A wireless network uses radio waves to connect devices like laptops to the internet and business networks without cables. It provides mobility and flexibility compared to wired networks. Common benefits of wireless networks for small businesses include convenience, mobility, productivity gains, low installation costs, and the ability to easily expand network access points. Wireless standards like 802.11 have continually improved network speeds and security.

1. Five Questions to
Start With :

2. • What is a wireless network?
• How is it different from a wired network?
• And what are the business benefits of a wireless
network?
• The following overview answers basic questions such as
What is a wireless network?, so you can decide if one is
right for your business.

3. What Is a Wireless
Network?
• What is a wireless network, exactly?
• A wireless local-area network (LAN) uses radio waves to
connect devices such as laptops to the Internet and to
your business network and its applications. When you
connect a laptop to a WiFi hotspot at a cafe, hotel, airport
lounge, or other public place, you're connecting to that
business's wireless network.

4. What Is a Wireless
Network vs. a Wired
Network?
• A wired network connects devices to the Internet or other
network using cables. The most common wired networks
use cables connected to Ethernet ports on the network
router on one end and to a computer or other device on
the cable's opposite end.

5. What Is a Wireless
Network? Catching Up
with Wired Networks
• In the past, some believed wired networks were faster and
more secure than wireless networks. But continual
enhancements to wireless networking standards and
technologies have eroded those speed and security
differences.

6. What Is a Wireless
Network?: The Benefits
Small businesses can experience many benefits from a wireless network, including:
• Convenience. Access your network resources from any location within your
wireless network's coverage area or from any WiFi hotspot.
• Mobility. You're no longer tied to your desk, as you were with a wired
connection. You and your employees can go online in conference room meetings,
for example.
• Productivity. Wireless access to the Internet and to your company's key
applications and resources helps your staff get the job done and encourages
collaboration.
• Easy setup. You don't have to string cables, so installation can be quick and cost-
effective.
• Expandable. You can easily expand wireless networks with existing equipment,
while a wired network might require additional wiring.
• Security. Advances in wireless networks provide robust security protections.
• Cost. Because wireless networks eliminate or reduce wiring costs, they can cost
less to operate than wired networks.

7. Five Reasons to Go
Wireless

8. Increased mobility and
collaboration
• Roam without losing your connection
• Work together more effectively
• Employees who use your wireless LAN can roam around
your office or to different floors without losing their
connection. Imagine everyone in a team meeting or in
small conferences having access to up-to-the minute
communications, and all documents and applications on
your network. Similarly, using Voice over Wireless LAN
technology, they can have roaming capabilities in their
voice communications

9. Improved
responsiveness
• Connect to the information you need when you need it
• Provide better customer service
• Customers want quick response to queries and concerns.
A wireless network can improve customer service by
connecting staff to the information they need. For
example, a doctor in a small medical office can access
online patient files while moving between exam rooms,
or a retail sales person can check on available inventory
necessary to write up orders on the showroom floor.

10. Better access to
information
• Connect hard-to-reach areas
• Improve your processes
• Wireless LANs allow a business to bring network access
to areas that would be difficult to connect to a wired
network. For example, adding wireless access points to a
warehouse can make it easier to check and manage
inventory, providing the company with accurate inventory
figures in real time.

11. Easier network expansion
• Add users quickly
• Grow your network cost-effectively
• Companies that need to add employees or reconfigure
offices frequently will immediately benefit from the
flexibility wireless LANs provide. Desks can be moved
and new employees can be added to the network without
the effort and cost required to run cables and wires.

12. Enhanced guest access
• Give secure network access to customers and business
partners
• Offer a value-added service
• A wireless network allows your business to provide
secure wireless access to the Internet for guests such as
customers or business partners. Retailers, restaurants,
hotels and other public-facing businesses can provide this
as a unique value-added service.

13. WIRELESS
• The word wireless is dictionary defined as "having no
wires". Innetworking terminology, wireless is the term
used to describe anycomputer network where there is no
physical wired connection between sender and receiver,
but rather the network is connected by radio waves and/or
microwaves to maintain communications. Wireless
networking utilizes specific equipment such as NICs, APs
and routers in place of wires (copper or optical fiber) for
connectivity.

14. Wireless Links

15. Wireless links
• Radio and spread spectrum technologies – Wireless local
area networks use a high-frequency radio technology
similar to digital cellular and a low-frequency radio
technology. Wireless LANs use spread spectrum
technology to enable communication between multiple
devices in a limited area. IEEE 802.11 defines a common
flavor of open-standards wireless radio-wave technology
known asWifi.
• Free-space optical communication uses visible or
invisible light for communications. In most cases, line-of-
sight propagation is used, which limits the physical
positioning of communicating device

16. • Radio and spread spectrum technologies – Wireless local area
networks use a high-frequency radio technology similar to
digital cellular and a low-frequency radio technology. Wireless
LANs use spread spectrum technology to enable
communication between multiple devices in a limited
area. IEEE 802.11 defines a common flavor of open-standards
wireless radio-wave technology known asWifi.
• Free-space optical communication uses visible or invisible
light for communications. In most cases, line-of-sight
propagation is used, which limits the physical positioning of
communicating device

17. Types of Wireless
Networks
• WLANS: Wireless Local Area Networks
• WPANS: Wireless Personal Area Networks
• WMANS: Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks
• WWANS: Wireless Wide Area Networks

18. WLANS: Wireless Local
Area Networks
• WLANS: Wireless Local Area Networks
• WLANS allow users in a local area, such as a university
campus or library, to form a network or gain access to the
internet. A temporary network can be formed by a small
number of users without the need of an access point;
given that they do not need access to network resources.

