TABLE OF CONTENTS "Wi-Fi" is a play on the old audio term "Hi-Fi" (high fidelity). The term also has been trademarked by the Wi-Fi Alliance (formerly the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance). Today, Wi-Fi is most commonly used to describe a wireless local area network based on the IEEE 802.11 series of standards, which is a set of wireless technical specifications issued by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). The IEEE is an international professional organization for electrical and electronics engineers, with formal links with the International Organization for Standardization (more commonly known as the "ISO").
The IEEE 802.11 standards specify an "over-the-air" interface consisting of radio frequency (RF) technology to transmit and receive data between a wireless client and a base station or access point (an "infrastructure" configuration), as well as among two or more wireless clients that happen to be within communications range of each other (an "ad hoc" configuration).
The IEEE 802.11 standards resolve compatibility issues between manufacturers of wireless networking equipment operating in specific frequency bands within the unlicensed spectra of 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. (Unlicensed spectrum refers to airwaves that haven't been allocated to an exclusive user.) This wireless, flexible data communications system can be implemented either as an extension to, or as an alternative for, a wired local area network (LAN). As such, it is a wireless networking standard that's...
