The IEEE 802.11 Handbook: A Designer's Companion [Paperback]

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

After I made for myself a list of abreviations (see below), the book became readable, and gives a good overview of the IEEE 802.11 standard.

ACK=ACKnowledge; AGW=Additive Wite Gaussian; AID=Association IDentifier; AP=Access Point; ASN=Abstract Syntax Notation; ATIM=Announcement Traffic Indication Message; BER=Bit Error Rate; BPSK=Binary Phase Shift Keying; BSA=Business Software Alliance; BSS=Basic Service Set; BSSID=Basic Service Set IDentifier; CCITT=Comité Consultatif International Télégraphique et Téléphonique; CCK=Complementary Code Keying; CDMA=Code Division Multiple Access; CF=Contention Free; CFP=Contention Free Period; CSMA=Carier Sense Multiple Access; CSMA/CA=Carier Sense Multiple Access with Colission Avoidance; CRC=Cyclic Redundancy Check; CTS=Clear To Send; CW=Continues Wave;

DA=Destination Address; DBPSK=Differential Binary Phase Shift Keying; DCF=Distributed Coordination Function; DHCP=Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol; DIFS=Distributed InterFrame Space; DQPSK=Differential Quadrature Phase Shift Keying; DS=Distribution System; DSSS=Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum; DTIM=Delivery Traffic Indication Map; EIFS=Extended InterFrame Space; EIRP=Effective Isotopic Radiated Power; ERP=Effective Radiated Power; ESS=Extended Service Set; ETSI=European Telecommunications Standards Institute; FCC=Federal Communications Commission; FCS=Frame Check Sequence; FDDI=Fiber Distributed Data Interference; FH=Frequency Hopping; FHSS=Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum; GFSK=Gaussian Frequency Shift Keying; GPS=Global Positioning System; HR=High Rate; HR/DSSS=High Rate Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum; IBSS=Independent Basic Service Set; ICV=Integrity Check Value; ID=IDentifier; IV=Initialization Vector; IEEE=Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; IAPP=Inter-Access Point Protocol; IP=Internet Protocol; IR=InfraRed; ISI=Inter Symbol Interference; ISM=Industrial, Scientific and Medical; ITU=International Telecommunications Union; LAN=Local Area Network; LBT=Listen Before Talk; LLC=Logical Link Control; MAC=Medium Access Control layer; MIB=Management Information Base; MMAC-PC=Mobile Multimedia Access Communication Promition Council; MSDU=MAC Service Data Unit; NACK=Negative ACKnowledge; NAV=Network Allocation Vector; NIC=Network Interface Card; OFDM=Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing; OSI=Open Systems Interconnection; PBCC=Packet Binary Convolution Coding; PC=Point Coordinator; PCMCIA=Personal Computer Memory Card International Association; PCF=Point Coordination Function; PER=Packet Error Rate; PHY=PHYsical layer; PICS=Protocol Implementation Conformance Statement; PIFS=Priority InterFrame Space; PLCP=Physycal Layer Convergence Procedure; PMD=Physical Medium Dependant; PPDU=PLCP Protocol Data Unit; PPM=Pulse Position Modulation; PS=Power Save; PSDU=PLCP Serive Data Unit; QPSK=Quadrature Phase Shift Keying; RA=Receiver Address; RC4=RSA Cipher algorithm 4; RF=Radio Frequency; RFID=Radio Frequency ID; RMS=Root Mean Square; RSA=Rivest-Shamir-Adleman; RSADSI=RSA Data Security Inc.; RTS=Request To Send; SA=Source Address; SFD=Start of Frame Delimmiter; SIFS=Short InterFrame Space; SNMP=Simple Network Management Protocol; SSID=Service Set IDentity; SYNC=SYNChronisation; TA=Transmitter Address; TIM=Traffic Indication Map; WEP=Wired Equivalent Privacy; WLAN=Wireless Local Area Network.