Hello, everyone!
Today, I would like to share an overview of IEEE 802.11 standard for WLANs.
The IEEE 802.11 standard for Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), commonly known as WiFi, is a mature technology with more than 15 years of development and standardisation. The earliest version of the IEEE 802.11 standard was realised in 1997 as a wireless alternative or extension to existing wired LANs using Ethernet technology.
However, since its appearance, the IEEE 802.11 specification has continuously evolved to include new technologies and functionalities, and several amendments to the basic IEEE 802.11 standard have been developed.
WLANs are currently not only the most common Internet access technology; but they have also expanded across a wide variety of markets, including consumer, mobile and automotive. WLANs are thus widely available everywhere (homes, public hotspots, enterprise environments) and IEEE 802.11-based radio interfaces are found in many types of devices.
Several factors have contributed to the success of the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, interoperability, ease of use, and exibility being among the most important. First, the IEEE 802.11 standards were initially designed to be used within unlicensed spectrum bands, referred to as Industrial Scientific and Medical (ISM) bands.
More precisely, most IEEE 802.11 standards work in 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency bands, which are globally available, although local restrictions may apply for some aspects of their use. Thus, anyone can deploy a WLAN in those bands given that a few basic constraints, such as a maximum transmission power, are satisfied.
On the downside, this also means that most WLANs are deployed in an uncontrolled fashion with limited or no consideration of interference issues.
This has made it especially challenging to guarantee performance bounds and reasonable Quality of Service (QoS) levels. This problem is further exacerbated by network densification, i.e., the emerging trend of deploying a large number of base stations in hotspot areas to cope with the increase in traffic demands.
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