The IEEE 802.11 Handbook: A Designer's Companion (Paperback)

by Bob O'Hara (Author), Al Petrick (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
The IEEE 802.11 Handbook: A Designer's Companion familiarizes system network architects, hardware engineers and software engineers with the basic concepts, terminology and key specifications of the IEEE 802.11 standard--serving as an indispensable primer.

This book takes the reader from a basic understanding of WLANs through the details of the PHY and MAC layer of the standard. The authors articulate a clear picture of the standard to both first-time and experienced designers of wireless products. So if you're a new market entrant or an existing original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of proprietary WLAN solutions and you're developing IEEE 802.11 based products for the RF or Infrared WLAN market, this book is for you.

In this book, you will:

* Acquire a solid working definition of a wireless LAN
* Discover the evolution of the 802.11 standard
* Learn the various market segment applications, ranging from manufacturing to enterprise wireless communication

What's more, A Designer's Companion, covers in detail:

* General network topologies of an ad-hoc and distributed network for an IEEE 802.11 wireless medium
* Key specifications and attributes of the five physical layers specified in the standard
- direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) physical layer
- frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) physical layer
- high rate direct sequence spread spectrum (HRDSSS) physical layer
- orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) physical layer
- infrared (IR) physical layer
* Basics of the protocol relative to the ad-hoc and distributed network configuration, including the MAC layer-the most difficult entity in the standard

In addition, the book outlines the world regulatory bodies requiring certification for operating IEEE 802.11 conformant products in the 2.4 GHz ISM and 5 GHz UNII frequency bands.

From the Publisher
RELATED PRODUCTS: Wireless Communication Standards: A Study of IEEE 802.11, 802.15, and 802.16 by Todor Cooklev; Low-Rate Wireless Personal Area Networks: Enabling Wireless Sensors with IEEE 802.15.4 by Jose Gutierrez, et al.; Wireless Multimedia: A Guide to the IEEE 802.15.3 Standard by James Gilb --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 188 pages
• Publisher: Inst Elect & Electronic Engineers; 1 edition (December 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738118559
• ISBN-13: 978-0738118550
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 4.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #365,274 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Concise 802.11 protocol overview, no fluff, poorly written, March 8, 2002

By	William Brasier (Los Gatos, Ca. USA) - See all my reviews

If you are an engineer with need to quickly understand the details of the 802.11 protocol, but do not want to plow through hundreds of pages of the IEEE specification, this book is for you. It is a good concise treatment of the details of the protocol. It is written for practicing telecommunications engineers. It is not 'wireless 101' and it is not for someone who wants to know how to set up a home or enterprise 802.11 network. It does not describe what unratified (as of this writing) 802.11e, 802.11 g, 802.11i specs are. It does cover the 802.11a and 802.11b phy layer descriptions.

Unfortunately, the lack of a detailed Table of Contents, lack of any index at all, a super sparce list of acronyms hurt the readability. This also makes its use as a quick reference not so quick. I also think that the figures are too simple and that better use of detailed figures would help the book considerably. However, the actual IEEE spec has very good figures. This book and the IEEE spec are side by side companions on my bookshelf and complement each other nicely.

I have found other books to date on the subject much too soft as far as technical detail on the protocol mechanisms. The authors participated in the design of 802.11 and know how to present the most salient features for embedded engineers. If you want a concise explanation of the 802.11 spec, and already have a fundamental understanding of how ethernet works, this is the book for you. So, I give it 4/5 stars on applicability of this content, but not for literary style and construct.

If you are more interested in what is a wireless LAN, what affects the signal propagation, how do you plan to put in an 802.11 LAN in your enterprise, and a little overview on the protocol, buy the James T. Geier book

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars All experienced Wi-Fi professionals should have this book, April 14, 2005

By	Criss Hyde (Leesburg, VA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The IEEE 802.11 Handbook: A Designer's Companion (Paperback)

I received my copy of the IEEE 802.11 Handbook 2nd edition on April 1st, 2005. All experienced Wi-Fi professionals should have this book and those new to Wi-Fi should learn the basics elsewhere.

What follows is a comparison of the two editions.

The same two authors are credited with authoring both editions. Both have significant IEEE 802.11 standards committee histories and business involvements. The authors dedicated the 1st edition to their parents and the 2nd to their wives. Times change.

The 2nd has twice as many pages, and is twice as thick. It is an extra inch wide and tall but with a larger font that results in the same amount of information on each page. Thus the content looks to have doubled.

All the old chapters are carried forward with nominal changes. The 2nd has a very modest glossary and a decent index; the 1st had neither.

New chapters in the 2nd include 802.11i, 802.11e, 802.11h, 802.11d, 802.11F, 802.11j, 802.11g, and 802.11n, in that order but mingled with the old chapters. The entirely new chapters are 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 13, 14, and 15.

Virtually all the graphics of the 1st are carried forward in the 2nd and most became grainier. Most typos and awkward English in the 1st are corrected in the 2nd.

Someone formatting the 2nd went overboard globally replacing words and phrases with acronyms or abbreviations. For example all instances of "station" became "STA" regardless of context.

