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A wireless local area network (WLAN) is a wireless computer network that links two or more devices using a wireless distribution method (often spread-spectrum or OFDM radio) within a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, or office building. This gives users the ability to move around within a local coverage area and still be connected to the network, and can provide a connection to the wider Internet. Most modern WLANs are based on IEEE 802.11 standards, marketed under the Wi-Fi brand name. Wireless LANs have become popular in the home due to ease of installation and use, and in commercial complexes offering wireless access to their customers; often for free. New York City, for instance, has begun a pilot program to provide city workers in all five boroughs of the city with wireless Internet access.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 publisher = ''Internet News'' )〕 ==History== Norman Abramson, a professor at the University of Hawaii, developed the world’s first wireless computer communication network, ALOHAnet (operational in 1971), using low-cost ham-like radios. The system included seven computers deployed over four islands to communicate with the central computer on the Oahu Island without using phone lines. WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) hardware initially cost so much that it was only used as an alternative to cabled LAN in places where cabling was difficult or impossible. Early development included industry-specific solutions and proprietary protocols, but at the end of the 1990s these were replaced by standards, primarily the various versions of IEEE 802.11 (in products using the Wi-Fi brand name). Beginning in 1991, a European alternative known as HiperLAN/1 was pursued by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) with a first version approved in 1996. This was followed by a HiperLAN/2 functional specification with ATM influences accomplished February 2000. Neither European standard achieved the commercial success of 802.11, although much of the work on HiperLAN/2 has survived in the PHY specification for IEEE 802.11a, which is nearly identical to the PHY of HiperLAN/2. In 2009 802.11n was added to 802.11. It operates in both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands at a maximum data transfer rate of 600 Mbit/s. Most newer routers are able to utilise both wireless bands, known as dualband. This allows data communications to avoid the crowded 2.4 GHz band, which is also shared with Bluetooth devices and microwave ovens. The 5 GHz band is also wider than the 2.4 GHz band, with more channels, which permits a greater number of devices to share the space. Not all channels are available in all regions. A HomeRF group formed in 1997 to promote a technology aimed for residential use, but it disbanded at the end of 2002.〔 〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Wireless LAN」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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