Wireless Networking Standards

How fast do you want your home network to send and receive data? As fast as possible, obviously. That’s why you need to understand the various networking standards in place—and coming soon.

Actually, the only standard you need to worry about is IEEE 802.11. IEEE refers to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the group overseeing amendments and improvements to 802.11, the over-air data transmission standard used by home networks. These amendments have names like 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g. In the popular press, these amendments are referred to as standards. That’s not exactly correct—they’re amendments to a standard—but we’ll use the term here to avoid confusion.

These various wireless standards can each communicate at a different rate and with a different robustness.

802.11a is quite fast, communicating at about 22Mbps at a frequency of 5GHz. It’s fast, but not robust, and doesn’t have a great range.

802.11b is slower, communicating at 5Mbps at a frequency of 2.4GHz. It has a better range, however, for greater ease in setting up a network.

802.11g was a strong improvement over 802.11b, communicating at 20Mbps at a frequency of 2.4GHz. Because it uses the lower frequency, it has a larger range and is more versatile in setting up a network. It also works with 802.11b components, making it more flexible still.

By September 2008, IEEE will publish 802.11n, which should greatly improve existing speeds, getting up to 200Mbps. It will use a frequency of 2.4GHz, so it will be compatible with 802.11b and 802.11g components.

These standards didn’t all arrive at once, of course. They developed over the course of years, with new technology improving on the old. While the 802.11a standard didn’t have a far range, it’s fast and has been favored by gamers who need intense data throughput for online games.

The standards that work at 2.4GHz face interference from microwave ovens and cordless phones that work at that frequency. The standards that work at 2.4GHz have more range, but also more competition.

When you’re setting up a network (using the components we’ll talk about in the next section) be aware that your transmission is limited by the slower device. So if you have an 802.11g router in pace, but only an 802.11b connection card on your computer, you’ll only get 802.11b speed. It doesn’t matter how fast the router is sending out data if the computer catches it at a slower rate.

802.11a isn’t compatible with the other standards, so if you’re using it, all your components need to be 802.11a.

802.11n, by the way, achieves its remarkable speedy by using multiple transmitters and receivers, a process called MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output). 802.11n routers are distinguished by having three antennae, rather than only one for the other standards.

Troy Dreier is a freelance tech writer based in the New York City area.