computer science

Wireless LAN Interoperability Forum

Wireless LAN Interoperability Forum is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Wireless LAN Interoperability Forum rather than just read about it. In short: The Wireless LAN Interoperability Forum (WLIF) was a non-profit industry organization founded in 1996 to promote and certify wireless LAN products. It was active from about 1996 through 1998 and disbanded in 2001.

Key takeaways

Wireless LAN Interoperability Forum belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Wireless LAN Interoperability Forum to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Wireless LAN Interoperability Forum from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Wireless LAN Interoperability Forum (WLIF) was a non-profit industry organization founded in 1996 to promote and certify wireless LAN products. It was active from about 1996 through 1998 and disbanded in 2001.

History The organization was announced on May 20, 1996, chaired by Chris Gladwin of Zenith Data Systems. It first based its technology on the RangeLAN2 products licensed by Proxim Wireless, which were originally developed around 1994. The RangeLAN2 name was later changed to OpenAir, and IEEE 802.11 standards were later mentioned, although the Wi-Fi Alliance controlled the trademark for those protocols. In 1998 Mike Jones of Intermec Technologies was its chairman and its membership included: AMP (now part of Tyco Electronics), Citadel, Cruise Technologies, Data General, Fujitsu Personal Systems, Hand Held Products, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, IDWare, Intermec Technologies, Kansai, Kinetic Computer, LXE, MaxTech, Mitsubishi Electronics America, Monarch Marketing Systems (subsidiary of Paxar, then part of Avery Dennison), Motorola, NEC Computer Systems Division, Percon (formerly a division of PSC Inc., later IntelliTrack), Proxim Wireless and Sharp Corporation. Hand Held Products (later Honeywell) marketed Dolphin RF devices to extend Ethernet and a barcode scanner.

RangeLAN2 RangeLAN2 was a broad family of wireless devices developed by Proxim Wireless, and is a trademark of that company. It also refers to the RangeLAN2, used by these devices, which was subsequently officially renamed OpenAir. RangeLAN2 devices have typical bandwidths of about 2 Mbit/s, and an indoor range of about 150 ft (46 m), similar to 802.11b. RangeLAN2 uses spread-spectrum radio transmission technology. These devices can interoperate with 802.11b and can still be used today. Support for RangeLAN2 products was aimed primarily at the Microsoft Windows market, but drivers for some RangeLAN2 products (such as PCMCIA cards) for Mac OS 9 were developed, although these did not get wide distribution. Linux drivers were also developed for many RangeLAN2 devices. Typical RangeLAN2 figures:

Radio Data Rate: 1.6 Mbit/s per channel, 800 kbit/s fallback rate Channels: Supports 15 independent, non-interfering "virtual channels" Official Indoor Range: Up to 500 feet (~150 m) radius (not necessarily reached in practice) Official Outdoor range: 1,000+ feet (300+ m) radius

OpenAir The protocol operated in the 2.4 GHz ISM band and used frequency hopping with 0.8 and 1.6 Mbit/s bit rates via 2 or 4 bits per symbol frequency-shift keying modulation. This protocol was in use prior to the adoption of the IEEE 802.11b standard, and was in competition with it, and uses approximately the same portion of the radio spectrum. When 802.11b was adopted as a standard, the RangeLAN2 market began to contract and OpenAir use declined.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Wireless LAN Interoperability Forum

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Wireless LAN Interoperability Forum claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Wireless LAN Interoperability Forum before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Wireless LAN Interoperability Forum ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Wireless LAN Interoperability Forum

In research: Wireless LAN Interoperability Forum appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Wireless LAN Interoperability Forum in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Wireless LAN Interoperability Forum is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Local area networks, Mobile telecommunications standards, Organizations disestablished in 2001, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Wireless LAN Interoperability Forum outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Wireless LAN Interoperability Forum in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Wireless LAN Interoperability Forum means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Wireless LAN Interoperability Forum out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Wireless LAN Interoperability Forum in simple terms?

Why does Wireless LAN Interoperability Forum matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Wireless LAN Interoperability Forum?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Wireless LAN Interoperability Forum.