Wireless Networking Concepts: Antennas, Protocols, and SDN

This report covers the different types of wireless antennas, including yagi, horn, and cellular, and new protocols like Wi-Fi direct, RFID, and 6LoWPAN. It also critically evaluates software-defined wireless networking. The subject, course code, and college/university are not mentioned.

Wireless networking concepts

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK-1............................................................................................................................................1
Describing different types of wireless antennas..........................................................................1
Yagi antenna............................................................................................................................1
Horn antenna............................................................................................................................2
Cellular antenna.......................................................................................................................2
Strengths and weaknesses of each antenna..............................................................................2
Dominant player for the future....................................................................................................3
TASK-2............................................................................................................................................3
Three types of wireless network protocols..................................................................................3
Wi-Fi direct..............................................................................................................................4
RFID (Radio-frequency identification) wireless technology..................................................4
6LoWPAN (Lower Power Wireless Protocols).......................................................................4
TASK-3............................................................................................................................................5
Critical evaluation of software-defined wireless networking......................................................5
Issues and solutions for the wireless networking........................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
The wireless network is the infrastructure less mobile network which is used for the
communication with less interference of cables (Fitzek & Katz, 2006). The current report is
based on the wireless network concepts that provide the different types of antennas including
yagi, horn, cellular. Further, new three wireless protocols such as Wi-Fi direct, RFID (Radio-
Frequency Identification) and 6LoWPAN (Lower Power Wireless Protocols) have been
identified as the wireless network. In the end, a critical evaluation has been done on the software-
defined wireless networking articles with the use of relevant references.
TASK-1
Describing different types of wireless antennas
Wireless network refers to the combination of different networks that uses the wireless
data connection with the help of the computer network (Kirti, 2012, p.2187). The wireless
network has a significant contribution in reducing the cost of the installation process because it
does not use the cables to connect the equipment at different locations (Haenggi, 2012). There
are several wireless antennas such as yagi, horn and cellular etc. that are used for the better
connectivity with business drivers as well as homes.
Yagi antenna
Quasi-Yagi antenna was developed in 1998 and this is used for the millimetre and
microwave frequencies applications (Qian & et al., 1998). Yagi antenna offers such kind of
features like ease fabrication, incur a low cost for installation, high efficiency and huge
bandwidth etc. Further, Quasi-Yagi antenna's regular dipoles driver can be redeveloped in the
form of double, bowtie and multi-branch dipoles to achieve the wideband features. In this
context, this antenna is not effective for the Yagi-Uda antenna as it is not concerned with the
radiation pattern and this also requires the large ground plane to install the antenna (Wu & et al.,
2010). Thus, to remove the drawbacks of Yagi-Uda, a new CPS-fed planner Yagi-Uda antennas
was innovated because it offers the advanced services. However, this is not applicable for the
array applications due to the feed structure of the antenna (Eldek, 2007; Han & et al., 2009).
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Horn antenna
Compact and lightweight horn antenna is known as dielectric-loaded H-plane. This
antenna uses the Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) technology for the steerable multi-sector
antenna (Yousefbeiki & et al., 2012, p.2367). Moreover, this antenna can be scanned at the full
3600 on the horizontal area for the selected location. On the other hand, dual-polarized ultra-
wideband horn antenna was identified which is useful for radar systems because this is based on
UWB design that is prepared from 8-18 GHz (Yin & et al., 2008, p321). This antenna has the
dual-polarized facility which contains two antennas such as E-Plane and H-plane in the shape of
rectangular. Moreover, this type of antenna is helpful to achieve the large bandwidth frequency
like more than 500 MHz for the communication system. Furthermore, Horn antenna is used in
the satellite tracking, radio astronomy and communication sector etc. throughout the world.
Additionally, this antenna is supported by the radiation beam for the entire frequency (Wang &
et al., 2010, p.58).
Cellular antenna
Cellular antenna is known as the smart antenna that is used for the cellular mobile
communication (Jain, Katiyar & Agrawal, 2012). The cellular antenna is helpful in minimizing
the overall cost of the network by adopting the new wireless network for the system. Further, this
type of antenna provides the better service quality and transparent activities across the multiple
wireless networks (Jacobs & et al., 2012). Moreover, the cellular configuration built the smart
structure for the web and provided the improvement in the design.
Strengths and weaknesses of each antenna
Yagi antenna Horn antenna Cellular antenna
Strengths  It receives the lower
strengths signals
 Highly demanded in
telecommunications
 It is simpler as well as
less cos than log
periodic antennas
 It offers better
bandwidth as 10%
 It is used the
parabolic reflector
which deliver high
gain
 It is a multi-
channel radio
tower
 It can
communicate
with individual
phones
 It has increased
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range and does
not require
many antennas
for the coverage
 Maximized
bandwidth
Weaknesse
s
 Bandwidth range is
limited
 A single antenna is
limited around 20db
(Waterhouse, 2008)
 It does not provide
sharp beam
 Limited gain to
20db
(Eskelinen & et al., 2004)
 Complicated
than traditional
antennas
 More expensive
 Large size in
compare to
traditional
antennas
(Nakar, 2004)
Dominant player for the future
By evaluation of different antennas, it has been perceived that the cellular antenna would
be a dominant player in the future for the long-distance wireless network. Yagi-Uda antenna is
applicable for the large ground plane. However, the horn antenna is useful only in radar systems
because the radiation beam supports it. According to evaluation, it has been found that cellular
antenna is helpful in creating a smart structure for the network of networks and facilitates the
lower cost as well as full frequency for the implementation among multiple network, unlike other
antennas.
