We've come a long way since 2001, when the only choices available for wireless networking were the now-defunct Home RF and 802.11b. Flash forward to today and it seems like a new wireless technology or variation on an existing one appears every week. But when you peel away the proprietary boosting and stretching technologies that manufacturers have tacked on, you'll find that the actual number of standards-based technologies is smaller than you might think. Let's start with 802.11b.

Technology Summary

The standard that started the "Wi-Fi" explosion, 802.11b operates in the 2.4GHz unlicensed frequency band (same as the one used by 2.4GHz cordless phones and microwave ovens), and uses DSSS (Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum) modulation. It has a maximum raw data rate of 11Mbps, with fallback rates of 5.5, 2, and 1Mbps.

802.11b was the first technology to be widely deployed and is still found in thousands of businesses and public Wi-Fi hotspots. For the most part, 11b has been eclipsed by the faster 802.11g, which leads the consumer, if not enterprise wireless networking market. However, 11b is still found in Wi-Fi phones, streaming music adapters, PDAs and other cost-sensitive applications where network speed requirements are lower.

Enhanced versions

Texas Instruments introduced an "enhanced" 802.11b in the first half of 2002 in the form of its

• 6 – Wireless Technologies - 802.11b
  

  1. 1 – Introduction
  2. 2 – Rule #1: It never goes as fast as they say it does
  3. 3 – Rule #1 - more
  4. 4 – Rule #2: It never goes as far as they say it does
  5. 5 – Rule #3: It never sets up as easily as they say it does
  6. 6 – Wireless Technologies - 802.11b
  7. 7 – 802.11g
  8. 8 – 802.11a and Dual-Band
  9. 9 – Bluetooth
  10. 10 – 802.11n (Pre-N and MIMO)
  11. 11 – Wireless MAN / WiMAX (802.16/16a)
  12. 12 – UltraWideBand (UWB) and ZigBee
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