Wireless Networking Assignment : Solved Solutions

Question

Task:
1. Different antenna, such as yagi, horn, and cellular antennas, etc. has different merits. Research these technologies in details and pay specific attention to how they are used as well their strengths and weakness. Provide an opinion regarding which antenna types will become the dominant players in the future of medium- and long-distance wireless links .

2. A local engineering group ask you to present your finding of the most recent advanced wireless technologies. Research any THREE different wireless network protocols in details and pay specific attention to how they are used as well their strengths and weakness. What security challenges they are facing? Provide a report of your opinion

3.Read the following two research papers, please give your critical reflection on the topic of the software-defined wireless network.

Answer

We are providing some sample solutions of wireless networking assignment to help you in building up a concept plan in drafting the solution yourselves. The student consigned us with this task because it was a wireless networking assignment holding very demanding deliverables.

Answer 1: In the wireless communication environment, the antenna is an important part. The term antenna refers to the equipment which can transform the electrical signal into the radio wave and vice versa. According to the need of signal transmission and reception, there are different types of antennas. Moreover, the antennas can be differentiated in terms of shapes, material used, signal bandwidth and transmission range. The physical structure and functionalities can provide wire, aperture, reflector, lens, microstrip and array antennas. These kinds of antennas are useful in personal applications, automobile spacecraft, microwave communication, radio astronomy, satellite tracking etc. In the modern era of wireless communication, the antenna plays a dominant role in terms of the electromagnetic radiation and signal propagation theory (Marzetta et al., 2018). In an electric circuit, the antenna works as an interconnection between free space and transmitter where the properties like gain, polarization, aperture, effective length are important. The gain is the ratio of radiation power to reference power while aperture means the collective area of an antenna. Again, polarization is the vertical and horizontal launching of EM wave while effective length defines the efficiency in terms of current distribution. In case of traveling wave antennas, the Yagi and Helical antennas are important. Moreover, the reflector and microwave antennas are important for wireless communication too. Although the Helical antenna has the simple structure with two helices forming wire but shaped reflector gives the appropriate feed during signal transmission. The two modes of this type of antenna are the major advantage as the axial mode can be used for wide applications (VHF, satellite, and radiometry) while normal mode is for small direction applications. Again, the circular polarization pattern, wider bandwidth, high directivity are other advantages. However, its large size has installation and cost issues while the number of turns is inversely proportional to efficiency. The Yagi antenna is usually constructed by passive elements with major emphasis on the reflector and director elements. Its lightweight and inexpensiveness offer wide bandwidth and unidirectional radiation pattern. However, it is highly frequency sensitive and the number of array elements can reduce the bandwidth. The gain limitation (7db) is another disadvantage. The microwave antennas are important for space applications. In this context, the microstrip or patch and inverted-F antennas are important. From the perspective of size, cost, installation easiness the patch antenna is sound but the major disadvantage is the narrow bandwidth. The inverted-F antennas use a bandwidth increasing plate and they are easy to use and install. Moreover, low backward radiation increases the efficiency and their high gain make them important wireless communication equipment. In the case of reflector antennas, the dipole elements are used to increase directivity. The corner and parabolic reflector antennas have a small size and they are cost effective. However, the side lobes introduce the high EMI and low noise receivers face transmission issues. Moreover, the frequent use of mobile devices has made the cellular antennas popular and affordable. The antennas are easy to use with high bandwidth and can distinguish the no signal and high signal issues. The innovation in the antenna theory has made the multiple-input-multiple-output technology common with the multiplexing and diversity coding features which provide good channel capacity and wireless communication standard. The advance diversity antennas are much better than single input conventional antennas covering the far-field, compact and near-field ranges (Hillan et al., 2016). Moreover, the reconfigurable software defined, metamaterial antennas seem to dominate the future with their medium to long distance coverage, improved quality and reliability schemes. They are efficient to make wireless links considering the spatial, polarised or diversity patterns. Moreover, the reconfigurable antennas can use pin diodes and MEMS switches to create different topological patterns while the metamaterial antennas can bring the radiating current closer reducing the hand interventions in cellular phones. Finally, the software-defined antennas can combine digital components (filter, mixer, modulator, detector) to deal with wide frequency spectrum for any kind of modulated transmission. Therefore, the innovative schemes of antenna theory seem to dominate the future. You can observe that in this wireless networking assignment a detailed analysis is being conducted which helped us to arrive at this conclusion.

