Summary
IEEE 802.11 is a set of medium access control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) standards that enable wireless devices to exchange data or connect to the internet using radio waves.
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The 802.11 family of standards is divided into several sub-standards, such as 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, and 802.11ac.
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Each of these standards use different physical layer modulation formats and coding rates to determine how data is sent over the air and at what data rates.
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The 802.11 Physical Layer uses bursted transmissions or packets, which contain a Preamble, Header and Payload Data.
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The Preamble allows the receiver to obtain time and frequency synchronization and estimate channel characteristics for equalization.
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To connect to a WLAN network, a device has to be equipped with a wireless network interface controller.
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According to
