History of the IEEE 802.11 standard

Before describing the history of this standard, it is important to clarify the notion of standard and amendment.

There is only one current IEEE 802.11 standard. This is followed by the date on which it was published. This standard can be updated through amendments.

Amendments are made by subgroups of the IEEE 802.11 working group. They are denoted by IEEE 802.11 followed by a lower-case letter (corresponding to the name of the associated sub-working group). The aim of the "m" subgroup is to update the standard. It combines the current standard and the various subsequent amendments to produce the new IEEE 802.11 standard.

The first standard was published in 1997. A new version was released in 1999. It was updated in 2007, combining the previous 802.11-1999 standard with eight amendments.

There...