TASK-2
Three types of wireless network protocols
There are several types of wireless network protocols such as Wide Area Network
(WAN), Local Area Network (LAN), Medium Area Network (MAN) etc. which are in use from
a long time (Akyildiz & et al., 2006). These protocols are used as per the distance of area and
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accordingly the system operator uses the network protocol for the communication. Besides this,
recently different types of advanced protocols have been introduced including 802.11, 802.16,
RFID, Wi-Fi direct, Li-Fi, 6LoWPAN, 5G and LTE etc. (Glisic & Lorenzo, 2009).).
Additionally, there are three more recent protocols such as Wi-Fi Mesh, WiMAX and WLAN
also developed for the wireless network connectivity and these are explained below in detail-
Wi-Fi direct
Wi-Fi protocol refers to the transmission of Wi-Fi messages through smartphones, android as
well as laptops without associated with own network (Barbu & et al., 2012). With the help of this
protocol, the communicator can be able to use the other's available interface in cellphone, laptops
or PC and can transmit the information instantly with the help of the Wi-Fi network. Further, the
wireless access points can be scanned then a response receives by available systems and a single
wireless access network can be selected for the connectivity. Moreover, the 802.11 is also known
as the family of protocols such as 802.11a, 802.11b etc. (Miorandi & et al., 2012). Consumers,
manufacturers use the Wi-Fi protocol because these are less expensive and most required for the
today’s generation. The W-Fi network remains secured with a password to avoid the access of
unknown people without entering the authentic security password.
RFID (Radio-frequency identification) wireless technology
RFID is a sensor related unit which is used in the form of the small chip that helps in
assessing the temperature (Opasjumruskit & et al., 2006, p.54). Recently, the RFID is using the
UWB technology to overcome the limitations of the current narrowband RFID technology
(Lazaro & et al., 2011). This UWB technique is based on the low-cost radars and this is also
promising to access the results for the small distance areas along with sensor applications
(Girbau & et al., 2012).
6LoWPAN (Lower Power Wireless Protocols)
This technology is used for the sensor network application (Rghioui, Bouhorma &
Benslimane, 2013). 6LoWPAN is a part of IEEE 802.11ah family protocol which provides the
900MHz network band. Moreover, 6LoWPAN technology has extended a range of area as
compared to the traditional wireless network such as Wi-Fi. This protocol has various
competitors including ZigBee and other well-established protocols in the wireless industry (Patel
& Champaneria, 2015). This technology is used in multiple sectors like car parking, transmission
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of data, sensor-based topology etc. However, this technology has a challenge regarding the
quality of service (Bouaziz & Rachedi, 2016). Although, this is helpful in reducing the problem
of dis-connectivity of data and networks.
Wi-Fi direct RFID 6LoWPAN
Strengths  Network security
with password
 Increased
mobility
 Cost effective
 Specially used
for tracking
the luggage
 It is versatile
in nature
 It provides the
security
patterns
 Less power
consumption
 Balanced load
of networks
Weaknesses  Speed is lower
than wired
networks which is
1-54 Mbps
 It is not
applicable for the
large range
(Bellalta, 2016)
 It is expensive
by using the
batteries
 Less coverage
area as 3
meters
(Ajami & Carter,
2013)
 Single layer
security
approach
 Limited range
(250kbps)
(Lu, Li & Wu, 2011)
TASK-3
Critical evaluation of software-defined wireless networking
In this paper, Bernardos & et al. (2014) emphasized on the Software Defined Networking
(SDN) that are used to achieve the more effective with the support of new network services.
Nowadays, the demand of the customers is increasing for the new network infrastructure and
there is a huge competition as well as challenges among all the operators. In this manner, to
mitigate the problems and meet the demand of consumers, new network services like cloud
computing, SDN etc. have been identified to meet the current and future requirement. These
services are beneficial to reduce the overall cost of the outsourcing communication services.
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Moreover, the SDN approach was used which is applicable to both wired and wireless
networking. However, Sezer & et al. (2014) identified that SDN is unable to manage the high-
touch and high-security performance packet processing flows in an efficient manner. Further,
this protocol offers the speed for transmitting the data with less security and cost. Therefore, it
reveals that the SDN provides the high-quality with the delivery of information but data are not
secure in the transmission process.
