What is Wireless-LAN

With Wi-Fi lets you build a wireless network. Places where wireless LANs are built include small to medium enterprises and universities, although more consumers to choose a home Wireless LAN. The need for computers in a fixed location to build a wireless network is not very large, though this is an exception for listed buildings or businesses which involve a property where no wiring is present. Even companies with flexible workplaces, where workers with their own laptops to choose a place more likely to choose a wireless network. Course is also a possible combination with both fixed and wireless workstations within a network.

The radio of a wireless-LAN connections are made in the 2.4 GHz frequency band, the zogemaande ISM band (Industrial, Scientific and Medical). There are no licenses required, the transmission power ranges from 30 to 100 mWatt. A wireless LAN uses the so-called spread spectrum technology, designed for storing sensitive transmission channels. This is important because this frequency band is used by many other devices, including Bluetooth for example.

A wireless network is generally a lot slower than a wired network. A fixed network usually has a speed of 10 or 100 Mbps, while the even faster Gigabit Ethernet (1 Gbps) is in strong demand. A wireless network according to the (IEEE) 802.11b standard has a top speed of 11 Mbps. In practice, however, that speed is much lower, because the speed terugschakeld depending on the circumstances. The 802.11b supports the following rates: 1 Mbps, 2 Mbps, 5.5 Mbps and 11 Mbps. With a bad connection or distance from the Access Point is the speeds dynamically switched back, as the following illustration.

That rate will then apply however to all users connected to the Access Point. So, as one of the Access Point notified users are between 70 and 90 meter, turn the speed not only for that user, but also for all other users notified back to 1 Mbps. Because the speed of a Wi-Fi is not ideal for all applications by new standards. The following table shows the standards.


Wireless LAN Standards

Default	Speed	Description
802.11	2 Mbps	First version, standardized in 1997.
802.11b	11 Mbps	approved late in 1999, led to rapid acceptance. Despite standardization was not forthcoming that equipment from different manufacturers can communicate. Therefore, the WLAN standardization drawn.
802.11a	54 Mbps	This standard is increasingly used, but the products are still expensive.