The technology used for the radio transmission between base station and mobile units in a wireless network. It is the wireless counterpart of the physical layer 1 in the OSI model (see OSI model).
Also called a "radio interface," the air interface defines primarily the frequency, channel bandwidth and modulation scheme. For example, CDMA and TDMA are the air interfaces for cellular networks, while OFDMA is used in LTE, the next-generation cellular technology, and WiMAX. See air card, CDMA, TDMA, OFDMA, LTE and WiMAX.
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