What Is WiFi?

You might have Wi-Fi in your house, and it might be your Internet connection, but do you understand how it works? If you did, then you might be able to understand what would happen if it broke.

Wi-Fi stands for wireless fidelity. It is a wireless network that uses radio waves to operate, similar to a radio or a cell phone. The communication that occurs across this wireless network can be broken down into two basic steps:

1. The computer’s wireless adapter translates data into a radio signal and transmits it through an antenna.
2. The wireless router receives this signal and decodes it, sending the information to the Internet through an Ethernet cord and connection.

Alternatively, the process is reversible and information can be sent back across the Ethernet connection to your router, and thus to your personal computer. As it does this, the information is translated back into radio signal.

Parts of Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi radios are very similar to actual radios in a number of regards, including the fact that they can convert 1s and 0s into radio waves, and reconvert radio waves back into 1s and 0s. However, there are notable differences between a Wi-Fi radio and a radio that might be used in a walkie-talkie for example. The Wi-Fi radios don’t transmit on the same frequency; rather it uses 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz. This is a much higher frequency, and thus it can transmit much more information.

Networking Standards

Wi-Fi radios use 802.11 networking standards, and there are a variety of different standards that fall into this category.

• The 802.11a allows it to use the higher frequency, and allows it to transmit as much as fifty four megabits of data every second. The Wi-Fi radios are also more efficient at coding than a regular radio, because Wi-Fi uses an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing to split the signal into sub-signals prior to sending the data to the receiver.

• The 802.11b might also be used by the Wi-Fi connection. It’s the cheapest standard, and thus the slowest. It only transmits 2.4 GHz frequency band of the radio spectrum, and transmits eleven megabits of data for every second. Using a complementary code keying, it uses modulation which can sometimes increase its speed.

• A 802.11g networking standard, which also transmits at the speed of 2.4 GHz. However, it’s much faster than the prior standard because it uses the orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing standard and thus can transmit fifty four megabits of data per second.

• Your Wi-Fi connection might use the 802.11n standard. This is the newest standard available, and it is a significant advancement on both speed and range. For example, it can transmit as much as one hundred and forty megabits per second, and can transmit information over a much longer range.

Regardless of the standard used by your Wi-Fi network, Wi-Fi allows you to connect to the Internet without the need for a physical Ethernet cord or Internet cable.

Frequency Bands

Wi-Fi radios also transmit on a possibility of three different frequency bands. Importantly, to reduce interference, Wi-Fi radios can also jump between these three frequencies, and thus several devices can use the same wireless connection at the same time. This is how more than one computer in your household is able to be on the Internet simultaneously.

Owners of the Wi-Fi Terminology

The term Wi-Fi is currently trademarked by the Wi-Fi Alliance. It is used with certified products that are wireless local area networks (known for short as WLAN).

The Wi-Fi Alliance is a non-profit association that includes any company that promotes this WLAN technology and the Alliance certifies the technology that can be used correctly with Wi-Fi.

Wi-Fi is used not only for your personal computers, but also on cell phones, in video games, and a multitude of other technology.