Hello, everyone!
Today, I will continue on the topic of IEEE 802.11 standard for WLANs.
In an attempt to consolidate and systematise all the adopted IEEE 802.11 enhancements, the last IEEE 802.11 standard (identified as IEEE 802.11-2012) was finally released to incorporate in an unique specification all the amendments published from 2008 to 2011.
The technological development of the WLAN specifications is a continuously evolving process. Thus, while the IEEE 802.11-2012 major revision of the IEEE 802.11 standard was finalised, the IEEE 802.11 working group was also rapidly moving its focus towards next-generation WLANs.
Three key drivers were forecasted:
i) Machine-to-Machine communications
ii) High Definition Multimedia Communications
iii) "Spectrum Sharing" in licensed bands by using cognitive radio technology.
Specifically, with the emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT) vision, i.e., a world were all sorts of smart objects (ranging from home appliances to small battery powered devices) are connected to the Internet, a low-power WLAN technology is required.
At the same time, the widespread diusion of mobile devices with diverse networking and multimedia capabilities, as well as the wide adoption of advanced multimedia applications, is fuelling the growth of mobile video traffic, which was already more than half of the global mobile data traffic by the end of 2013.
Thus, WLANs need specific functions to cope with various multimedia applications, including real-time interactive audio and video, or streaming live/stored audio and video. Finally, new regulations for the unlicensed usage of TV white spaces are offering new opportunities for additional spectrum utilisation, which can be particularly useful to improve rural coverage of WLANs.
However, cognitive radio mechanisms are required for enabling WLAN communications in TV white spaces. A new generation of amendments is consequently under development or has been completed since 2012 to address these new application requirements.
The most relevant are the IEEE 802.11aa, IEEE 802.11ac, IEEE 802.11ad, IEEE 802.11af, IEEE 802.11ah, and IEEE 802.11ax, among others.
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