Wireless LANs and mobile networking: Standards and future directions

The emerging widespread use of wireless LAN systems together with the users' desire for such systems to interoperate has created a requirement for standards. Many standards bodies are currently defining standards for wireless systems that relate to different layers of the networking protocol stack. Of these, two influential physical and data link layer standards, IEEE 802.11 and the European HIPERLAN are described. The article then considers the network layer by discussing extensions that are being made to the widely used Internet Protocol (IP) to deal with mobility (wired or wireless). The final standards that are discussed relate to wireless link management. The article concludes by speculating on future directions for wireless LAN systems.