The standards board of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has- approved IEEE 802.1b, thereby codifying a standard for wireless LANs with 11 Mbps band-width at 2.4 GHz. The new standard allows wireless LANs to be extensions of 10 and 100 Mbps wired Ethernet LANs.
It may take several months for the many proprietary products on the market to be retooled to conform to the standard, therefore, libraries should not rush into wireless LANs.
There is another IEEE group work-ing on a standard for 24 Mbps bandwidth at 5 GHz. The broader bandwidth avail-able at the higher frequency is not expected to displace IEEE 802.lb because the signals will diminish more rapidly. Therefore, it will be necessary to install more $500-$600 transceivers to transmit and receive signals. -The standard; far the higher frequency wireless LAN may take another two years to complete. When it is approved, it will be designated IEEE 802.la.
