At present, the wireless communication field is one of the fastest growing sectors in the telecommunication industry. Wireless communication devices, such as the cell phone, satellite phones as well as local wireless networks (WLAN-wireless local area networks) have become largely used and essential for people's everyday life. This popularity of wireless networks is due to the advantages they have over the wireline systems. The most important advantages are mobility and low cost.
Wireless Networks are networks of equipment and devices interconnected via radio waves, infrared and other wireless methods.
In recent years they experienced a significant development on a global scale, representing an alternative solution to the wire line connections (electrical, optical fiber and others). Wireless connections are becoming ever more popular, inasmuch as they come to solve issues that we face when we have a multitude of cables, connected to several devices. Modern wireless technologies can interconnect devices (or even local networks, LANs) over short distances, but also over long distances.
Based on the coverage area, wireless networks are categorized as:
- Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) - a personal network
- Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) - a local network
- Wireless Metropolitan Area Network (WMAN) - a metropolitan network according to Standard 802.16 or WiMAX
- Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN) - a wide area network
