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Wi-Fi - technical definition
The name given IEEE 802.11 by the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA, now the Wi-Fi Alliance), Wi refers to the wireless nature of the LAN and Fi to the fidelity (i.e., faithfulness, or integrity) of the signal.The term also has been attributed to the IEEE 802.11 Working Group, with Wi referring to the fact that a wire traditionally served as the physical medium for LANs, and the homonym Fi referring to PHY, the PHYsical Layer of the OSI Reference Model. So,Wireless PHY became Wi-Fi. One way or another, or perhaps both ways, Wi-Fi became the vernacular for 802.11 and especially 802.11b. See also 802.11, 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, IEEE, OSI Reference Model, Physical Layer, and VoWiFi.
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