Sunday, April 11, 2010

8. Wireless Access Point (WAP)

A WAP, or simply an Access Point (AP), is a hardware device that is used to connect wireless devices to form a network. In its typical implementation, a WAP is also connected to the wired network and allows wireless clients to communicate to the clients located on the wired local area network(LAN). In a wireless network, all nodes, including the AP, have wireless transmitters and receivers, and communication takes place using radio frequencies. The transmission range of an AP is limited, and a large wireless network may need more than one AP to provide connectivity to all clients located at different places of the building. The range of the AP signals depends on the type of wireless standard used as well as on electromagnetic and radio frequency interferences.

WAPs are available in several different forms and capabilities. For example, a low-cost, small wireless router used to share an Internet connection at home also acts as an AP. This device not only provides connectivity to all computers but also acts as a gateway for Internet connectivity and automatically assigns IP addresses to them.

Note: WAP also refers to Wireless Application Protocol, an open standard that enables mobile devices such as mobile phones or personal digital assistants (PDAs) to access the Internet.

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