802.11everything
Those crazy guys 'n' gals at the International Electrical and Electronics Engineers society (fondly known as the IEEE) are all about wireless networks. They're nuts for it. Sure, you've heard of 802.11a and 802.11b, not to mention the hot new(ish) 802.11g. That's nothing compared to what these folks have up their sleeves, though. Check out the current working groups and projects:

802.1.
These are the people who brought you 802.1X, the hot new, port-level link security protocol. The 802.1 group handles internetworking between LANs and WANs, link security, network management, and high-level (above MAC) protocol layers. In addition to the well-known 802.1X protocol, they're responsible for 802.1ag, a connectivity fault management project; 802.1AE, which provides MAC-level security; and 802.1af, which is a KeySec protocol.

802.11.
This is the working group we all know and love, creators of everything "Wi-Fi" and beyond. They have an incredible number of projects going on, including:

• The original 802.11 spec, hardly worth speaking of, which offered 1 or 2Mbps bandwidth. Yippee.
• 802.11a, of course, which offers high-speed connectivity, shorter range than 802.11b/g, and greater client density (more clients per wireless AP, roughly speaking). It uses a different frequency than 802.11b/g, making it incompatible with those standards.
• 802.11b, the protocol that made wireless a new national craze. Offering up to 11Mbps of bandwidth over a range that easily covers your local Starbuck's.
• 802.11e, which provides quality of service protocols. QoS, as it's known, allows certain traffic—like lag-sensitive voice over IP (VoIP)—to be tagged as higher-priority, ensuring that the traffic doesn't have to wait in line at the wireless access point.
• 802.11g, the revision of 802.11b that, while remaining compatible with its predecessor, offers 54Mbps of bandwidth and roughly the same ranges.
• 802.11h, which overlays 802.11a to solve different interference problems, as well as improving coexistence with other protocols using the same frequencies.
• 802.11i, which was basically put together after all the hoo-hah over the weaknesses in the Wireless Encryption Protocol (WEP). The 802.11i project is all about security. These are the folks who cooked up Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), or at least cooked up the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) that WPA is built on.
• 802.11n, with a goal of 100Mbps of actual throughput. That's throughput, folks, not just the data rate. 802.11g's data rate is 54Mbps; throughput is about half that number.

The Wireless Devil's in the Wireless Details
Everyone's pretty much settled on 802.11b/g for the time being, what with so many devices having one or the other built-in these days. Plenty of companies have sprung for 802.11b/g wireless access points (APs). Hey, did you know that the term 802.11b/g is actually redundant? The 802.11g spec calls for 802.11b compatibility, so saying 802.11g is sufficient, and saves two keystrokes. That 802.11b compatibility, however, will bite ya in the bottom if you're not careful.

See, it's all about timing. Both 802.11b and 802.11g manage collisions in much the same way that Ethernet does: By pure chance. Every wireless device on the network inserts lengthy pauses (well, lengthy if you're a computer—they're on the order of milliseconds) into their transmissions, giving other devices a chance to squeeze a word in edgewise. When you're using all 802.11g 54Mbps devices, they can all happily communicate with one another at that high speed, including cute little high-speed pauses. When a doddering old 802.11b device comes into range, however, the AP has to shift into a sort of compatibility mode, allowing it to accommodate the slower device. 802.11g devices operate at roughly half speed, at best, whenever there's an 802.11b device around.

And here's the rub: Every wireless AP within range of the 802.11b device will shift into that compatibility mode, and so will every AP within range of those, and so on. Pretty much your entire network, with your luck. So the extra bucks you shelled out for 802.11g isn't buying you that 5x speed increase you thought you were getting, at least not until the last 802.11b device is in the trash. And good luck with that: The availability of cheap, highly-integrated 802.11b chipsets with built-in radios has put 802.11b into everything from washers and driers (I am not kidding) to the newest batch of cell phones.

The wireless geniuses are working on the pause problem, by the way. Even in all all-54Mbps environment, the pause is a pain in the neck, because it slows things down. 54Mbps is, as I've pointed out, just the link rate; your actual throughput is only about 26Mbps—faster than old-style 10baseT Ethernet, but who's using that nowadays? Anyway, it appears that the solution to the pause problem will be bursting. No, not actual ruptures, but something more like a short sprint. Instead of transmitting a packet, pausing, and repeating, devices with burst capabilities will transmit a dozen or so packets between each pause.

Because each transmission is accompanied by some low-level overhead, bursting will increase throughput in part by reducing the overhead, while still allowing plenty of pauses for other devices to get their two cents in.

Other Wireless Critters
Ever hear of 802.15? Sure you have. Bluetooth is the market name, but it's really just plain ol' 802.15 to the good folks at the IEEE. There's oodles of standards for these so-called personal area networks (PANs), including:

• 802.15.1, the 1Mbps Bluetooth 1.x network that your fancy new cell phone headset uses
• 802.15.3, a whopping 20Mbps (or more) for multimedia and digital imaging—no trying to cram photos from a wireless digital camera across a measly 1Mbps connection!
• 802.15.3a, an alternative to 802.15.3 that offers an incredible 110Mbps or more bandwidth—pity it's only a 30-foot range, huh?
• 802.15.4, the standard for interactive toys and whatnot, providing a minimal 200kbps bandwidth.

Actually, Bluetooth itself if owned by the Bluetooth SIG, Inc; the 802.15.1 standards work was done by the IEEE in cooperation with the Bluetooth folks to maintain compatibility. The IEEE folks are all about compatibility, thanks heavens, or we'd all have wireless devices that refuse to talk to one another. Don't even get me started about the earful I got one time when I referred to an "XtremeG" device (which promises up to 108Mbps) as "Wi-Fi" (apparently, achieving 108Mbps involves taking some broad interpretations of the standards, although the 108Mbps devices I've seen offer full 802.11g compatibility).

But that's not all. The busy IEEE engineers have also come up with 802.16, a set of specifications for the development of fixed broadband wireless access systems—goodbye, cable modem! 802.16 is referred to by the darling name "WirelessMAN," with MAN standing for metropolitan area network. The 802.16 working group is setting out to make DSL and cable modems obsolete by offering higher bandwidth and greater capacity, with the convenience of easier deployment thanks to no wires. The original standard was published in April 2002; several amendments—many dealing with insanely complex frequency-licensing issues—are in the works.

You may have thought your new 802.11b/g wireless access point was the cat's meow, but trust me: Today's wireless networking products are literally children's toys compared to what's coming from the IEEE. And I haven't even touched on cell-based wireless; AT&T Wireless, for example, is—finally—rolling out high-speed, always-on connectivity in four cities this year, and folks are already offering satellite-based broadband in two or three different frequency spectrums.

Yea, Wireless!
Will wires one day vanish? I suppose we can hope so. Not having to plug in is certainly awesome. Of course, you have to wonder why manufacturers couldn't just make the wires easier. I mean, everyone in the conference room is plugging their laptop into an AC outlet; why not incorporate a network outlet into the same plug and cable? Until Tesla comes back and delivers on that "free electricity for everyone" deal he promised, we're still going to be plugging things in. But, it is nice to not have to plug them in every time and, as with my house, sometimes the wires just aren't available. Keep your eyes peeled: The best in wireless is yet to come.

Questions or comments? Post your thoughts below!