Air interface

The air interface, or access mode, is the communication link between the two stations in mobile or wireless communication. The air interface involves both the physical and data link layers (layer 1 and 2) of the OSI model for a connection. The physical connection of an air interface is generally radio-based. This is usually a point to point link between an active base station and a mobile station. Technologies like Opportunity-Driven Multiple Access (ODMA) may have flexibility regarding which devices serve in which roles. Some types of wireless connections possess the ability to broadcast or multicast. Multiple links can be created in limited spectrum through FDMA, TDMA, or SDMA. Some advanced forms of transmission multiplexing combine frequency- and time-division approaches like OFDM or CDMA. In cellular telephone communications, the air interface is the radio-frequency portion of the circuit between the cellular phone set or wireless modem (usually portable or mobile) and the active base station. As a subscriber moves from one cell to another in the system, the active base station changes periodically. Each changeover is known as a handoff. In radio and electronics, an antenna (plural antennae or antennas), or aerial, is an electrical device which converts electric power into radio waves, and vice versa. It is usually used with a radio transmitter or radio receiver. In transmission, a radio transmitter supplies an electric current oscillating at radio frequency to the antenna's terminals, and the antenna radiates the energy from the current as electromagnetic waves (radio waves). An antenna focuses the radio waves in a certain direction. Usually, this is called the main direction. Because of that, in other directions less energy will be emitted. The gain of an antenna, in a given direction, is usually referenced to an (hypothetical) isotropic antenna, which emits the radiation evenly strong in all directions. The antenna gain is the power in the strongest direction divided by the power that would be transmitted by an isotropic antenna emitting the same total power.