Linksys WRK54G (EU/LA) manual What is DSSS? What is FHSS? And what are their differences?

Wireless-G Notebook Adapter

the receiver knows the parameters of the spread-spectrum signal being broadcast. If a receiver is not tuned to the right frequency, a spread-spectrum signal looks like background noise. There are two main alternatives, Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) and Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS).

What is DSSS? What is FHSS? And what are their differences?

Frequency-Hopping Spread-Spectrum (FHSS) uses a narrowband carrier that changes frequency in a pattern that is known to both transmitter and receiver. Properly synchronized, the net effect is to maintain a single logical channel. To an unintended receiver, FHSS appears to be short-duration impulse noise. Direct-Sequence Spread- Spectrum (DSSS) generates a redundant bit pattern for each bit to be transmitted. This bit pattern is called a chip (or chipping code). The longer the chip, the greater the probability that the original data can be recovered. Even if one or more bits in the chip are damaged during transmission, statistical techniques embedded in the radio can recover the original data without the need for retransmission. To an unintended receiver, DSSS appears as low power wideband noise and is rejected (ignored) by most narrowband receivers.

Would the information be intercepted while transmitting on air?

WLAN features two-fold protection in security. On the hardware side, as with Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum technology, it has the inherent security feature of scrambling. On the software side, WLAN offers the encryption function (WEP) to enhance security and access control.

What is WEP?

WEP is Wired Equivalent Privacy, a data privacy mechanism based on a shared key algorithm, as described in the IEEE 802.11 standard.

Appendix A: Troubleshooting

dsss: Frequency transmission with a redundant bit pattern resulting in a lower probability of information being lost in transit.

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