Wireless Networking And Wireless Switches; Wlan Market; Wlan Standards - Symbol WS5100 Reviewer's Manual

1
This chapter provides a general overview of wireless networking and
wireless switches. Specific information about he WS5100 wireless switch is
included in Chapter 2.
1.1

WLAN Market

Starting with the adoption and widespread acceptance of the Institute of
Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.11b standard, the use of
Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) has accelerated rapidly and continues
to grow, both in the Small Office Home Office (SOHO) space as well as in the
general Enterprise space. According to Wireless LAN industry analysts the
enterprise WLAN market generated $1.259 Billion USD in 2004 and should
reach $2.776 Billion USD in 2008, with a CAGR of 21.8%. {Source: Synergy
Research}.
1.2

WLAN Standards

There are several IEEE standards for WLANs. Three standards are widely
used today: These are:
802.11b, which has a data rate of 11 megabits per second (Mbps).
802.11g, which has a data rate of 54Mbps and is backwards
compatible with 802.11b.
802.11a, which operate at 54 Mbps.
There are some additional standards to address the shortcoming of the above
standards. These include:
802.11i/WPA2, which is a security standard.
802.11e, which is a QOS (Quality of Service) standard.
In addition, there is an increasingly popular WLAN option named 802.11a/b/g,
is which is the integration of the 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g standards in
the same device. Industry analysts expect that these "integrated WLANs"
will gain mass acceptance as they become less expensive.
Wireless Networking
and Wireless Switches