802.11

Along with the vendor deployed protocols and manually configured protocols, some company based protocols were also introduced which are still being used today in the networking world for some functions to work properly. The standardization of these company based protocols is brought about by the IEEE so that a standard is maintained throughout the world and there are no clashes anywhere. The 802.11 also known as 802.11x protocol was the first and the main protocol due to which the standardization of the other protocols is taking place now. As of today the 802.11 has an entire family consisting of different protocols all derived from 802.11.

The 802.11 was the place where the wireless LANs find there beginnings. It is rare to find the true original 802.11 protocol in the hardware that is being produced today. The reason that it is not used now, in today’s hardware is because it can only operate at the speed of 1 MB and 2MB, while other protocols can operate at much higher speeds. So companies prefer to use other protocols which would provide them more profit. The speed limitation standard is defined in the FHSS or Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum. The 802.11 standard also describes the DSSS or Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum. As the 802.11 standards are defined, so if a client tries to use it at any other data rate then it is considered as the non-802.11 complaint.

The original 802.11 protocol was first ratified in 1997, having the RF technology of FSHH and DSSS and frequency spectrum of 2.4 GHz. This original 802.11 protocol defined with the specification told above, falls within the ISM that is industry, scientific and medical bands, operating at 2.4 GHz. This band has up to 14 channels, but it depends upon the country one is in. moreover, each country has different rules, hence the number of channels that can be used, also vary.