What are the main characteristics of the IEEE 802.11b standard?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The bandwidth of 2 Mbps for the 802.11 standard introduced in 1997 was not sufficient for most network applications. The IEEE body revisited the 802.11 standard shortly after it was released to determine what changes could be made to increase the speed. In September 1999 a new IEEE 802.11b amendment was added to the standard, which added two higher speeds (5.5 Mbps and 11 Mbps) to the original 802.11 standard (1 Mbps and 2 Mbps). Like the 802.11 standard, 802.11b uses the ISM band.

The 802.11b standard can support wireless devices that are up to 115 meters (375 feet) apart. However, devices that are that far apart might not be transmitting at 11 Mbps. Radio waves decrease in power over distance, much like the sound of your voice: a person standing 1 meter away from you might hear you very clearly, whereas a person 60 meters away would have difficulty hearing you. Instead of completely dropping the signal if it falls out of range to transmit at 11 Mbps, the 802.11b standard specifies that the devices should drop their transmission speed to the next lower level (5.5, 2, or 1 Mbps). This allows devices to transmit farther apart but at slower speeds.