Answer 2:
The Wireless network protocol: The wireless network protocol refers to the communication rules and conventions between the network devices. It is a kind of mechanism to identify, connect and make data packages for data transmission. Even some of the advance protocols support data compression and message acknowledgment for reliable network communication (Khan et al., 2016). The wireless networking protocols generally use roaming mobile devices to deal with variable data rates and network security. Today, the modern computer or mobile operating systems use built-in software services to support the network protocols. Moreover, the web browsers contain the protocol based software library for different networking functions. In this case, three recent wireless protocols are discussed here.

Three different but recent protocols: The wireless protocols are based on three classes. They are long, medium and short range protocols. The long range can be accessible over miles while the medium range covers ten-thousands feet. Finally, the short-range covers usually less than 30 feet. However, with different attributes, the classes use different protocols. Here the discussion covers three protocols from three different ranges.

WiMax (long range): It is considered as the new era of wireless broadband services. This is a highly effective protocol for different types of data streaming (vice, video, audio, message, text). The recently added mobility features are attracting the large amount of customer segments. The cost-effective and service efficient process allows business, general and backhaul (highlighting the core sections of long and complex networks) communications (Singh & Sharma, 2015). This protocol also provides temporary communication services for congested networking. Therefore, the major benefits are the quality, bandwidth, security, deployment, full duplex features etc. But for the longer connection, it requires a line of sites and bad weather which can potentially change the transmission quality. Moreover, it has interference and multiplied frequency issues.

WLAN (medium range): This is a local area network protocol which can use the radio transmission process. The radio frequency helps the communication process between different devices and network endpoints using the transceivers (two-way). It can work up to 2.4Ghz bandwidth and there are four main protocols of IEEE which can be actively used while networking. The protocols are 802.11 standard, 802.11a and 802.11b as well as 802.11g. The first one can provide a data speed of 54 MB/sec while the last two protocols have the high degree of security. The major advantages are the large number of the easily connecting workstation, the high degree of access, low cost and long-term benefits. However, the WLAN has issues with the number of devices, configuration, and changing standards. As an example, it faces an efficiency issue when the number of devices is increased in the network. Again, the building and other solid obstacles can exponentially reduce the data transmission rate. The physical cables are required as support because the WLAN is not the exact alternate solution of LAN cable. Finally, the easy installation and cost-effective measures of WLAN sometimes face rigid configuration issues too.

Bluetooth (short range): The operation of this protocol is active in the low frequencies and Bluetooth is a popular short-range choice today. One of the most common use includes portable phone and wireless headset communication. This is the oldest wireless protocol and was created in the year 1990. The basic operation covers data synchronization between cellular devices. The major advantage is its low rate of power consumption and support for low rate of data ( 1-2 Mbps). Although the Wi-Fi is highly replacing the Bluetooth but this network protocol is still cost-effective and easier to install (Zhang et al., 2016). However, the protocol is really insecure and in the case of cellular devices, the protocol pattern attracts virus. Moreover, in certain conditions it loose connection and the connection is limited to only two devices.

Answer 3:
Critical reflection:
“An architecture for software-defined wireless networking. (2014)”
This well-written article has effectively identified the software-defined opportunities for wireless networking and mobile networks. The proposal covers high-level centralized SDN with sound logical inputs. In this context, it is significant that the definition of SDN covers the main functions, detail architecture as well as required interfaces and the interesting points. Apart from this, the application of different use cases can help the readers to understand the future scope of mobile networking. However, all the developing technologies face challenges so the description of both advantages and challenges in the tabular format should be appreciated in this article.

