APs and Wireless Standards
It might be obvious that wireless devices and APs should all be capable of operating on the same
band. For example, a 5-GHz wireless phone can communicate only with an AP that offers Wi-Fi
service on 5-GHz channels. In addition, the devices and APs must also share a compatibility with
the parts of the 802.11 standard they support.
As the IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi standard evolves and develops, new amendments with new
functionality get proposed. These amendments are known by “802.11” followed by a one- or two-
letter suffix until they are accepted and rolled up into the next generation of the complete 802.11
standard. Even then, it is common to see the amendment suffixes still used to distinguish specific
functions.
You should be aware of several amendments that define important characteristics such as data
rates, methods used to transmit and receive data, and so on. For the CCNA 200-301 exam, you
should know which band each of the amendments listed in Table 26-3 uses. The ENCOR 300- 401
exam goes further into the data rates and modulation and coding schemes used by each.