You are here: Home »
Wireless Networks: How Do They Work?
Wireless Networks: How Do They Work?
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Leave a comment
The wireless network uses radio waves instead of wires to transfer data between computers. To do this:
Binary code: 1 and 0
It is well known that computers transmit digital information, using binary: ones and zeros. This translates well to radio waves, from 1 and 0 can be represented by different types of beeps. These beeps are so fast they are out of earshot of people.
Morse Code: points and lines
It works like Morse code, which is a way of transmitting the alphabet through radio waves using dots (short beeps) and dashes (long beeps). Morse code was used manually for years by telegraph to get information from one place to another very quickly. Most important for this example, if it is a binary system, as a computer system.
wireless network, then we can think of Morse code for computers. Connecting a combined radio transmitter and receiver, and the computer can send the corresponding points, and dashes (bits, computer-speak) so you can get the information here to there.
Wavelengths and frequencies
You might wonder how the computer can send and receive data at high speed without becoming distorted nonsense. The key for wireless networks is the way it works around this problem.
First of all, wireless transmissions are sent at very high frequencies, which allows more data sent per second. Most wireless connections use a frequency of 2.4 gigahertz (2.4 billion cycles per second) - as often as cell phones and microwave ovens. However, this high frequency produces a wavelength that is very short, which is why wireless networking is effective only over short distances.
Wireless networks also use a technique called frequency hopping. "They use dozens of frequencies, and constantly switch between them. This makes wireless networks more immune to interference from other radio signals than if sent on a single frequency.
Internet access points
The last step of the wireless network is to provide Internet access for each computer to a network. This is done by a special piece of equipment called a wireless access point. The access point is more expensive than the wireless card for a computer, because it contains radios capable of communicating about 100 computers, the Internet connection sharing between them. Dedicated access points are only needed for large networks. Only a few computers, you can use them as a base, or use a wireless router.
Industry Standards
wireless equipment from different vendors can work together to handle these complex communications because there are standards governing the production of all wireless devices. These standards are technically known as 802.11. Because of the industry to meet these standards, wireless networking is both easy to use and affordable today.
Wireless is easy to use
If all these stories of frequencies has you worried - relax. Wireless networking hardware and software handle all this automatically, without user intervention. Wireless networks, for all complexes of its capacity is much simpler to use than you might expect.
Thanks
