Physical media: radio

• signal carried in electromagnetic spectrum

• no physical “wire”

• bidirectional

• propagation environment effects:

  • reflection
  • obstruction by objects
  • interference

Radio link types:

• microwave
  • e.g. up to 45 Mbps channels

• LAN (e.g., waveLAN)
  • 2Mbps, 11Mbps

• wide-area (e.g., cellular)
  • e.g. CDPD, 10’s Kbps

• satellite
  • up to 50Mbps channel (or multiple smaller channels)
  • 270 Msec end-end delay
  • geosynchronous versus LEOS

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