What is WLAN

Techopedia explains Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN)

In the early 1990s, WLANs were very expensive and were only used when wired
connections were strategically impossible. By the late 1990s, most WLAN solutions
and proprietary protocols were replaced by IEEE 802.11 standards in various
versions (versions "a" through "n"). WLAN prices also began to decrease
significantly.
WLAN should not be confused with the Wi-Fi Alliance's Wi-Fi trademark. Wi-Fi is not
a technical term, but is described as a superset of the IEEE 802.11 standard and is
sometimes used interchangeably with that standard. However, not every Wi-Fi
device actually receives Wi-Fi Alliance certification, although Wi-Fi is used by more
than 700 million people through about 750,000 Internet connection hot spots.
Every component that connects to a WLAN is considered a station and falls into one
of two categories: access points (APs) and clients. APs transmit and receive radio
frequency signals with devices able to receive transmitted signals; they normally
function as routers. Clients may include a variety of devices such as desktop
computers, workstations, laptop computers, IP phones and other cell phones and
Smartphones. All stations able to communicate with each other are called basic
service sets (BSSs), of which there are two types: independent and infrastructure.
Independent BSSs (IBSS) exist when two clients communicate without using APs,
but cannot connect to any other BSS. Such WLANs are called a peer-to-peer or an
ad-hoc WLANs. The second BSS is called an infrastructure BSS. It may
communicate with other stations but only in other BSSs and it must use APs.

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