IEEE 802.11 PHY Standards

The IEEE 802.11 standards used by the Wireless LANs of today have seen many amendments since first being published in June 1997. These amendments address the ever-growing demands put on the wireless medium due to the the onslaught of mobile devices and the need for wireless performance to be on par with the wired network.

The image below summarises the key 802.11 PHY protocols, which have a primary goal of increasing throughput to the wireless client device;

I will keep this table updated as new standards are ratified. In a future post I will list all 802.11 standards and amendments.

-Brett