Some Basic Concepts

The Station: The station may be referred to as the network adapter, network interface card or an Access Point.

The Access Point: The Access Point is the device which has the ability to control the communication between stations.

Ad-hoc mode: On wireless computer networks, ad-hoc mode is a method for wireless devices to directly communicate with each other. Operating in ad-hoc mode allows all wireless devices within range of each other to discover and communicate in peer-to-peer fashion without involving central access points.

Infrastructure mode: Infrastructure mode wireless networking joins a wireless network to a wired ethernet network. Infrastructure mode wireless also supports central connection points for WLAN clients which are named as Access Point. Access point controls the communication between clients.

IEEE 802.11: This is the name of the working group in Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.,which focused on wireless networking.

Point to Point Links: A point to point link replaces a single communications cable.

Point to Multipoint Links: These systems have one base station, or access point, that controls communications with all of the other wireless nodes in the network. Signals converge at a single access point.