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APPENDIX C: GLOSSARY
802.11b –
802.11b is one of the IEEE standards for wireless LANs and specifies a data
transfer rate of 5.5 and up to 11 megabit per second in the 2.4 gigahertz radio band.
802.11b is recently given other widespread names as WI-FI or Wireless Fidelity.
802.11g--
802.11g standard advertises a data rate boost from the 11Mpbs of the popular
802.11b (Wi-Fi) standard to somewhere in the range of 24 to 54Mbps. The boost in
transmission speed gives Wi-Fi networks the ability to serve up to four or five times more
users
Ad-hoc Network –
Ad-hoc network, also known as peer-to-peer network, means a
wireless network which is composed only of stations. This type of network is created with
a group of wireless-equipped computers. With the wireless devices, each computer,
functioning as a server and a client at the same time, can establish a LAN to directly
communicate with other computers without any access points involved. It is easy to set up
a peer-to-peer network; however, because all stations must be within a specific distance in
order to be capable of communicating with each other, it is also limited. Thus, such a type of
network is widely used at small networking requirements, like between a few computers or
devices at departmental scales.
IEEE – IEEE
, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, is the world’s largest technical
professional society and is consisted of more than 366,000 members in approximately 150
countries. As a leading authority on areas ranging from for computer engineering,
biomedical technology and telecommunications, IEEE endeavors to set more than 800
active consensus standards till now and publish 30 percent of the world's literature in
electrical engineering, computers and control technology.
Infrastructure Network –
Infrastructure network allows you to communicate with wired
LAN via an access point. Unlike Ad-hoc network that all wireless-equipped stations within
the range may directly communicate with each other, clients of Infrastructure network can only
transmit and receive data through the use of a central access point. The associated access
point also provides communication with the wired network.
MAC Address – The
MAC (Media Access Control) address is the serial number of your
Network Interface card. It has been burnt into the chip and could not be changed. MAC
address is thus unique. While a computer on the network is transferring data, its MAC
address is also conveyed and attached to be part of the header of the data packets.
