ZyXEL Communications IEEE802.11b user manual What is Wireless LAN?, Wireless LAN Modes

WLAN PCI Card User’s Manual

What is Wireless LAN?

Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) systems offer a great number of advantages over traditional wired systems. WLAN is flexible and easy to setup and manage. They are also more economical than wired LAN systems.

Using radio frequency (RF) technology, WLAN transmit and receive data through the air. WLAN combine data connectivity with user mobility. For example, users can roam from a conference room to their office without being disconnected from the LAN.

Using WLAN, users can conveniently access-shared information, and network administrators can configure and augment networks without installing or moving network cables.

WLAN technology provides users with many convenient and cost saving features:

•Mobility: WLAN provide LAN users with access to real-time information anywhere in their organization, providing service opportunities that are impossible with wired networks.

•Ease of Installation: Installing is easy for novice and expert users alike, eliminating the need to install network cables in walls and ceilings.

•Scalability: WLAN can be configured in a variety of topologies to adapt to specific applications and installations. Configurations are easily changed and range from peer-to-peer networks suitable for a small number of users to full infrastructure networks of thousands of users roaming over a broad area.

Wireless LAN Modes

Wireless LANs can be configured in one of two ways:

Ad-hoc	Also known as a peer-to-peer network, an ad-hoc
Networking	network is one that allows all workstations and
	computers in the network to act as servers to all other
	users on the network. Users on the network can share
	files, print to a shared printer, and access the Internet
	with a shared modem. However, with ad-hoc
	networking, users can only communicate with other
	wireless LAN computers that are in the wireless LAN
	workgroup, and are within range.
Infrastructure	Infrastructure networking differs from ad-hoc
Networking	networking in that it includes an access point. Unlike
	the ad-hoc structure where users on the LAN contend
	the shared bandwidth, on an infrastructure network the
	access point can manage the bandwidth to maximize

6