Protocols
IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi)
In 1990, the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers) formed a group to develop a standard for wireless equipment. On June 26, 1997, a standard was finally developed called 802.11. The standard specified that the upper layers of the OSI model can not be modified, and WLANs must be implemented on the physical and data link layers. This provided the ability to run any operating system or LAN application on a WLAN without any modification. They accomplished this by doing upper layer features on the data link layer.
| Protocol | Release Date | Frequency | Bandwidth |
|---|---|---|---|
| IEEE 802.11 | 1997 | 2.4 GHz | 1, 2 Mbps |
| IEEE 802.11a | 1999 | 5 GHz | 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, 54 Mbps |
| IEEE 802.11b | 1999 | 2.4 GHz | 5.5, 11 Mbps |
| IEEE 802.11g | 2003 | 2.4 GHz | 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, 54 Mbps |
| IEEE 802.11n | expected mid-2007 | 2.4 GHz | 540 Mbps |
IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX)
| Protocol | Release Date | Frequency | Bandwidth |
|---|---|---|---|
| IEEE 802.16 | December 2005 | 6 - 66 GHz | up to 75 Mbps |
Source: Sampalli, Srinivas,"Module 4: Wireless LANs", page 8, October 25, 2005.
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