In mobile or wireless communication, the air interface is the radio-based communication link between the mobile station and the active base station. In GSM/UMTS, the various UTRA standards are air interfaces, and are also (but not exclusively) referred to as "access modes".
In the OSI model, the air interface comprises layers 1 and 2 of the mobile communications system, establishing a point-to-point link between the mobile station and the base station.
Famous quotes containing the word air:
“A multitude of little superfluous precautions engender here a population of deputies and sub-officials, each of whom acquits himself with an air of importance and a rigorous precision, which seemed to say, though everything is done with much silence, “Make way, I am one of the members of the grand machine of state.””
—Marquis De Custine (1790–1857)