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Question by James Bond: What are other types of wireless networks besides 802.11?
what are they using when you see giant directional antennae on top of roofs and such, or for networking buildings over a long distance wirelessly??? what was the first way to send packets over a network wirelessly?

Best answer:

Answer by 4th Level Support :p
Are you writing a paper?

I’d suggest you read

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11

and for other types, look at the “see also” links for
IEEE 802.15
IEEE 802.16 (aka WiMAX)
IEEE 802.20
IEEE 802.22

There is also this wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_wireless_data_standards

which seems to indicate that for the local area network, WiFi or 802.11x is the only (lasting?) standard for wireless networking.

The “giant directional antennae” etc. could either be for WAN connectivity (i.e. “wide area”) or may have nothing to do with computer networking.

According to

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_Workshops_on_Wireless_LAN

“The first IEEE workshop on Wireless LANs was held in May 1991″ and the subject was 801.11, which implies (but doesn’t specifically prove) that it was possibly “the first way to send packets over a network wirelessly”. And according to the first link above (IEEE_802.11 wikipedia entry), the initial standard wasn’t released until 1997.

What do you think? Answer below!