Air interface

In mobile

Mobile phone

A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...

 or wireless communication, the air interface is the radio-based communication link between the mobile station

Mobile Station

The mobile station comprises all user equipment and software needed for communication with a mobile network.The mobile station refers to global system connected to the mobile network, i.e. mobile phone or mobile computer connected using a mobile broadband adapter. This is the terminology of 2G...

 and the active base station

Base station

The term base station can be used in the context of land surveying and wireless communications.- Land surveying :In the context of external land surveying, a base station is a GPS receiver at an accurately-known fixed location which is used to derive correction information for nearby portable GPS...

. 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

OSI model

The Open Systems Interconnection model is a product of the Open Systems Interconnection effort at the International Organization for Standardization. It is a prescription of characterizing and standardizing the functions of a communications system in terms of abstraction layers. Similar...

, 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.