Cisco Aironet 340 Series User's Guide download pdf (Page 17)

Background 3-17

CHAPTER 3

Background

Cisco and Aironet History

Aironet was incorporated in 1993 as an independently run subsidiary of Telxon Corporation, an early leader in

the hand-held data collection market. Our technology and intellectual propertyroots date back to 1986 with the

founding of Telesystems, a pioneer in wireless LAN technology. Telxon acquired Telesystems in 1992, which

shortly thereafter became the foundation for Aironet. In August of 1999, Aironet became a publicly traded

company with a successful initial public offering. In March of 2000, Aironet was acquired by Cisco Systems.

Today Cisco is a leading provider of high-speed, standards-based WLAN solutions. We are a major contributor

to the industry’s development of the IEEE 802.11b wireless LAN standard and the ﬁrst company to bring a full

range of 802.11-compliant, high-speed 11 Mbps products to market. Our products are marketed worldwide

through distributors, value-added resellers (VARs) and OEM partners.

Introduction to Wireless LANs

The wireless LAN market emerged in the mid-1980s when real-time data collection and inventory management

became business necessities. Retailers needed to know instantly what was selling—or not selling—on their

shelves. Industries needed to manage inventory “just in time” for manufacturing to ﬁll actual orders. And

everyone was demanding “electronic data interchange.”

Early wireless portable systems were based on narrow-band UHF in the 450-470 MHz frequency band. In some

countries, including the United States, radio-based installations require local site licenses from government

agencies. In 1985 theFCC authorized unlicensed usage of spread spectrum radiosin the Industrial, Scientiﬁc and

Medical (ISM) bands, including 902-928 MHz, 2.400-2.4835 GHz and 5.725-5.875 GHz.

Three years later, the ﬁrst FCC-certiﬁed 900-MHzspread-spectrum radio for wireless systemswas introduced by

Telesystems SLW Inc. of Markham, Ontario (acquired by Telxon, Aironet’s founding company, in 1992 via a

stock acquisition following several years of joint product ventures). This early 900- MHz, spread-spectrum radio

delivered the higher data rates needed for “real-time” data collection and was soon integrated into a wide array

of devices serving retail and manufacturing applications.

In 1994 wireless LAN communications took another leap forward. Due to advances in RF technology, radio

components were getting smaller, faster, and cheaper. Now the wireless industry could reasonably produce 2.4

GHzspread-spectrum radios capableof sustaining 1or2 Megabits persecond (Mbps), morethan twice the speed

of 900 MHz devices.

1 2 ... 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

No comments

Cisco Aironet 340 Series User's Guide Page 17