USRobotics Instant802 APSDK manual 802.11b, 802.11d, 802.11e, 802.11f, 802.11g, 802.11i

Professional Access Point

Administrator Guide

802.11b

IEEE 802.11b (IEEE Std. 802.11b-1999) is an enhancement of the initial 802.11 PHY to include 5.5 Mbps and 11 Mbps data rates. It uses direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) or frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) in the 2.4 GHz ISM band as well as complementary code keying (CCK) to provide the higher data rates. It supports data rates ranging from 1 to 11 Mbps.

802.11d

IEEE 802.11d defines standard rules for the operation of IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs in any country without reconfiguration. PHY requirements such as provides frequency hopping tables, acceptable channels, and power levels for each country are provided. Enabling support for IEEE 802.11d on the access point causes the access point to broadcast which country it is operating in as a part of its beacons. Client stations then use this information. This is particularly important for access point operation in the 5GHz IEEE 802.11a bands because use of these frequencies varies a great deal from one country to another.

802.11e

IEEE 802.11e is a developing IEEE standard for MAC enhancements to support QoS. It provides a mechanism to prioritize traffic within 802.11. It defines allowed changes in the Arbitration Interframe Space, a minimum and maximum Contention Window size, and the maximum length (in kµsec) of a burst of data.

IEEE 802.11e is still a draft IEEE standard (most recent version is D5.0, July 2003). A currently available subset of 802.11e is the Wireless Multimedia Enhancements (WMM) standard.

802.11f

IEEE 802.11f (IEEE Std. 802.11f-2003) is a standard that defines the inter access point protocol (IAPP) for access points (wireless hubs) in an extended service set (ESS). The standard defines how access points communicate the associations and reassociations of their mobile stations.

802.11g

IEEE 802.11g (IEEE Std. 802.11g-2003) is a higher speed extension (up to 54 Mbps) to the 802.11b PHY, while operating in the 2.4 GHz band. It uses orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). It supports data rates ranging from 1 to 54 Mbps.

802.11i

IEEE 802.11i is a comprehensive IEEE standard for security in a wireless local area network (WLAN) that describes Wi-FiProtected Access 2 (WPA2). It defines enhancements to the MAC Layer to counter the some of the weaknesses of WEP. It incorporates stronger encryption techniques than the original Wi-FiProtected Access (WPA), such as Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).

The original WPA, which can be considered a subset of 802.11i, uses Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) for encryption. WPA2 is backwards-compatible with products that support the original WPA

IEEE 802.11i / WPA2 was finalized and ratified in June of 2004.

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