ALSO CALLED: IEEE 802.11, Wireless Ethernet Protocols, and Wireless Ethernet Standards DEFINITION: 802.11 is an evolving family of specifications for wirelesslocal area networks (WLANs) developed by a working group of the Institute of Electrical and ElectronicsEngineers (IEEE). There are several specifications in the family and new ones are occasionally
… Definition continues below.
All the 802.11 specifications use the Ethernetprotocol andCarrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) for path sharing. The original modulation used in802.11 was phase-shift keying (PSK). However, other schemes, such as complementary code keying (CCK), are used in some of the newer specifications. The newer modulation methods provide higher data speed and reduced vulnerability to interference.
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