified.
2.5 Conclusion:
technologies that support the mobile computing environment. We also delve with
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conserve the battery power, such that the mobile unit has the capacity to function
for a longer time, is also briefly discussed. Finally, the networking architecture,
which supports the wireless mobile computing along with the wireless information
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