19. WPANS: Wireless
Personal Area Networks
• The two current technologies for wireless personal area
networks are Infra Red (IR) and Bluetooth (IEEE
802.15). These will allow the connectivity of personal
devices within an area of about 30 feet. However, IR
requires a direct line of site and the range is less.

20. WMANS: Wireless
Metropolitan Area
Networks
• This technology allows the connection of multiple
networks in a metropolitan area such as different
buildings in a city, which can be an alternative or backup
to laying copper or fiber cabling

21. WWANS: Wireless Wide
Area Networks
• These types of networks can be maintained over large
areas, such as cities or countries, via multiple satellite
systems or antenna sites looked after by an ISP. These
types of systems are referred to as 2G (2nd Generation)
systems.

22. Comparison of Wireless
Network Types

23. 802.11 IEEE wireless LAN
standards
• 802.11 and 802.11x refers to a family of specifications
developed by the IEEE for wireless LAN (WLAN)
technology. 802.11 specifies an over-the-air interface
between a wireless client and a base station or between
two wireless clients. The IEEE accepted the specification
in 1997.

24. 802.11
• applies to wireless LANs and provides 1 or 2 Mbps
transmission in the 2.4 GHz band using either frequency
hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) or direct sequence
spread spectrum (DSSS).

25. 802.11a
• an extension to 802.11 that applies to wireless LANs and
provides up to 54-Mbps in the 5GHz band. 802.11a uses
an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing encoding
scheme rather than FHSS or DSSS.

26. FHSS - frequency-hopping
spread spectrum
• Acronym for frequency-hopping spread spectrum. FHSS
is one of two types of spread spectrum radio, the other
being direct-sequence spread spectrum. FHSS is a
transmission technology used in LAWNtransmissions
where the data signal is modulated with a narrowband
carrier signal that "hops" in a random but predictable
sequence from frequency to frequency as a function of
time over a wide band of frequencies.

27. DSSS - direct-sequence
spread spectrum
• Direct-sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) is one of two types of
spread spectrum radio, the other being frequency-hopping spread
spectrum.
DSSS Transmission
• DSSS is a transmission technology used in LAWN transmissions
where a data signal at the sending station is combined with a higher
data rate bit sequence, or chipping code, that divides the user data
according to a spreading ratio. The chipping code is a redundant bit
pattern for each bit that is transmitted, which increases the signal's
resistance to interference.
• If one or more bits in the pattern are damaged during transmission,
the original data can be recovered due to the redundancy of the
transmission.

28. 802.11b
• (also referred to as 802.11 High Rate or Wi-Fi) — an
extension to 802.11 that applies to wireless LANS and
provides 11 Mbps transmission (with a fallback to 5.5, 2
and 1-Mbps) in the 2.4 GHz band. 802.11b uses
only DSSS. 802.11b was a 1999 ratification to the
original 802.11 standard, allowing wireless functionality
comparable to Ethernet.

29. 802.11e
• a wireless draft standard that defines
the Quality of Service (QoS) support for LANs, and is an
enhancement to the 802.11a and 802.11b wireless LAN
(WLAN) specifications. 802.11e adds QoS features and
multimedia support to the existing IEEE 802.11b and
IEEE 802.11a wireless standards, while maintaining full
backward compatibility with these standards.

30. 802.11g
• applies to wireless LANs and is used for transmission
over short distances at up to 54-Mbps in the 2.4 GHz
bands.

31. 802.11n
• 802.11n builds upon previous 802.11 standards by
adding multiple-input multiple-output(MIMO). The
additional transmitter and receiver antennas allow for
increased data throughput through spatial multiplexing
and increased range by exploiting the spatial diversity
through coding schemes like Alamouti coding. The real
speed would be 100 Mbit/s (even 250 Mbit/s in PHY
level), and so up to 4-5 times faster than 802.11g.

32. 802.11ac
• 802.11ac builds upon previous 802.11 standards,
particularly the 802.11n standard, to deliver data rates of
433Mbps per spatial stream, or 1.3Gbps in a three-
antenna (three stream) design. The 802.11ac specification
operates only in the 5 GHz frequency range and features
support for wider channels (80MHz and 160MHz) and
beamforming capabilities by default to help achieve its
higher wireless speeds

33. 802.11ac wave 2
• 802.11ac Wave 2 is an update for the original 802.11ac
spec that uses MU-MIMOtechnology and other
advancements to help increase theoretical maximum
wireless speeds for the spec to 6.93 Gbps.

34. 802.11ad
• 802.11ad is a wireless specification under development
that will operate in the 60GHz frequency band and offer
much higher transfer rates than previous 802.11 specs,
with a theoretical maximum transfer rate of up to 7Gbps
(Gigabits per second).

35. 802.11ah
• Also known as Wi-Fi HaLow, 802.11ah is the first Wi-Fi
specification to operate in frequency bands below one
gigahertz (900 MHz), and it has a range of nearly twice
that of other Wi-Fi technologies. It's also able to penetrate
walls and other barriers considerably better than previous
Wi-Fi standards.

36. 802.11r
• 802.11r, also called Fast Basic Service Set (BSS)
Transition, supports VoWi-Fi handoff between access
points to enable VoIP roaming on a Wi-Fi network
with 802.1X authentication.

37. 802.11x
• Not to be confused with 802.11x (which is the term used
to describe the family of 802.11 standards) 802.1X is an
IEEE standard for port-based Network Access Control
that allows network administrators to restricted use of
IEEE 802 LAN service access points to secure
communication between authenticated and authorized
devices.