TCP/IP Tutorial and Technical Overview - IBM Redbooks

10.2.4 Security
One concern over any network is the question of security. As data becomes
more sensitive, and more readily available online, the need to protect this data
increases rapidly. A common misconception is that hackers or malicious users
are facilitated by the growing use of wireless because this allows them to steal
data having only proximity to a network.
However, with such a concern in mind, the wireless architectures and
technologies were designed specifically with security in mind. As such, wireless
networks are often more secure, through the use of advanced authentication and
encryption methods, than their wired counterparts.
10.2.5 Connectivity and reliability
10.3 WiFi
Depending on the design and configuration of a wireless network, it is possible
that such a network might be prone to the same connectivity outages as a wired
network. However, this is a limitation of the design of a particular network and not
of the wireless architecture itself. For example, wireless networking lends itself to
the concept of mesh networking, described in 10.5.3, “Mesh networking” on
page 402. Through such an implementation, as nodes become available or are
removed from a network, the overall wireless network can “heal” itself, and still
provide connectivity to all of the other nodes.
The term WiFi is short for Wireless Fidelity and is meant to be used generically
when referring to any type of 802.11 network, whether 802.11b, 802.11a,
dual-band, and so on. The term originated from the Wi-Fi Alliance.
The 802.11 standard refers to a family of specifications developed by the IEEE
for wireless LAN technology. The 802.11 standard specifies an over-the-air
interface between a wireless client and a base station or between two wireless
clients. The IEEE accepted the specification in 1997.
802.11 family of standards
There are several specifications in the 802.11 family of standards:
802.11 Applies to wireless LANs and provides 1 or 2 Mbps transmission in
the 2.4 GHz band using either frequency hopping spread spectrum
(FHSS) or direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS).
Chapter 10. Wireless IP 397