Wireless Networking
Wireless Networking
A Brief History
The history of wireless networking stretches farther back than you might think. It was over fifty years ago, during World War II, when the United States Army first used radio signals for data transmission. They developed a radio data transmission technology, which was heavily encrypted. It was used quite extensively throughout the campaign with the US and her allies. This inspired a group of researchers in 1971 at the University of Hawaii to create the first packet based radio communications network. ALOHNET, as it was named, was essentially the very first wireless local area network (WLAN). This first WLAN consisted of 7 computers that communicated in a bi-directional star topology (see http://www.its.bldrdoc.gov/fs-1037/ and http://www.webopedia.com/ -- both are excellent sources of computer and telecommunication terms and definitions) that spanned four of the Hawaiian Islands, with the central computer based on Oahu Island. With this, wireless networking was born.
While wired LANs have wholly dominated the networking market, the last few years show a rise in wireless networking usage. This can best be seen in academic circles (i.e. University campuses), health-care, manufacturing, and warehousing. All the while, the technology is improving, making it easier and cheaper from companies to go wireless
Wireless Network Topologies
Topology: The physical (real) or logical (virtual) arrangement of elements.
In our case, this refers to the arrangement of nodes (i.e. computers, network printers, servers, etc.) in which the network is connected. There are five major topologies in use today in wired networks: Bus, Ring, Star, Tree, and Mesh, but only two make sense in a wireless environment. These include the star and mesh topologies.
The star topology, which happens to be in widest use today, describes a network in which there is one central base station or Access...
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