Nokia A032 - Page 9

2
Nokia A032 Getting Started
IEEE802.11 standard
The Access Point conforms to IEEE802.11B –
the industry standard for wireless LANs. Not
only will it communicate with computers
equipped with Nokia wireless LAN adapter
cards – it will communicate with any
IEEE802.11 compatible adapter card, using
DSSS (see below), from any vendor.
The Nokia Access Point supports direct
sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) wireless LAN
cards (also known as radio cards). DSSS is a
radio technique which scrambles the data prior
to transmission to improve the communication
quality and range.
Frequency channels and roaming
Wireless LAN systems are allocated a radio
frequency band . IEEE802.11 specifies operation
in a frequency band of approximately 2.4GHz
to 2.48GHz. Within that band a number of
channels can be used to transfer data. The
number of channels available varies from
country to country.
• If you’re only using one Access Point, you
don’t need to worry about channels.
• If you have many Access Points covering a
large area, you can set them to use different
channels to allow wireless stations in
neighboring areas to operate independently.
In this manual, a
computer fitted with
an IEEE802.11
compatible adapter
card is referred to as a
wireless station.
Some countries have
slightly different or
more restricted
frequency ranges.
A wireless station can
switch between
different Access Points
by changing channels
(a technique known as
roaming).