802.11 WLAN: history and new enabling MIMO techniques for next generation standards

IEEE 802.11, which designs wireless local area networks (WLAN), is one of the most successful standards in wireless communication systems. In this article, we review the history of WLAN standards, and provide technical overviews of the recent development of WLAN systems. Especially, as the original inventor and the proposer, we focus on beamforming and compressed feedback schemes, which have been adopted in 802.11 WLAN standards, to improve the throughput for a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system. These techniques are essential to maximize the downlink system throughput for multiple user transmission as well as for single user transmission. Also, we present discussions on new technologies to further enhance user throughput, which are currently considered for future WLAN systems.