Nowadays WIFI facility is available almost everywhere from urban to rural areas and from offices to nearly every household who have wards studying in school or college. Though most of the population is using internet services for their educational or occupational uses, surely many people might not be knowing the exact full form of WIFI.
The exact full form of WIFI or wi-fi is Wireless Fidelity. The name was given to a service, providing a network without any physical mode of data transfer to its customers, instead of using its exact technical name IEEE 802.11 which is obviously not user friendly or can be called catchy. Voila, everyone now vouch for its popularity among common people as pro.
What is Wi-Fi?
WIFI or Wi-Fi is a local area network but wireless technology. Before the invention of wireless technology, LAN’s single defining characteristic was to connect devices in a single, limited area with cables, switches, routers and other components to internal servers, web servers, and in bigger setups, with other LANs via wide area networks(WAN).
Wi-Fi permits an electronic device to transact or connect to the internet using ISM (Industrial, Scientific and Medical band) radio bands. In other words, Wi-Fi allows computers and other devices to communicate over a wireless network.
Wi-Fi alliance for Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi network components follow one of the 802.11 standards developed by the IEEE and are followed by Wi-Fi alliance to provide standard configuration abiding wireless network devices worldwide. Wi-Fi is the trademark of the Wi-Fi alliance and a brand name for products using the IEEE 802.11 standards.
After nearly two decades, WiFi has brought revolutionary changes in the way the world, the societies, the communities and people in general use IT services and communicate. Wi-Fi technology, based on wireless communication standard 802.11 of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), has also evolved with time. Advancement in technology with each generation brought faster speed and lower latency, for better user experiences in diverse environments with a variety of devices.
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Wi-Fi Generations
The WiFi Alliance defined a new generational naming system of a numerical sequence to correspond to major advancements in WiFi. These generation names are to be used by –
- Product vendors to indicate the latest WiFi technology that their device supports.
- OS vendors to identify the generation of WiFi connection between a device and network, and
- Service providers to identify the capabilities of a WiFi network, for their customers’ knowledge.
Following list provides IEEE 802.11 PHY to corresponding Wi-Fi Alliance generation names-
- WiFi 0 = 802.11
- WiFi 1 = 802.11b
- WiFi 2 = 802.11a
- WiFi 3 = 802.11g
- WiFi 4 = 802.11n
- WiFi 5 = 802.11ac
- WiFi 6 = 802.11ax
PHY Rate (physical rate) is the speed at which the bits are actually sent. For example, in a fast network PHY rate could be 800Mbps as in 802.11ac(Wi-Fi 5). On a slower network the PHY rate will be much lower, e.g. 65Mbps as in 802.11n(Wi-Fi 4)
Wi-Fi Alliance governs global Wi-Fi adoption and further research for advancement in wifi technology through protocols, spectrum advocacy, and collaboration among device manufacturers, product and OS vendor and service provider. They also work towards the development of innovative technologies based on new requirements, and test programs to ensure Wi-Fi users satisfaction regarding the interoperability, network security, and reliability standards.
WIFI and User Interface
In simple words, WiFi routines facilitates wireless communication over an IP network i.e. LAN and IEEE 802.11 is a set of LAN protocols for implementing wireless local area networks. Network Component supports the Wi-Fi interface modules that are operating in transparent mode to provide full Ethernet packet access for data exchange.
Wi-Fi, Modem and Router
Most families use their home network to access the Internet, but still many have no idea how these networks work. In urban areas, routers are commonly found on the wall as a blinking box providing internet to all devices of the family members. This is made possible with Wi-Fi technology.
But in rural areas, the advanced technology of Wi-Fi is still distant and they have to make use of Modem devices. Modem connects the stand alone computer system with the internet, usually through a coaxial cable connection, to the Internet service provider (ISP), where Wi-Fi is not reached. Such a connection between a house and the Internet is called a wide area network (WAN).
Wi-Fi as Hotspot
Wi-Fi is now commonly used on different devices like PC, Laptop, video gaming console, smart phones, tablets etc. Advancement in Wi-Fi technology allows the creation of a hotspot within the range of 20 meters (66 feet) to enable one or more devices to share internet service. Additional Info Also Check BPO Full Form
Wi-Fidelity’s only Infidelity
The only disadvantage with Wi-Fi is in being less secure than wired connection as the intruder does not need to connect physically to use the Wi-Fi.