Again, from the perspective of standardization, deployment and future needs the article covers the telecommunication building blocks, protocol, message format and manufacturing implementation. The discussion on the software-defined networking helps the readers understand the benefits of innovation in the networking and telecommunication sector. In this context, the examples of OpenFlow and functions of SDOs are important. But the future scope discussion in the article seems somehow flat as the description is more focused on the terms and not on the details. In the case study section the SDWN framework is still hypothetical where the high-level interactions seem complex for the readers. As an example, while describing the different scenario with UE functions the description seems more focused on the configuration based actions and the same thing has missed the discussion on the overall networking gaps. However, the discussion on the key interfaces is very good as it clearly identifies the differences between southbound and northbound interfaces while focusing the key functions (Bernardos et al., 2014). Moreover, the interfaces are discussed with different endpoints like external parties, plane network entity, mobile nodes which makes the provisions and point of virtualization clear for the readers. Finally, it can be said that the paper has properly distinguished between control and data planes in the software-defined networking environment while focusing on the faster deployment and virtualization.

“Software Defined Wireless Networks: A Survey of Issues and Solutions. (2017)”
The paper has started from the background of the wireless networking environment where the major focus was and is on the flexible and inexpensive networking. However, the wireless networking environment in its development phase has faced different challenges like inflexibility, traffic demands, congestion, handling as well as security issues. In this context, the article has discussed the features of mobile networking paradigm significantly. The mobile networking operators today have their focus on the network control, management and fast deployment as new solutions and regular updates are changing the features of existing hardware and software (Rangisetti & Tamma, 2017). The jump from the mobile networking paradigm to the software-defined networking in the article is done efficiently while highlighting the internal links as well as the revolutionary features of SDN. In terms of separation between the data plane and control plane tasks, the software-defined networking is defined as more agile and flexible while dealing with wireless networking innovations. Again, the key role of this innovative networking process is covered with extra care n the article. As an example, the terms network function deployment, virtualization, and infrastructure are covered with equal importance. Moreover, the core networking services are discussed using the functionalities of elastic and flexible deployment which is a unique attribute of the article. The control signal overhead issue in case of LTE, as well as machine-to-machine traffic demands, are major discussion points which open the new scope of future discussion for the topic "internet of things". However, the different perspectives of networking have made the information flow of overall article very complex. As an example, the the NFV offerings for middleboxes and Mobile edge computing platforms needed more attention in terms of infrastructure but the same was absent in the article. Finally, it can be said that for cloud computing, innovative IT services, and wireless networking the article is a good try but the 5G networking discussion needs more precise information. In this wireless networking assignment we have strictly followed the format given in marking rubrics to cover in helping the student to cover all the deliverables in the assignment. In this sample solution of wireless networking assignment a detailed analysis is done by referring to the academic theories which helped us to arrive at an accurate inference..

References:
Bernardos, C. J., De La Oliva, A., Serrano, P., Banchs, A., Contreras, L. M., Jin, H., & Zúñiga, J. C. (2014). An architecture for software-defined wireless networking. IEEE wireless communications, 21(3), 52-61.

Hillan, J., Kirby, M. A., Ozaki, E. T., Heilsberg, S. A., Mangan, M. J., & Frankland, S. (2016). U.S. Patent No. 9,240,824. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Khan, A. A., Rehmani, M. H., & Reisslein, M. (2016). Cognitive radio for smart grids: Survey of architectures, spectrum sensing mechanisms, and networking protocols. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, 18(1), 860-898.

Marzetta, T. L., Ashikhmin, A., & Polakos, P. A. (2018). U.S. Patent No. 9,893,773. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Rangisetti, A. K., & Tamma, B. R. (2017). Software Defined Wireless Networks: A Survey of Issues and Solutions. Wireless Personal Communications, 97(4), 6019-6053.

Singh, S. P., & Sharma, S. C. (2015). A survey on cluster-based routing protocols in wireless sensor networks. Procedia computer science, 45, 687-695.

Zhang, Y., Zheng, J., & Chen, H. H. (Eds.). (2016). Cognitive radio networks: architectures, protocols, and standards. CRC press.