1.2 Purpose
The purpose of this standard is to provide wireless connectivity to automatic machinery, equipment, or STAs that require rapid deployment, which may be portable or hand-held, or which may be mounted on moving vehicles within a local area. This standard also offers regulatory bodies a means standardizing access to one or more frequency bands for the purpose of local area communication.
Specifically, this standard
— Describes the functions and services required by an IEEE 802.11™-compliant device to operate
within ad hoc and infrastructure networks as well as the aspects of STA mobility (transition) within
those networks.
— Defines the MAC procedures to support the asynchronous MAC service data unit (MSDU) delivery
services.
— Defines several PHY signaling techniques and interface functions that are controlled by the IEEE 802.11 MAC.
— Permits the operation of an IEEE 802.11-conformant device within a wireless local area network
(WLAN) that may coexist with multiple overlapping IEEE 802.11 WLANs.
— Describes the requirements and procedures to provide data confidentiality of user information being transferred over the wireless medium (WM) and authentication of IEEE 802.11-conformant devices.
— Defines mechanisms for dynamic frequency selection (DFS) and transmit power control (TPC) that may be used to satisfy regulatory requirements for operation in the 5 GHz band. The regulations andconformance tests are listed in Clause 2.
— Defines the MAC procedures to support local area network (LAN) applications with quality of service (QoS) requirements, including the transport of voice, audio, and video.