In this article, it has been found that there are two significant panels such as control and
data plane. Control plane controls the all over decisions that where the data should be sent
whereas data plane is used to forward the traffic to the selected location (Bernardos & et al.,
2014). Furthermore, SDN is more efficient in comparison to traditional networks because this is
used for the deployment of new protocols as well as applications. In this context, the SDN
network is helpful to increase the flexibility of home network management by applying the
traffic engineering decisions and the central controller for the mobile devices (Kim & Feamster,
2013).
There are several wireless devices such as open flow, Control and Provisioning of
Wireless Access Points (CAPWAP) and re-configurable has been used to standardize the
interface to control the mobile devices. Moreover, the open flow enables the interface between
control and forwarding layers of the SDN architecture. Further, this is also helpful to create
integration among heterogeneous devices in a very systematic manner as well as operations of
the multi-vendor infrastructure which is specially used in commercial telecom networks.
Moreover, the CAPWAP is used to deliver the control frames to a central controller that is
responsible for the MAC layer control. This is directly related to the open flow controller that
provides the information regarding the new incoming flows. However, the MAC protocol is
more applicable in case of maximum traffic load because this is directly uploading the central
controller at the given location in time (Bianchi & et al., 2012). Therefore, according to this
analysis, it has been found that SDN network is used for both wireless and wired network to
control the incoming and outgoing flows of the system with the help of the open streams and
CAPWAP protocols.
The new technology like SDN has been adopted for the deployment of virtualized
infrastructure because this is helpful to reduce the time of installation, required less manual
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planning and dimensioning for the network protocols. In this regard, the deployment of SDN is
useful to reduce the workload of network configuration and management as well as offers the
additional functionalities to the network (Sundaresan & et al., 2011). On the other hand,
Software Defined Wireless Network (SDWN) architecture has been introduced which is a radio
access network. This supports multiple functionality levels to allow for incremental deployments
(Hu & et al., 2015). Furthermore, two different types of models such as evolutionary and clean
slate were adopted to implement the SDWN architecture. In this regard, the evolutionary model
allows for incremental deployment in existing networks whereas in clean slate the control plane
functions are directly programmed on the SDN controller. Therefore, the SDWN is an imperative
network protocol for the SDN because it offers the multiple functionalities for the different
operators and provides the incremental deployment of the network. The evaluation reflects that
deployment of SDN mechanisms in the wireless field is fruitful because this offers the high-level
architecture leveraging for the logical centralization of a network of SDN.
Issues and solutions for the wireless networking
On the basis of the analysis, it has been found that the users' demand for the wireless
networks is drastically increasing. The wireless mobile networks are dealing with the problem in
the context of efficiently growing traffic demand for the network. In the study, it has been
evaluated that the SDN is based on the virtualization of networks which is related to the data and
control and plane task and provides the flexible deployment of core services.
Dynamic and Scalable Software Defined Architecture for cellular WANs (SoftMoW)
have the issues related to Path inflation, limited access for the deploying networks and scalability
as well as reliability issues (Moradi & et al., 2014). Furthermore, the Path inflation showing the
limited number of centralized P-GWs which is causing the large number of claims and higher
access delays in context of UEs. However, to deal with these challenges and issues, a new
Gigantic Base Stations (G-BS) and G-Switches has been identified which are linked with the
group switches (Rangisetti & Tamma, 2017). These groups are associated with the new cellular
architecture that is helpful in configuring the cellular network. Owing to this, it reveals that
wireless software defined networks are not established completely for the use of commercial or
home requirement networks.
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Another a major issue was identified in the SoftRAN which is related to the separation of
radio access network decision that comes under the base station elements and controller of the
network (Gudipati & et al., 2013). To mitigate this issue, the central controller should focus on
the load imbalance and interference for that global knowledge of RAN is required in wireless
software design architecture. On the basis of this issue, it has been found that the scheduling
decisions should depend on the base stations of the wireless designed network. Further, there are
few virtual issues for the wireless defined network which are related to the capacity of the
network. Moreover, the NFs capacity of the virtual network is lower than physical NF capacity
and this capacity is related to the problem arises during the handling of higher loads. However,
the virtualization is important as per the future aspect because the current wireless network
environment is based on the SDWN architecture that includes the control plane virtualization
strategies (Sun & et al., 2014). As per this requirement, a new novel SDWN network has been
proposed to reduce the limitations of SDWN protocol (Zhou & et al., 2015). Owing to this, it has
been identified that wireless defined network architectures are needed to meet the future
expectations of the customers because of the current business era based on the wireless networks
for the smooth communication.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of the report, it has been concluded that there are different types of wireless
antennas among them yagi, horn and cellular are the recent technologies. On the basis of
evaluation, it has been found that cellular antennas are a dominant player as per the future
aspects because this occurs the lower cost and more frequency as compared to other antennas.
Further, it is also concluded that there are three major recent protocols Wi-Fi, RFID and
6LoWPAN that are adopted by the home and business consumers. In the end, it has been
concluded that the Wi-Fi wireless network is mostly preferred by the people for the wireless
communication.
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