How Does Wi-Fi Work: Everything You Need To Know

How does Wi-Fi work?

I mean, Wi-Fi has become an integral part of our fast-paced everyday lives. Thanks to Wi-Fi, we no longer have to be tethered to the Internet with cables. We now have access to large amounts of data with which we can surf the world wide web.

But have you ever stopped to wonder how it works? In fact, what exactly is Wi-Fi?

What is Wi-Fi?

Wi-Fi, often referred to as WiFi, wifi, wi-fi, or wi fi, is often thought to be short for Wireless Fidelity. The organization that paid for the marketing firm is sometimes referred to as the Wireless Fidelity Alliance Inc.

The WiFi Alliance, formerly known as the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance, was looking for a more user-friendly term for technology that followed IEEE 802.11 (the technical name for WiFi) specifications. A brand consulting agency commissioned by The WiFi Alliance, Interbrand, developed the term.

Forms of Wi-Fi connections

Your options for connecting wirelessly at home are growing as mobile networks expand into the home internet realm. As with internet service, there are advantages and disadvantages to each type of wireless connection, such as speed and strength of signal.

Here are some types of Wi-Fi connections:

LTE Home Internet

If you live in a rural area where your internet options are limited, 4G LTE Home Internet is worth considering. It offers high-speed internet service delivered over cell phone towers and mobile networks with average download speeds of around 25 Mbps.

The advantages of LTE over satellite are better speeds and reliability depending on your carrier.

Wireline/router

Most homes use a wireless router to access the internet these days. The pros include the convenience of setup, mobility within the range of the Wi-Fi access point (router), and the ability to connect multiple devices.

The consequences, however, are limited bandwidth and reduced speed as more devices are connected to the same Wi-Fi network. There is also a potential for interference from other electromagnetic devices in the home.

Mobile hotspot or jetpack

Mobile and dedicated hotspots are becoming a more popular way of connecting safely on the go. Two common hotspot devices are your smartphone and a jetpack.

You can use almost any smartphone or tablet today as a temporary hotspot, and it is a great option if you occasionally need it. It is easy to use and does not require buying extra devices; however, it can zap your battery life and data pretty fast.

On the other hand, a jetpack acts as a dedicated mobile hotspot that picks up a signal from cell towers in your area just like your smartphone. More devices can connect to it and it offers a greater range of Wi-Fi. And because it is a separate device, your smartphone battery power remains untouched. The downfall is having to buy the jetpack and a separate plan.

5G Home Internet

5G Home Internet (Fixed Wireless Access) is now in more places around the country. Even with multiple devices connected, it remains reliable and fast enough to power your whole home. Fixed wireless access has a simple plug-and-play setup, which means there are no messy wires and no need to wait for a technician to come to your home for setup.

Types of wireless Wi-Fi connections

In addition to a LAN, there are a few other types of common wireless networks: personal-area network (PAN), metropolitan-area network (MAN), and wide-area network (WAN).

LAN

A local-area network is a computer network that exists at a single site, such as an office building. It can be used to connect a variety of components, such as computers, printers, and data storage devices. LANs consist of components like switches, access points, routers, firewalls, and Ethernet cables to tie them all together.

Wi-Fi is the most commonly known wireless LAN.

PAN

A personal-area network consists of a network centralized around the devices of a single person in a single location. A PAN could have computers, phones, video game consoles, or other peripheral devices. They are common inside homes and small office buildings.

Bluetooth is the most commonly known wireless PAN.

MAN

A metropolitan-area network is a computer network that spans a city, small geographical area, or business or college campus. One feature that differentiates a MAN from a LAN is its size. A LAN usually consists of a solitary building or area. A MAN can cover several square miles, depending on the needs of the organization.

Large companies, for example, may use a MAN if they have a spacious campus and need to manage key components, such as HVAC and electrical systems.

WAN

A wide-area network covers a very large area, like an entire city, state, or country. In fact, the internet is a WAN. Like the internet, a WAN can contain smaller networks, including LANs or MANs.

Cellular services are the most commonly known wireless WANs.

Difference between wired and wireless networks

At the most obvious, a wireless network keeps devices connected to a network while still allowing them the freedom to move about, unencumbered by wires. A wired network, on the other hand, makes use of cables that connect devices to the network. These devices are often desktop or laptop computers but can also include scanners and point-of-sale machines.

There are more subtle technology differences that come into play between wired and wireless.

