IEEE 802.11 is a set of standards for implementing wireless local area network computer communication in the 2.4, 3.6 and 5 GHz frequency bands. These standards are created and maintained by a body referred to as the IEE LAN/MAN Standards Committee. IEEE 802.11n belongs to the 802.11 family of over-the-air modulation techniques. All the OTA modulation techniques use the same basic protocol. The first of the series is the 802.11-1997 for wireless networking. However, the most common of them all is the 802.11b series, 802.11g and 802.11n. The 802.11n is a new modulation technique.

Both 802.11b and 802.11g work with the 2.4 GHz ISM band but devices and equipments that use these modulation techniques suffer interference from microwave ovens, Bluetooth devices and cordless telephones that have band widths close to them. This is what prompted the development of the 802.11n modulation technique. It is an amended version of the previous techniques and has been added multi-input multiple-output antennas (MIMO). This technique operates in the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. It was ratified and approved in 2009 but before this, businesses that were already mitigating to 802.11n networks based on the Wi-Fi Alliance’s product certification.

802.11n is the newest Wi-Fi LAN technology and the most commonly used one now among others. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is the organization that developed the technology. The technology offers quadruple transfer rates of data with the fastest Wi-Fi technology. Unlike the 802.11a which works in the 5GHz and requires line-of-sight availability, the 802.11n does not need that. The transfer speeds of the 802.11n modulation technique are from 100 to 200 megabytes per second which are the highest transfer rates among all the family of modulation techniques.

The technology also has orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing which splits the signal frequencies into several channels for an enhanced throughput. It is expected to serve many personal electronic devices and mobile or handheld devices as well. This is a big milestone as far as wireless technology is concerned. The other series of the family include the 802.11b, 802.11g and finally 802.11a. These are some of the previous modulation techniques released by the IEEE.