IEEE 802
In February 1980, a committee called the 802 Working Group) took over from the private sector the job of defining network standards. The IEEE 802 committee defines the following standards for network environments:
- Frames
- Speeds
- Distances
- Types of cabling
Each subcommittee is officially called a working group:
| IEEE Subcommittee | Area of jurisdiction |
|---|---|
| 802.1 | Higher layer LAN protocols (with many subcommittees, like 802.1X for port-based network access control) |
| 802.3 | Ethernet (with a ton of subcommittees, such as 802.3ae for 10G Ethernet) |
| 802.11 | WLAN (Wireless LAN) specifications, such as Wi-Fi, and many subcommittees. |
| 802.15 | WPAN (Wireless Personal Area Network) |
| 802.18 | Radio Regulatory Technical Advisory Group |
| 802.19 | Wireless Coexistence Working Group |
| 802.20 | MBWA (Mobile Broadband Wireless Access) |
| 802.21 | Media Independent Handover Services |
| 802.22 | WRAN (Wireless Regional Area Networks) |