Most other changes are additional paragraphs or additional sentences added to existing paragraphs. Rarely is a sentence modified. Here are the 2nd edition pages that have changes in the chapters carried over from the 1st: 5, 14, 26, 27, 33-34, 40, 52-55, 57, 60-72, 74-86, 89, 92-93, 223, 225-226, 228, 239-240, 258-260, 267, 271, 273, 275-284, 289-290, 344-347. If you have a 1st edition you can match the paragraphs up with the 2nd edition and the new material will jump off the page.

The result is a mix of voices from 1999 and 2005. Understanding this makes it easier to forgive a leftover remark from 1999 that would be a glaring mistake if penned in 2005.

The Handbook is seldom technically wrong. The 1st edition introduced language not found in the IEEE 802.11 standard that can both help and hinder accurate understanding of the technology. None of this was improved on in the 2nd edition.

The 1st edition was my only 802.11 resource for several years. When I began reading the IEEE 802.11 document and its amendments I had to stop reading the Handbook in order to not confuse the two. Perhaps one day I can write about what I would wish to see changed in a third edition.

I found the 2nd edition new chapters to be very informative and alone worth the price of the book. So enjoy -- but be careful.

I hope this helps. /Criss Hyde
_________________
Freelance Technical Editor for The CWNP Program

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I really miss the list of abbreviations, July 7, 2000

By	F.Wiarda (Stockholm, Sweden) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 802.11 Handbook a Designers Companion (Pdf) (Microfilm)

Without a list of abreviations, the book is unreadable. It is full with them, and the meaning of an abrevaition is given only upon it's first appearance in the text.

After I made for myself a list of abreviations (see below), the book became readable, and gives a good overview of the IEEE 802.11 standard.

ACK=ACKnowledge; AGW=Additive Wite Gaussian; AID=Association IDentifier; AP=Access Point; ASN=Abstract Syntax Notation; ATIM=Announcement Traffic Indication Message; BER=Bit Error Rate; BPSK=Binary Phase Shift Keying; BSA=Business Software Alliance; BSS=Basic Service Set; BSSID=Basic Service Set IDentifier; CCITT=Comité Consultatif International Télégraphique et Téléphonique; CCK=Complementary Code Keying; CDMA=Code Division Multiple Access; CF=Contention Free; CFP=Contention Free Period; CSMA=Carier Sense Multiple Access; CSMA/CA=Carier Sense Multiple Access with Colission Avoidance; CRC=Cyclic Redundancy Check; CTS=Clear To Send; CW=Continues Wave;

DA=Destination Address; DBPSK=Differential Binary Phase Shift Keying; DCF=Distributed Coordination Function; DHCP=Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol; DIFS=Distributed InterFrame Space; DQPSK=Differential Quadrature Phase Shift Keying; DS=Distribution System; DSSS=Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum; DTIM=Delivery Traffic Indication Map; EIFS=Extended InterFrame Space; EIRP=Effective Isotopic Radiated Power; ERP=Effective Radiated Power; ESS=Extended Service Set; ETSI=European Telecommunications Standards Institute; FCC=Federal Communications Commission; FCS=Frame Check Sequence; FDDI=Fiber Distributed Data Interference; FH=Frequency Hopping; FHSS=Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum; GFSK=Gaussian Frequency Shift Keying; GPS=Global Positioning System; HR=High Rate; HR/DSSS=High Rate Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum; IBSS=Independent Basic Service Set; ICV=Integrity Check Value; ID=IDentifier; IV=Initialization Vector; IEEE=Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; IAPP=Inter-Access Point Protocol; IP=Internet Protocol; IR=InfraRed; ISI=Inter Symbol Interference; ISM=Industrial, Scientific and Medical; ITU=International Telecommunications Union; LAN=Local Area Network; LBT=Listen Before Talk; LLC=Logical Link Control; MAC=Medium Access Control layer; MIB=Management Information Base; MMAC-PC=Mobile Multimedia Access Communication Promition Council; MSDU=MAC Service Data Unit; NACK=Negative ACKnowledge; NAV=Network Allocation Vector; NIC=Network Interface Card; OFDM=Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing; OSI=Open Systems Interconnection; PBCC=Packet Binary Convolution Coding; PC=Point Coordinator; PCMCIA=Personal Computer Memory Card International Association; PCF=Point Coordination Function; PER=Packet Error Rate; PHY=PHYsical layer; PICS=Protocol Implementation Conformance Statement; PIFS=Priority InterFrame Space; PLCP=Physycal Layer Convergence Procedure; PMD=Physical Medium Dependant; PPDU=PLCP Protocol Data Unit; PPM=Pulse Position Modulation; PS=Power Save; PSDU=PLCP Serive Data Unit; QPSK=Quadrature Phase Shift Keying; RA=Receiver Address; RC4=RSA Cipher algorithm 4; RF=Radio Frequency; RFID=Radio Frequency ID; RMS=Root Mean Square; RSA=Rivest-Shamir-Adleman; RSADSI=RSA Data Security Inc.; RTS=Request To Send; SA=Source Address; SFD=Start of Frame Delimmiter; SIFS=Short InterFrame Space; SNMP=Simple Network Management Protocol; SSID=Service Set IDentity; SYNC=SYNChronisation; TA=Transmitter Address; TIM=Traffic Indication Map; WEP=Wired Equivalent Privacy; WLAN=Wireless Local Area Network.