A Tribute to the 802.11 Standard
Oct 15, 2015
In September, the IEEE 802.11 standard celebrated its 25th anniversary, and oh how far it has come.
In 1990, if you owned a computer, you probably accessed the Internet through a dial-up connection, and listened to that long buzzy tone (you know what we’re talking about) until you finally got a decent connection. Even then, the connection was super slow compared to speeds Internet users experience today.
At that time, the IEEE Standards Association had just initiated a project titled IEEE 802.11 that would change Internet usage forever.
The 802.11 standard is basically the reason WiFi exists. Okay, not basically. It is the reason WiFi exists.
The IEEE Standards Association defines 802.11 as “the standard that defines the technology for the world’s premier wireless local area network (LAN) products.”
The standard helps enable applications that allow users to communicate at any time from any place. Without it, we wouldn’t be able to connect to WiFi as an alternative to using up smartphone/tablet Internet data, to work on laptops at the airport, to communicate freely from out of the country… we could keep going, but the list of meaningful usages of WiFi is endless. So thanks 802.11!
Fun Fact: WiFi was added to the Merriam-Webster Collegiate dictionary in 2005.
802.11 Evolution Perpective: When the first approved and adopted version of 802.11 was released in 1997, it yielded Internet data rate speeds at 2 Mbps, ranging only about 20 meters for indoor usage. Now, data rates are at 7 Gbps (that’s 3500 times faster!) with indoor usage ranging up to 70 meters.
The latest 802.11 standard is 802.11ac, which produces the standard’s fastest speeds yet, and is featured on the following Buffalo products:
AirStation™ Extreme AC1900
AirStation™ Extreme AC1750
AirStation™ AC1200
AirStation™ AC433 Travel Router
AirStation™ AC 1750 DD-WRT
AirStation™ Extreme AC1900 DD-WRT NXT
AirStation™ AC1200 DD-WRT NXT
With the 802.11 standard constantly evolving and creating an enhanced Internet user experience, we’re looking forward to the next 25 years!
Source: IEEE Standards Association