Lesson 4 - Wireless LANs

   Introduction

Over the past few years a new trend in local area networking has developed. This new technology is typically called "wireless local area networks (WLANs)," but some people use the term "local area wireless networks (LAWNs)." WLANs use radio signals to carry signals instead of wires. As more and more people accept the convenience of cell phones, it is likely that people will also see the benefit of linking portable computers through wireless networks.

   Objectives

At the end of this lesson you will be able to:

1.	Explain the difference between CSMA/CD and CSMA/CA
2.	Describe the "hidden node" problem, and show how CSMA/CA solves it
3.	Explain the difference between wireless LANs based on the 802.11a and 802.11b standards

Key Point
All wireless networks share a few narrow slices of the radio frequency spectrum.

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