WLAN

networking

Wireless local area network: a local area network whose medium is shared air rather than dedicated cable.

It is a local area network in addressing and a completely different animal in behaviour, because the switch removed collisions from the wired world and nothing can remove them from the air. Capacity falls with the number of talkers rather than with distance, the client decides when to roam and the network cannot make it, and interference comes from neighbours and appliances you do not control. Treating it as cable that happens to be invisible is the most common design error in this area.

Also known as: wireless local area network

← All glossary entries