dization activity is not included at Algorithm of RC4," S. Fluhrer, I. documents, such as those cited in the this web site. Mantin, and A. Shamir, Selected Areas UWB description in section 5.3, are This page intentionally left blank Chapter 5.2 Short-range wireless applications and technologies Alan Bensky An important factor in the widespread penetration of promises to add applications and users to short-range short-range devices into the office and the home is the communication without impinging on present spectrum basing of the most popular applications on industry stan- use. Additionally, it has other attributes including range dards. In this chapter, we take a look at some of these finding and high power efficiency that are derived from standards and the applications that have emerged from its basic principles of operation. We present the main them. Those covered pertain to HomeRF, Wi-Fi, features of UWB communication and an introduction to HIPERLAN/2, Bluetooth, and Zigbee. In order to be how it works. successful, a standard has to be built SO that it can keep abreast of rapid technological advancements by accom- 5.2.1 Wireless local area networks modating modifications that don't obsolete earlier devices that were developed to the original version. A case in point (WLAN) is the competition between the WLAN (wireless local area network) standard that was developed by the HomeRF One of the hottest applications of short-range radio Working Group based on the SWAP (shared wireless communication is wireless local area networks. While the access protocol) specification, and IEEE specification advantage of a wireless versus wired LAN is obvious, the 802.11, commonly known as Wi-Fi. The former used early versions of WLAN had considerably inferior data frequency-hopping spread-spectrum exclusively, and al- rates SO conversion to wireless was often not worthwhile, though some increase of data rate was provided for beyond particularly when portability is not an issue. However, the original 1 and 2 Mbps, it couldn't k