What is a wireless LAN?
How WLANs Work A wireless LAN (WLAN) is a flexible data communication system implemented as an extension to, or as an alternative for, a wired LAN within a building or campus. Using electromagnetic waves, WLANs transmit and receive data over the air, minimizing the need for wired connections. Thus, WLANs combine data connectivity with user mobility, and, through simplified configuration, enable movable LANs. Over the last seven years, WLANs have gained strong popularity in a number of vertical markets, including the health-care, retail, manufacturing, warehousing, and academic arenas. These industries have profited from the productivity gains of using hand-held terminals and notebook computers to transmit real-time information to centralized hosts for processing. Today WLANs are becoming more widely recognized as a general-purpose connectivity alternative for a broad range of business customers. The U.S.
A wireless LAN (WLAN) is a local area network (LAN) in which the data is carried to and from the end-users (clients) via radio waves instead of wires. Each WLAN has one or more base stations called wireless access points (WAPs) which bridge the data into the wired network and communicate by radio with the clients.
A wireless LAN (WLAN) is a network that allows access to Campus Network and the Internet without the need for any wired connections to the user’s machine. Wireless networking uses radio frequency signals to connect portable workstations – such as laptops or PDAs – to an Ethernet LAN. The present standard for wireless Ethernet at Flinders is called 802.11b/g.
A WLAN is generally deployed as an extension to an existing wired network, in order to allow clients to access network resources or the Internet without having to be physically connected to the network via a cable. Wireless networks operate in two distinct modes, infrastructure and ad-hoc. Infrastructure mode is defined as a wireless network employing an access point (AP) to transmit data between clients. Ad-hoc mode does not use infrastructure devices such as an AP, but instead allows clients to directly connect to one another.
