802.11b versus 802.11a networks
802.11b versus 802.11a networks
802.11b versus 802.11a networks
feature list
feature list
feature list
feature
feature
ature
2.4 ghz
2.4 ghz
2.4 ghz
(802.11b)
(802.11b)
(802.11b)
5 ghz
5 ghz
5 ghz
(802.11a)
(802.11a)
(802.11a)
comments
comments
comments
802.11b versus 802.11a networks
The WL520 supports 802.11 wireless connectivity through the use of an 802.11a-compliant 5 GHz and 802.11b-compliant
2.4 GHz radio technology. The IEEE 802.11a standard adds support for a high-speed wireless physical layer in the 5 GHz
band using Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). The standard requires support for data rates of 6, 12, 24,
and 54 Mbits/s. The WL520 unit supports the following data rates: 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 54 Mbits/s. The IEEE 802.11b
standard supports wireless physical layer in the 2.4 GHz band using Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS). The standard
provides for data rates of 1, 2, 5.5, and 11 Mbits/s.
The WL520 device can be used with any combination of 802.11a and 802.11b radio cards. Note however, that only one
802.11a card with antenna adapter can be plugged into the WL520 unit at one time. You can have an 802.11a and an
802.11b card present in the WL520 device at the same time and 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz clients will be supported
simultaneously.
feature list
The IEEE standards that governs wireless communications are different for the 2.4 GHz band and the 5 GHz band. The table
below compares the software features supported for each type of card in the WL520 device:
fe
feature
2.4 ghz
(802.11b)
5 ghz
(802.11a)
comments
Number of stations per BSS
up to 250
up to 50
HTTP Server
yes
yes
Telnet / CLI
yes
yes
SNMP Agent
yes
yes
VLAN Support (2 User VLANs)
yes
yes
Emergency Reset to Default Configuration
yes
yes
DHCP Client
yes
yes
DHCP Server
yes
yes
TFTP
yes
yes
RADIUS Access Control
yes
yes
Fallback to Primary RADIUS Server
RADIUS Session Timeout
RADIUS Multiple MAC Address Formats
yes
yes
RADIUS DNS Host Name Support
yes
yes
RADIUS Start/Stop Accounting
yes
yes
802.1X (EAP-MD5, EAP-TLS and EAP-TTLS)
yes
yes
802.1d bridging
yes
yes
MAC Access Control Table
yes
yes
Protocol Filtering
yes
yes
Multicast/Broadcast Storm Filtering
yes
yes
Proxy ARP
yes
yes
Configuration Support for MAC Features
yes
yes
ICMP Echo Response
yes
yes
Hardware Watchdog Timer
yes
yes
Roaming
yes
yes
Link Integrity
yes
yes
Automatic Channel Select
yes
yes
WEP
yes
yes
Key lengths supported for 802.11b: 64-bit and 128-bit
Key lengths supported for 802.11a: 64-bit, 128-bit, and 152-bit
(Note: Some products refer to 64-bit as “40-bit”, 128-bit as “104-
bit”, and 152-bit as “128-bit”.)
WEP Plus (Weak Key Avoidance)
yes
No client support for 802.11a
WDS Relay
yes
Remote Link Test
yes
Link Test Responder
yes
No client support for 802.11a
Medium Density Distribution
yes
Distance between APs
yes
Ultra High Density
yes
Closed System
yes
Interference Robustness
yes
Load Balancing
yes
No client support for 802.11a
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