IEEE 8O2.11: wireless LANs from a to n

From its inception in 1980, the IEEE 802 committee has led the way in developing LAN (local area network) standards. The committee´s work on wireless LANs (WLANs) began in 1987 within the TEEE 802.4 working group. Developing an ISM (industrial, scientific, and medical)-based WLAN using the equivalent of a token-passing bus media access control (MAC) protocol was the committee´s initial goal. After some work, the committee decided that a token-bus-controlled radio medium would cause inefficient use of the radio frequency spectrum. In 1990, the committee formed a new working group, IEEE 802.11, specifically devoted to WLANs, with a charter to develop a MAC protocol and physical-medium specification. Since then, demand for WLANs, at different frequencies and data rates, has exploded. Keeping pace with this demand, the IEEE 802.11 working group has issued an ever-expanding list of standards.