Wireless Standards

802.11c
Modified 802.1d -- MAC level bridging -- to include 802.11 frames, thus helping with quality of service and filtering issues. Done and dusted, this is a useful standard of no interest to anyone not designing wireless LAN hardware. Be glad it's there, and move on.

802.11d
Global harmonisation group. Different countries have different parts of the 2.4 and 5GHz bands available for unlicensed wireless networking. 802.11d seeks to help create standards that will be approvable in as many different countries as possible.

802.11e
Quality of service (QoS) initiative for MAC level issues. In brief, allows packets with specific requirements for transmission delay and bandwidth to be passed preferentially to those with laxer needs. This will let streamed audio and video work better. When finished and available, it'll work with existing cards: end of 2003 looks possible.

802.11f
Inter-access point roaming protocol. Will let you move through a wireless LAN with multiple access points from different manufacturers, and maintain your connection. Not finished yet: may be available by the end of 2003.

802.11g
55Mbps in the 2.4GHz band. Downwards compatible with 802.11b. As of early 2003, you can buy "802.11g" cards despite the standard not being finished until later this year: interoperability between vendors and aspects of 802.11b compatibility being most problematic.

802.11h
H is for Hiperlan -- the European standard wireless LAN. This doesn't really exist, so 802.11h adds some features to 802.11a to make it suitable for European use and be Hiperlan. These features are frequency and power management to make sure that 802.11a networks don't interfere with radar and satellite services, although it's unclear whether users will reliably set these up.

802.11i
The next level of security for 802.11. It includes key management and distribution, encryption and authentication. When finalised in late 2003, it will probably run on existing systems through a firmware upgrade, if perhaps not at full capability.

802.11 IR
802.11 for infra-red. Developed at the same time as 802.11 itself, and supporting 1 or 2Mbps, it was then and is now a technical oddity. No products have ever been known to support this standard, and it hasn't been developed to higher speeds. Optical LANs are available, but have proprietary standards and have little advantage to radio alternatives other than nominally higher security. Good for geek pub quizzes, though.

802.11j
An equivalent of 802.11h for the Japanese regulatory environment

802.11k
A recently started project to standardise the way 802.11a, b and g networks report measurements of radio and network conditions to other parts of the network stack and new applications. Should be good for network management, fault finding and other diagnostic fun.

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