Sunday, March 23, 2008

802.11 family is getting quite big

Having only studied 802.11a, b and g in past, I was surprised to find that there are many other 802.11 protocols in the family.


See which ones do you know:
  • 802.11a - 54 Mbps standard, 5 GHz signaling (ratified 1999)
  • 802.11b - 11 Mbps standard, 2.4 GHz signaling (1999)
  • 802.11c - operation of bridge connections (moved to 802.1)
  • 802.11d - worldwide compliance with regulations for use of wireless signalspectrum (2001)
  • 802.11e - Quality of Service (QoS) support (2005)
  • 802.11f – Inter access point protocol to support roaming clients (2003)
  • 802.11g - 54 Mbps standard, 2.4 GHz signaling (2003)
  • 802.11h - Enhanced version of 802.11a to support European regulatory requirements (2003)
  • 802.11i - Security improvements for the 802.11 family (2004)
  • 802.11j - Enhancements to 5 GHz signaling to support Japan regulatoryrequirements (2004)
  • 802.11k - WLAN system management
  • 802.11l - Skipped to avoid confusion with 802.11i
  • 802.11m - Maintenance of 802.11 family documentation
  • 802.11n - Future 100+ Mbps standard
  • 802.11o – Voice over WLAN, faster handoff, prioritize voice traffic over data
  • 802.11p – Using 5.9GHz band for ITS (long range)
  • 802.11q – Support for VLAN 802.11r – Handling fast handoff when roaming between APs
  • 802.11s – Self-healing/self-configuring mesh networks
  • 802.11t - Wireless Performance Prediction
  • 802.11u - Interworking with External Networks
  • 802.11v - Wireless Network Management standard
  • 802.11w - Protected Management Frames standard
  • 802.11x – Summarize all 802.11 standards, but it is not a standard.
  • 802.11y - Contention Based Protocol Study Group
For a quick introduction see the following links:
You may also be interested in this new book:



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