IEEE 8O2.11: wireless LANs from a to n

From its inception in 1980, the IEEE 802 committee has led the way in developing LAN (local area network) standards. The committee's work on wireless LANs (WLANs) began in 1987 within the TEEE 802.4 working group. Developing an ISM (industrial, scientific, and medical)-based WLAN using the equivalent of a token-passing bus media access control (MAC) protocol was the committee's initial goal. After some work, the committee decided that a token-bus-controlled radio medium would cause inefficient use of the radio frequency spectrum. In 1990, the committee formed a new working group, IEEE 802.11, specifically devoted to WLANs, with a charter to develop a MAC protocol and physical-medium specification. Since then, demand for WLANs, at different frequencies and data rates, has exploded. Keeping pace with this demand, the IEEE 802.11 working group has issued an ever-expanding list of standards.