Wireless Standards

I was looking for info on the next generation wireless standard 802.11ac and came across this.

http://www.ieee802.org/11/Reports/802.11_Timelines.htm

Its a good outline of all the current standards, ammendments and recommended practices and includes download links for some standards that are freely available.

I have thoughtfully copied the links to the download locations to save you the hassle of clicking everything and put in a few additional links that I could find.

IEEE 802.11: The WLAN standard was originally 1 Mbit/s and 2 Mbit/s, 2.4 GHz RF and infrared [IR] standard (1997), all the others listed below are Amendments to this standard, except for Recommended Practices 802.11F and 802.11T.

IEEE 802.11-2007 A new release of the standard that includes amendments a, b, d, e, g, h, i & j. (July 2007)

IEEE 802.11a-1999 54 Mbit/s, 5 GHz standard (1999, shipping products in 2001)

IEEE 802.11b-1999 Enhancements to 802.11 to support 5.5 and 11 Mbit/s (1999)

IEEE 802.11d-2001 International (country-to-country) roaming extensions (2001)

IEEE 802.11e-2005 Enhancements: QoS, including packet bursting (2005)

IEEE 802.11F-2003 Inter-Access Point Protocol (2003) Withdrawn February 2006

IEEE 802.11g-2003 54 Mbit/s, 2.4 GHz standard (backwards compatible with b) (2003)

IEEE 802.11h-2003 Spectrum Managed 802.11a (5 GHz) for European compatibility (2004)

IEEE 802.11i-2004 Enhanced security (2004)

IEEE 802.11j-2004 Extensions for Japan (2004)

IEEE 802.11k-2008 Radio resource measurement enhancements (2008)

IEEE 802.11n-2009 Higher throughput improvements using MIMO (multiple input, multiple output antennas) (September 2009)

IEEE 802.11p: WAVE—Wireless Access for the Vehicular Environment (such as ambulances and passenger cars) (working—June 2010)

IEEE 802.11r-2008 Fast BSS transition (FT) Working "Task Group r" (2008)

IEEE 802.11s: Mesh Networking, Extended Service Set (ESS) (working—September 2010)

IEEE 802.11T: Wireless Performance Prediction (WPP)—test methods and metrics Recommendation cancelled

IEEE 802.11u: Interworking with non-802 networks (for example, cellular) (working—September 2010)

IEEE 802.11v: Wireless network management (working—June 2010)

IEEE 802.11w-2009 Protected Management Frames (September 2009)

IEEE 802.11y-2008 3650–3700 MHz Operation in the U.S. (2008)

IEEE 802.11z: Extensions to Direct Link Setup (DLS) (August 2007 – December 2011)

IEEE 802.11aa: Robust streaming of Audio Video Transport Streams (March 2008 – June 2011)

IEEE 802.11ac: Very High Throughput <6 GHz; potential improvements over 802.11n: better modulation scheme (expected ~10% throughput increase); wider channels (80 or even 160MHz), multi user MIMO; (September 2008 – December 2012)

IEEE 802.11ad: Very High Throughput 60 GHz (December 2008 – December 2012)

IEEE 802.11ae: QoS Management

IEEE 802.11af: TV Whitespace

IEEE 802.11mb: Maintenance of the standard. Will become 802.11-2011. (Expected publication 8/02/11)

For those withh some money to spare at the end of all the books and lab gear you will be buying 80211n