First Wi-Fi Standard 1997 | Generated by AI
Question: What is the earliest launched wireless local area network (WLAN) standard?
Answer:
D. IEEE 802.11
The earliest wireless local area network (WLAN) standard is the original IEEE 802.11 (also called the legacy 802.11 standard). It was officially released in 1997 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and marked the beginning of standardized Wi-Fi technology.
This foundational standard supported maximum data rates of 1β2 Mbps and operated using either diffuse infrared (IR) or spread-spectrum radio in the 2.4 GHz ISM band. It laid the groundwork for all subsequent Wi-Fi amendments and is now considered obsolete for modern use but remains the first in the family.
For comparison with the other options:
- IEEE 802.11a (Option A) and IEEE 802.11b (Option B) were both ratified in 1999 β two years after the original standard.
- IEEE 802.11g (Option C) followed much later in 2003.
All later standards (a, b, g, etc.) are amendments that build upon the core 802.11 framework from 1997. The original 802.11 is therefore the earliest launched WLAN standard among the choices.
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