Overview

The IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN is one of the two technologies which has gained huge momentum in the wireless LAN market. IEEE 802.11 is an IEEE standard that defines the specification for wireless local area network. There are 2 variations of IEEE 802.11: a and b.

The IEEE 802.11 standard addresses the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz WLAN markets. The specification is steered by the IEEE committee and it specifies an “over the air” interface between a wireless client and a base station (access point) or wireless clients. The specification was conceived in 1990, and the final draft was approved in June 1997. Just like the the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet and 802.5 Token Ring standards IEEE 802.11 addresses both physical and medium access control (MAC) layers.

IEEE 802.11 standard is based on IEEE 802.3 standard (or Ethernet), which is a CSMA/CD technology. CSMA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access) technology is excellent for wireless where there is distributed control with listen before talking. CD (Collision Detection) is not good for wireless LANs and will not work well in an RF system, because the transmitting signal hears its own signal perfectly. Also, the radio is a much more lossy medium with a much higher packet error rate.

Xilinx Solutions

The Spartan™-II FPGA architecture has enabled a whole new generation of low-cost high volume solutions. This, combined with a vast portfolio of soft IP (Intellectual Property) cores allows Spartan-II FPGAs to provide solutions at a significantly lower cost than ASSPs and custom ASICs, while offering all of the time-to-market and flexibility benefits associated with programmable devices. The presentation provides specific details on how Xilinx solutions enable wireless LAN-based home networking.