Wireless local area network

A wireless local area network (WLAN) is a wireless computer network that links two or more devices using a wireless distribution method (often spread-spectrum or OFDM radio) within a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, or office building. This gives users the ability to move around within a local coverage area and yet still be connected to the network. A WLAN can also provide a connection to the wider Internet.

Most modern WLANs are based on IEEE 802.11 standards and are marketed under the Wi-Fi brand name.

Wireless LANs have become popular for use in the home, due to their ease of installation and use. They are also popular in commercial complexes that offer wireless access to their customers (often without charge).

Norman Abramson, a professor at the University of Hawaii, developed the world's first wireless computer communication network, ALOHAnet (operational in 1971), using low-cost ham-like radios. The system included seven computers deployed over four islands to communicate with the central computer on the Oahu Island without using phone lines.

Wireless LAN hardware initially cost so much that it was only used as an alternative to cabled LAN in places where cabling was difficult or impossible. Early development included industry-specific solutions and proprietary protocols, but at the end of the 1990s these were replaced by standards, primarily the various versions of IEEE 802.11 (in products using the Wi-Fi brand name). Beginning in 1991, a European alternative known as HiperLAN/1 was pursued by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) with a first version approved in 1996. This was followed by a HiperLAN/2 functional specification with ATM influences accomplished February 2000. Neither European standard achieved the commercial success of 802.11, although much of the work on HiperLAN/2 has survived in the physical specification (PHY) for IEEE 802.11a, which is nearly identical to the PHY of HiperLAN/2.

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