DavieSwanner766

Wi-Fi is a fairly new variety of engineering that is just

beginning to attract a wide following worldwide. Some

contemplate it to be one of the most important innovations

in technology given that the internet came to the mainstream.

Simply because of it, computer systems are now able to connect to the

web and to other computer systems wirelessly.

The precursor of todays Wi-Fi was developed sometime in

the early 1990s by the Netherlands-based firm NCR

Corporation/AT&T (which later became recognized as Lucent &

Agere Systems). Called WaveLAN, it was originally intended

to be utilized in money registers.

Many competing standards prevented the immediate achievement

of obtaining wireless networks. Even so, with the development

of the IEEE 802.11 normal and the release of its first

protocol in 1997, this technologies slowly but certainly came

into the mainstream.

Because then, numerous protocols had been released and numerous

more will be released to address issues such as range and

speed.

The 1st protocol released in 1997, now known as the

Legacy mode, operated in the 2.4 GHz frequency. The

throughput and information rate are slow by todays standards,

with only .9 and 2 Mbit/s, respectively. 802.11 a and b

came two years later in 1999 with the a protocol providing

more rapidly speeds although the b supplied a wider range.

The components of the two had been later merged in 2003 when the

802.11g protocol was released. The new protocol made available the

speed of the a and the range of the b.

Newer protocols are at the moment under development. The n, set

to be released mid-2009 provides better speeds and almost

double the range of the a/b/g protocols. An additional a single, the

802.11y, is set to be released in mid-2008 has the same

speed as the g protocol although the y has an outdoor range

of as much as five kilometers. official link