(Editor's note: This popular feature article, which was first published May 2007, is being republished in response to its great popularity and the likelihood that the 802.11n spec will be ratified in ...

The IEEE 802.11 specification (ISO/IEC 8802-11) is an international standard describing the characteristics of a wireless local area network (WLAN). The name Wi-Fi (which stands for Wireless Fidelity, ...

In response to reader requests for a refresher in basic wireless LAN operations, I’ll finish up a discussion I began last time of 802.11 WLAN channel assignments and user access. Some of you have ...

Wireless networks based on IEEE 802.11 have been widely adopted by home users and businesses. New applications such as video and multimedia streaming bring unique and challenging quality of service ...

802.11b was supposed to have given way to its sibling standard 802.11a which operated in the 5 GHz range with a wide-open 8 (potentially 24) channels that was rarely used by consumer devices like 2.4 ...

Wireless technology has shown rapid development over the last 15 years. With that in mind we look at the progression of the 802.11 protocol from the original legacy mode, through to the current “ac” ...

802.11 is a set of IEEE standards that control wireless networking transmission methods. They are used today in the following versions to offer wireless connectivity in different environments ...

If your 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi connection keeps dropping out in certain parts of your house just at the most critical times when surfing the web, you will be pleased to know that a new Wi-Fi standard, ...

Fig 1. Among the protocol stack layers for IEEE 802.15.4, only layers 1 and 2 belong to the standard, while the upper layers are defined by the specific protocol (e.g., ZigBee, 6LoWPAN, and ...

Wi-Fi's biggest advantage is that it provides mobility and coverage. But early versions of Wi-Fi did not achieve data rates on par with the wireline network. Recent advancements in wireless research ...

Backward compatibility with the legacy devices (IEEE 802.11b/g) The typical 802.11n network consists of legacy 802.11b/g enabled systems and new 802.11n enabled MIMO-OFDM systems. The channel access ...