Next Generation Wireless LANs

If you’ve been searching for a way to get up to speed on IEEE 802.11n and 802.11ac WLAN standards without having to wade through the entire 802.11 specification, then look no further.

This comprehensive overview describes the underlying principles, implementation details, and key enhancing features of 802.11n and 802.11ac. For many of these features, the authors outline the motivation and history behind their adoption into the standard. A detailed discussion of the key throughput, robustness, and reliability enhancing features (such as MIMO, multi-user MIMO, 40\80\160 MHz channels, transmit beamforming, and packet aggregation) is given, in addition to clear summaries of the issues surrounding legacy interoperability and coexistence.

Now updated and significantly revised, this 2nd edition contains new material on 802.11ac throughout, including revised chapters on MAC and interoperability, as well as new chapters on 802.11ac PHY, and multi-user MIMO, making it an ideal reference for designers of WLAN equipment, network managers, and researchers in the field of wireless communication.

Eldad Perahia is a Principal Engineer in the Standards and Technology Group at Intel Corporation. He is Chair of the IEEE 802.11 Very High Throughput in 60 GHz Task Group (TGad), the IEEE 802.11 Very High Throughput in <6 GHz Task Group (TGac) Coexistence Ad Hoc Co-Chair, the IEEE 802.11 liaison from the IEEE 802.19 Wireless Coexistence Working Group, and the former Chair of the IEEE 802.11 Very High Throughout Study Group. He was awarded his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles and holds 21 patents in various areas of wireless communications.

Robert Stacey is a Wireless Systems Architect at Apple, Inc. He is the IEEE 802.11 Very High Throughput in <6 GHz Task Group (TGac) Technical Editor and MU-MIMO Ad Hoc Co-Chair. He was a member of the IEEE 802.11 High Throughput Task Group (TGn) and a key contributor to the various proposals, culminating in the final joint proposal submission that became the basis for the 802.11n draft standard. He holds numerous patents in the field of wireless communications.

“The authors are renowned experts in the field. The book is a must read for engineers seeking knowledge of recent advances in WLAN technologies.”

“First edition of the book “Next Generation Wireless LANs” by Eldad and Robert is excellent and very popular. The second edition adds newly developed IEEE 802.11ac standard with the same excellence in addressing technical features and easy to read writing style.”

“The 802.11 standard has been evolving for over 20 years and now contains nearly 3000 pages of information. The authors have had direct involvement in writing many of those pages. This book represents a significant accomplishment in conveying and explaining the engineering behind the features for two of the most important radio options provided by the standard. Radio engineers approaching the standard for the first time as well as those already engaged in product development will find this text remarkably rewarding.”

This endorsement solely represents the views of the person who is endorsing this book and does not necessarily represent a position of either the company, the IEEE or the IEEE Standards Association.

Eldad Perahia

Intel Corporation

Robert Stacey

Apple Inc.

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© Cambridge University Press 2008, 2013

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2008
Reprinted with corrections 2010

Second edition 2013

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

ISBN 978-1-107-01676-7 Hardback

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To my wife Sarah and our son Nathan

— Eldad Perahia

To my wife Celia and son Zachary

— Robert Stacey

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