IEEE 802.11 protocols and WLAN
One of the first adopters of the ISM bands that the FCC freed for unlicensed use was the IEEE 802.11 technology. The IEEE 802.11 is a suite of protocols with a rich history and different use cases. 802.11 is the specification defining the Media Access Control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) of a networking stack. The definition and specifications are governed by the IEEE LAN/MAN Standards Committee. Wi-Fi is the definition of WLAN based on the IEEE802.11 standards but maintained and governed by the nonprofit Wi-Fi Alliance.
802.11 owes its creation to NCR in 1991, which first developed the wireless protocol as a means of networking cash registers. It wasn't until 1999 when the Wi-Fi Alliance was formed that the technology became ubiquitous and pervasive in the burgeoning PC and notebook market. The original protocol is vastly different than modern 802.11 b/g/n/ac protocols. It only supported a 2 Mbps data rate with forward error correction...