802.11a Measurement Techniques and Network Issues

by Herb Petrat, Senior Software Engineer, Berkeley Varitronics Systems, Inc.

In the continuously changing world of wireless networks, new standards for 802.11 are constantly evolving. The most popular standards currently are 802.11a, 802.11 b , and 802.11g.

Each technology has its own pros and cons in regards to successful network deployment. Table 1 shows a summary of these pros and cons. Rows marked with a * rank the technologies from 1-3, 1 being the best. 802.11a and 802.11g both have a 5 to 1 edge in maximum throughput with the ability to transmit up to 54 Mb/s. 802.11b tops out at 11 Mb/s.

802.11a has an advantage of operating in the cleaner 5 GHz band which contains less RF interference than the heavily trafficked 2.4 GHz band. 802.11b and 802.11g operate in this band, which contains interference from microwave ovens, cordless phones, BLUETOOTH™ devices, etc. Some newer cordless phones work up in the 5 GHz band.