Fundamentals of Communications and Networking, 3rd Edition

IEEE 802.11 Family of Standards

The initial release of the IEEE 802.11 standard (referred to as IEEE 802.11–1999) has been enhanced by other standards to provide increased data speed and greater security. The first widely accepted wireless networking standard was 802.11b, followed by 802.11a, 802.11g, 802.11n, and 802.11ac. Other standards in the family (such as c–f and h–j) are service enhancements and extensions, or corrections to previous specifications. You will read about the basic IEEE 802.11 protocol model in the following sections. This framework is used by the initial and subsequent releases of the IEEE 802.11 standards. The core 802.11 standards that apply directly to wireless networks are listed in TABLE 10-1.

TABLE 10-1 Significant ...