Most modern wired networks are now “full duplex”, meaning that they can transmit and receive packets in both directions simultaneously. In addition, most wired networks have a dedicated cable that runs to each end-user device.

In a Wi-Fi network, the medium (the radio frequency being used for the network) is a shared resource. This is not just for the users of the network, but often for other technologies as well. Wi-Fi operates in what is called ‘shared’ bands, where many different electronic devices are approved to operate).

However, this has several implications, which include:

Wireless can’t both talk and listen at the same time. it is “half-duplex”, unlike a wired network
All users sharing the same space must take turns to talk
Everyone can ‘hear’ all the traffic going on.

This has forced Wi-Fi networks to implement various security measures over the years to protect the confidentiality of information passed wirelessly.

How Does Wi-Fi Work?

Wi-Fi uses radio waves to transmit information between your device and a router via frequencies. It can use two radio-wave frequencies — 2.4 gigahertz and 5 gigahertz — depending on the amount of data you are sending.

The two Wi-Fi frequencies are split into multiple channels so as to prevent high traffic and interference. When it comes to sharing the data across these channels, that is when the magic happens.

The first step in the process is initiated by the user. When you access the Internet on your device, it converts the information you’ve requested into binary code, the language of computers. Everything computers do is based on binary code, a series of 1s and 0s.

When you click on this article, the computer translates your request into a bunch of 1s and 0s. If you are using Wi-Fi, these 1s and 0s are translated into wave frequencies by the Wi-Fi chip embedded in your device. The frequencies travel across the radio channels mentioned earlier and are received by the Wi-Fi router that your device is connected to.

The router then converts the frequencies back into binary code and translates the code into the Internet traffic that you requested, and the router receives that data through a hardwired Internet cable. The process repeats itself until you have loaded this article — or anything that requires the Internet.

All of this happens at an unbelievably fast rate. Most routers operate at 54 Mbps (megabits per second), meaning that when such routers translate and transmit binary data, 54 million 1s and 0s are taken in or sent out in a single second.

Wi-Fi Network Standards

The networking standard used by wireless architecture is IEEE 802.11. However, this standard is in continual development and new amendments come out regularly. Amendments to the standard are assigned letters, and while many amendments have been released, the most commonly known are:

802.11a

This original amendment added support for the 5 GHz band, allowing transmission of up to 54 megabits of data per second. The 802.11a standard makes use of orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM). It splits the radio signal into sub-signals before they get to a receiver.

802.11a is an older standard and has been largely replaced by newer technology.

802.11b

802.11b added faster rates in the 2.4GHz band to the original standard. It can pass up to 11 megabits of data in a second and uses complementary code keying (CCK) modulation to achieve better speeds.

802.11b is an older standard and has been largely replaced by newer technology.

802.11g

802.11g standardized the use of OFDM technology used in 802.11a in the 2.4GHz band. It was backward compatible with both 802.11 and 802.11b.

802.11g is an older standard and has been largely replaced by newer technology.

802.11n

Once the most popular standard 802.11n was the first time a unified specification covered both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. This protocol offers better speed when compared to those that came before it by leveraging the idea of transmitting using multiple antennas at the same time (usually called Multiple In Multiple Out or MIMO technology).

802.11n is an older standard, but some older devices may still be found in use.

802.11ac

802.11ac was only specified for the 5GHz band. It is built upon the mechanisms introduced in 802.11n. And while not as revolutionary as 802.11n was, it still extended speeds and capabilities in the 5GHz band. Most devices currently out in the wild are likely 802.11ac devices.

802.11ac technology was released in two main groups, usually called ‘waves’. The primary difference is that Wave 2 devices have a few more technical capabilities when compared to Wave 1, but it is all interoperable.

802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6)

802.11ax (much like 802.11n) unified the specification across all applicable frequency bands. In the name of simplicity, the industry has started to refer to it as Wi-Fi 6. Wi-Fi 6 has expanded the technologies used for modulation to include OFDMA, which allows a certain amount of parallelism to the transmission of packets within the system. This makes it a more efficient use of the available spectrum and improves the overall network throughput.

Wi-Fi 6 is the latest technology and is what most new devices are shipping with.

Other 802.11 Standards

There are many more amendments that have been made to the standards over the years (most letters of the alphabet have been used over time). Additional 802.11 standards have focused on things like better security, increased Quality of Service, as well as many other enhancements.

References

How Does Wi-Fi Work: Everything You Need To Know

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What is Wi-Fi?