11.2 Brief History of Wireless LAN

This section provides a brief history of wireless LAN and its relationship with other IEEE LAN standards. Similar to LANs, many of the initial WLANs were proprietary. Prior to 1998, many of these wireless applications were characterized by low data rates, high cost, and a lack of a worldwide standard that limited widespread deployment. These WLANs were used in many areas, such as manufacturing, retail, and warehousing. It was at this juncture that IEEE stepped in and created the standards for WLANs.

11.2.1 IEEE 802.11 Family

IEEE initiated the standardization efforts in the area of WLANs, similar to the LAN technology it had standardized earlier. In May 1991, a project authorization request (PAR) was initiated to create a new working group called IEEE 802.11 for WLANs. This effort resulted in the IEEE adopting a new standard for WLAN, IEEE 802.11-1997, released in 1997.

There have been enhancements made to this initial release (referred to as IEEE 802.11-1999) that resulted in other standards being developed that increase the peak data rates. A brief description of the basic IEEE 802.11 protocol model is provided next . This framework is used by the initial and subsequent releases of the IEEE 802.11 standards.