In this article, we shall tell you all about Wi-Fi 802.11. Well, Wi-Fi itself is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance, which is for certified products that have been based on the IEEE 802.11 standards. This certifications means that there is a warranty of interoperability between various wireless devices. Today, the term IEEE 802.11 is just known as Wi-Fi for short, in some countries. However, you should not take this to mean that every IEEE 802.11 compliant device has been certified by the Wi-Fi alliance, because a lack of the Wi-Fi logo does not imply that a device is incompatible to certified Wi-Fi devices. Today, most personal computer operating systems, printers, peripherals, video game consoles, laptops, and smart-phones make use of Wi-Fi.

Both single carrier direct-sequence spread spectrum radio technology and multi-carrier OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) radio technology are used by Wi-Fi. The development of Wi-Fi has been enabled by the regulations for the unlicensed spread spectrum. This was first made available by the FCC, in the US, and the regulations were later copied with a few changes in a few other countries which enabled the use of this technology in all the major countries. The FCC action had been proposed by Michael Marcus in 1980, he was in the FCC staff, and the regulatory action that followed took around 5 years. You should be aware that all this was part of a broader proposal to allow the civil use of spread spectrum technology and had been opposed then, by mainstream equipment manufacturers and by many radio system operators.

So what was before Wi-Fi? Well, its precursor was invented in 1991, by the NCR Corporation / AT & T (which later became Lucent Technologies and Agere Systems), in the Netherlands. It had been intended for the cashier systems, and these were the first ever wireless products which were released in the market under the name of WaveLAN, and their speeds ranged from 1 Mbit/s to 2 Mbit/s. Then later, Vic Hayes developed the standards IEEE 802.11b, and 802.11a, and he is today called the father of Wi-Fi”.

The CSIRO, since 1996, holds the original patents behind the 802.11 Wi-Fi technology, and these patents have undergone much legal battles between the CSIRO (an Australian research body), and major IT corporations, over the non-payment of royalties. In 2009, a settlement was made between CSIRO and 14 companies, (which included Dell, ASUS, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Toshiba, Microsoft and Nintendo); with the condition that CSIRO would not broadcast the resolution.
So then what exactly is the Wi-Fi Alliance? Well, this means that there are certain standards that try to improve the interoperability of wireless local area network products, based on the IEEE 802.11 standards. It is made up by both separate and independent companies, and a set of common interoperable products have been agreed upon, which are based on these standards. The Alliance gives certification to products with a set of defines test procedures. Those manufacturers who have a membership of Wi-Fi Alliance, and whose products have passed these tests, will bear the mark of the Wi-Fi logo on their packaging.

The word “Wi-Fi” itself roughly means Wireless Fidelity, which is compared to Hi-Fi, which means High Fidelity; this was the long-established audio recording term. The term Wi-Fi is an unofficial term, and does not mean anything by itself. The term was used in a commercial sense first in August of 1999, and had been created by Interbrand Corporation, which is a brand consulting firm – they had been hired by the Alliance to give a catchy name to something that was called “IEEE 802.11b Direct Sequence”. Then the word Wi-Fi was created, a play upon Hi-Fi, and the yin-yang style logo was also created.

So what does Wi-Fi do for us? Well, if there are different Wi-Fi enabled devices like mobile phone, PC, PDA, video game console or even MP3 player; they can connect to the Internet when they are within the range of a wireless network. There is the concept of access points, and interconnected access spots are called a hotspot – and can be in a small room with wireless opaque walls. Mesh networks in London are due to W-Fi technology. Wi-Fi gives restricted use of the Internet in both homes and offices, and Internet access can be given at Wi-Fi hotspots, which are sometimes free of charge, and sometimes given to subscribers. It is certainly not unusual to find hotspots provided by hotels, restaurants and airports to attract their clients, because after all – everyone needs the Internet and would like to log on. Sometimes, to promote business in a particular area, free Wi-Fi access is provided. Today, there are more than 300 metropolitan-wide Wi-FI projects in progress and there are 879 Wireless Internet service providers in the Czech Republic.

What else does Wi-Fi do? Well, it allows connectivity in peer-to-peer (wireless ad hoc network) mode, and this allows the dveices to connect directly to each other. This has proved very useful in the field of gaming applications and consumer electronics. It should be mentioned that when wireless technology first was released in the market, there were many problems for consumers, who thought that so many products from different vendors could not be able to work together. Thus the Wi-Fi Alliance started, to solve all these problems, and they aimed to address the needs of the end-user and to give the technology a chance to mature. Then the branding Wi-Fi CERTIFIED was created, which would reassure consumers that their product would interoperate successfully with other products that had the same branding.

Today, Wi-Fi is used by many consumer devices out there, and even personal computers can join on the same network and connect to the Internet. Even mobile computers can use a Wi-Fi hotspot to connect to the Internet, and it has also become easier for digital cameras to transfer images on a wireless basis.

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