IEEE 802.11 Handbook: A Designer's Companion

This book is must have for wi-fi professionals. It describes the protocol in detail and is a good reference to have.

I am an author of a book about the CWNA(Certified Wireless Networking Administration) certification exam. I recommend to everyone that they buy this book because I consider it the Wi-Fi Bible. The handbook is a MUST have if you want to get a basic understanding of the details of the PHY and MAC layers of the 802.11 standard. This book is NOT a prep guide for exams but rather is a great 802.11 wireless reference book. That being said, this book is an excellent study resource for all the CWNP certifications. I give this book SIX STARS

If you are an engineer with need to quickly understand the details of the 802.11 protocol, but do not want to plow through hundreds of pages of the IEEE specification, this book is for you. It is a good concise treatment of the details of the protocol. It is written for practicing telecommunications engineers. It is not 'wireless 101' and it is not for someone who wants to know how to set up a home or enterprise 802.11 network. It does not describe what unratified (as of this writing) 802.11e, 802.11 g, 802.11i specs are. It does cover the 802.11a and 802.11b phy layer descriptions.Unfortunately, the lack of a detailed Table of Contents, lack of any index at all, a super sparce list of acronyms hurt the readability. This also makes its use as a quick reference not so quick. I also think that the figures are too simple and that better use of detailed figures would help the book considerably. However, the actual IEEE spec has very good figures. This book and the IEEE spec are side by side companions on my bookshelf and complement each other nicely.I have found other books to date on the subject much too soft as far as technical detail on the protocol mechanisms. The authors participated in the design of 802.11 and know how to present the most salient features for embedded engineers. If you want a concise explanation of the 802.11 spec, and already have a fundamental understanding of how ethernet works, this is the book for you. So, I give it 4/5 stars on applicability of this content, but not for literary style and construct.If you are more interested in what is a wireless LAN, what affects the signal propagation, how do you plan to put in an 802.11 LAN in your enterprise, and a little overview on the protocol, buy the James T. Geier book

Simple, concise, language. A good number of diagrams that immediately convey the more complicated aspects of 802.11. Brings out the important issues and nuances clearly.

This book is unlike others I have seen, having a good balance between MAC and PHY topics. It is also easy to navigate throughout the book - so finding specific things is relatively easy. The edition I purchased has a list of acronyms and abbreviations in the back (last page). If you are new to 802.11 or need a good reference book, this one will probably fit the bill.