TERMINOLOGY
Access Point—An internetworking device that seamlessly connects wired and wireless networks.
Ad Hoc—An ad hoc wireless LAN is a group of computers, each with LAN adapters, connected as an independent wireless LAN.
Backbone—The core infrastructure of a network. The portion of the network that transports information from one central location to another central location where it is unloaded onto a local system.
Base Station—In mobile telecommunications, a base station is the central radio transmitter/receiver that maintains communications with the mobile radiotelephone sets within its range. In cellular and personal communications applications, each cell or micro-cell has its own base station; each base station in turn is interconnected with other cells’ bases.
BSS—Basic Service Set. It is an access point and all the LAN PCs that are associated with it.
CSMA/CA—Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance.
EAP—Extensible Authentication Protocol, which provides a generalized framework for several different authentication methods.
ESS—Extended Service Set. More than one BSS is configured to become an ESS. LAN mobile users can roam between different BSSs in an ESS (ESS-ID, SSID).
Ethernet—A popular local area data communications network, which accepts transmission from computers and terminals.
Infrastructure—An integrated wireless and wired LAN is called an infrastructure configuration.
RADIUS—Remote Access Dial-In User Server is an authentication method used in conjunction with EAP for 802.1x authentication and session based keys.
Roaming—A wireless LAN mobile user moves around an ESS and maintains a continuous connection to the infrastructure network.
RTS Threshold—Transmitters contending for the medium may not be aware of each other (they are “hidden nodes”). The RTS/CTS mechanism can solve this problem. If the packet size is smaller than the preset RTS Threshold size, the RTS/CTS mechanism will not be enabled.
