Physical Layer Description

The physical (PHY) layer specifies the waveform that is transmitted over the wireless medium. This chapter provides a description of the PHY layer, which focuses on the details of the PHY layer at the transmitter. There were several requirements for the Institute of IEEE 802.11ba standard that affect the PHY layer design. The chapter also provides information about some of the government regulations which were taken into consideration when developing the standard. The PHY layer is designed to operate in either the 2.4 or the 5GHz frequency bands, so it is important to understand how the regulations in those frequency bands can affect the PHY layer design. The chapter looks at the Link Budget for the 802.11ba link between the transmitter and receiver. The PHY layer protocol data unit can be partitioned into a wideband portion and a narrowband portion. One of the unique aspects of the wake-up radio PHY is the use of MC-OOK symbol randomization.