Some of the important WLAN standards are provided below
The IEEE standards are defined by the 802.11 set of standards. Some of the mainline standards are provided below
- 802.11-1997 –> first 802.11 standard for 2.4 GHz operation
- 802.11b –> Defines extensions to 802.11-1997 standard in 2.4 GHz mode
- 802.11a –> Defines 5 GHz operation in OFDM mode
- 802.11g –> Defines extensions for higher rate in 2.4 GHz mode. Introduces OFDM in 2.4 GHz mode
- 802.11ah –> Wi-Fi in unlicensed spectrum below 1 GHz
- 802.11ad –> Wi-Fi 60 GHz operation
- 802.11n –> Defines High throughput operation for WLAN devices
- 802.11ac –> Defines very high throughput operation for WLAN devices
- 802.11ax –> Defines mechanisms for better and efficient usage of channel bandwidth
- 802.11be (Under development)–> Defines mechanisms for Extremely High Throughput (EHT)
In addition to the above standards, the IEEE standards body also developed standards for security, spectrum and transmit power management, fast roam, radio resource measurement, management frame protection etc. Some of the standards are provided below
- 802.11i –> Medium Access Control Security enhancements
- 802.11e –> Quality of Service
- 802.11h –> spectrum and transmit power management
- 802.11r –> Fast BSS connections
- 80211k –> Radio resource measurement
- 802.11s –> wireless Mesh Networks
- 802.11w –> management frame protection
The standard body merged all the different standards developed for WLAN into a single entity at various instances of time. They are
- 802.11-2007 –> incorporates all developements in WLAN standard till 2007
- 802.11-2012 –> incorporates all developments in WLAN standard till 2012
- 802.11-2016 –> incorporates all developments in WLAN standard till 2016
- 802.11-2020 –> incorporates all developments in WLAN standard till 2020
The Reader can download the latest 802.11 standards from the Get IEEE site. The Site link is provided below
Link: Get IEEE 802.11 Standards
In addition to the IEEE 802.11 standards – a few standards that work with 802.11 and are derivatives of the same are provided below
- 802.1X –> defines higher layer security mechanisms
- Wi-Fi alliance specifications –> define specifications for WMM/Peer-to-Peer/Hotspot/Wi-Fi simple configuration etc. The Specifications are available at Wi-Fi ORG Specifications