ABSTRACT
Wireless local area networking technology has existed for
several years, providing connectivity to wired infra-
structures where mobility was a requirement for specific
working environments. Early networks were based on dif-
ferent radio technologies and were non-standard imple-
mentations, with speeds ranging between 1 and 2 Mbps.
Without any standards driving WLAN technologies, the
early implementations ofWLANwere relegated to vendor-
specific implementation, with no provision for interoper-
ability, thus inhibiting the growth of standards-based
WLAN technologies. Even WLAN is not a single radio
technology, but is represented by several different proto-
cols and standards, which all fall under the 802.11 umbrella
of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
(IEEE) standards.
