Last week, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ratified the 802.11i security standard for wireless LANs. 802.11i is focused on security, adding Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) for encryption of data, a requirement by many government agencies and private companies.

While 802.11b is the current standard of many home and business users, many users are currently migrating to the 802.11g standard. Since the standards can be confusing, especially for new users, here are the standard definitions from IEEE.

IEEE 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).

IEEE 802.11a: An extension to 802.11 that applies to wireless LANs and provides up to 54 Mbps in the 5GHz band; but most commonly, communication takes place at 6 Mbps, 12 Mbps, or 24 Mbps. 802.11a uses an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing encoding scheme rather than FHSS or DSSS. The specification applies to wireless ATM systems and is used in access hubs.

IEEE 802.11b: Often called Wi-Fi - is backward compatible with 802.11. The modulation used in 802.11 has historically been phase-shift keying (PSK). The modulation method selected for 802.11b is known as complementary code keying (CCK), which allows higher data speeds and is less susceptible to multipath-propagation interference.

IEEE 802.11e (Not yet ratified): First wireless standard that spans home and business environments. It adds quality-of-service (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. QoS and multimedia support are critical to wireless home networks where voice, video, and audio will be delivered. Broadband service providers view QoS and multimedia-capable home networks as an essential ingredient to offering residential customers video on demand, audio on demand, voice over IP and high-speed Internet access. (From NetworkWorldFusion)

IEEE 802.11g: Applies to wireless LANs and provides 20+ Mbps in the 2.4 GHz band. This is the most recently approved standard and offers wireless transmission over relatively short distances at up to 54 megabits per second (Mbps) compared with the 11 megabits per second of the 802.11b standard. Like 802.11b, 802.11g operates in the 2.4 GHz range and is thus compatible with it.

802.11h: This standard is supplementary to the MAC layer to comply with European regulations for 5GHz WLANs. European radio regulations for the 5GHz band require products to have transmission power control (TPC) and dynamic frequency selection (DFS). TPC limits the transmitted power to the minimum needed to reach the furthest user. DFS selects the radio channel at the access point to minimize interference with other systems, particularly radar. Pan-European approval of 802.11h is not expected until the end of 2003.

IEEE 802.11i: Adds the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) security protocol to the 802.11 standard for wireless LANs. Security has been a primary concern for IT managers reluctant to deploy wireless networks, but AES is a stronger level of security than found in the current Wi-Fi Protected Access security standard. (From NetworkWorldFusion)

Now that 802.11i has been ratified, it's likely that 802.11e will been next in line for ratification. Some of the current standards that are in the works and not yet ratified are:

802.11n: A standard that pushes thoughput of Wi-Fi over 100 Mbps

802.11r: This standard will addresse fast roaming among access points.

802.11k: The standard that addresses radio resource management that will make more efficient use of WLAN resources.

802.11s: Aims to define a MAC and PHY for meshed networks that improve coverage with no single point of failure.

For the non-techie type, these standards can seem like a lot of gibberish. The main point to note is the progress of the current wireless standards. As the IEEE task groups continue to ratify new standards, expect wireless computing to become more secure and reliable.