Wi-Fi radios have a few notable differences from other radios - They transmit at frequencies of 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz. This frequency is considerably higher than other radio frequencies, which allows the signal to carry more data.
Standards:
- 802.11a transmits at 5 GHz and can move up to 54 megabits of data per second. It also uses orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM), a more efficient coding technique that splits that radio signal into several sub-signals before they reach a receiver. This greatly reduces interference.
- 802.11b is the slowest and least expensive standard.
For a while, its cost made it popular, but now it's becoming less common as faster standards become less expensive. 802.11b transmits in the 2.4 GHz frequency band of the radio spectrum.
It can handle up to 11 megabits of data per second, and it uses complementary code keying (CCK) modulation to improve speeds. - 802.11g transmits at 2.4 GHz like 802.11b, but it's a lot faster -- it can handle up to 54 megabits of data per second. 802.11g is faster because it uses OFDM as 802.11a
- 802.11n is the newest standard that is widely available.
This standard significantly improves speed and range.
For instance, although 802.11g theoretically moves 54 megabits of data per second, it only achieves real-world speeds of about 24 megabits of data per second because of network congestion.
802.11n, however, reportedly can achieve speeds as high as 140 megabits per second.
Trego's engineers have deep understanding in WiFi:
- Developing for a Wi-Fi network.
- Debugging Wi-Fi based networks.