[IEEE] [802.11a], is a wireless ethernet standardisation effort that supports high bit rates (54Mbits), but uses the 5 GHz [ISM] band, and so is not backward compatible with [802.11b] gear. Several manufacturers have released [802.11a] equipment, including [Proxim] and Intel. Some of the technology for [802.11a] was developed here in Australia by the (http://www.csiro.au/index.asp?type=achievement&id=IT%20and%20Telecommunications_WirelessLANstandard%20UsesCSIRO CSIRO). The [802.11a] equipment currently available operates on frequencies which are illegal for outdoors use in Australia, and in any case the standard has technical characteristics which would seem to make it not very useful for long-distance networks. [802.11g] provides the same speed (since it also uses [OFDM]), but works in the 2.4GHz [ISM] band. ---- Back to [802.11]