Wireless Agencies and Standards
Agency Purpose Website
Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers (IEEE)
Creates and maintains operational
standards
www.ieee.org
Federal Communications
Commission (FCC)
Regulates the use of wireless devices
in the United States
www.fcc.gov
European Telecommunications
Standards Institute (ETSI)
Produces common standards in
Europe
www.etsi.org
Wi-Fi Alliance Promotes and tests for WLAN interoperability
www.wi-fi.com
WLAN Association (WLANA) Educates and raises consumer awareness
regarding WLANs
Because WLANs transmit over radio frequencies, they’re regulated by the same types of
laws used to govern devices such as AM/FM radios. The Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) regulates the use of wireless LAN devices, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers (IEEE) takes it from there and creates standards based on what frequencies the FCC
releases for public use.
The FCC has released three unlicensed bands for public use: 900MHz, 2.4GHz, and 5.7GHz.
The 900MHz and 2.4GHz bands are referred to as the
Industrial, Scientific, and Medical
(ISM)
bands, and the 5GHz band is known as the
Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure
(UNII) band. Figure 9.1 shows where the unlicensed bands sit within the RF spectrum.
So it follows that if you opt to deploy wireless in a range outside of the three public bands
shown in Figure 9.1, you need to get a specific license from the FCC to do so. Once the FCC
opened the three frequency ranges for public use, many manufacturers were able to start offering
myriad products that flooded the market, with 802.11b/g being the most widely used wireless
network today.
The Wi-Fi Alliance grants certification for interoperability among 802.11 products offered
by various vendors. This certification provides a sort of comfort zone for users purchasing
many types of products, but in my experience, it’s just a whole lot easier if you buy all your
access points from the same manufacturer!
Unlicensed frequencies
In the current U.S. wireless LAN market, there are several accepted operational standards
and drafts created and maintained by the IEEE. I’ll cover these standards next and then talk
about how the most commonly used standards work.