Wireless network interface controller: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 17:15, 6 February 2022

Revision as of 17:28, 28 November 2023

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[[File:DELL TrueMobile 350 Bluetooth card.jpg|thumb|A Bluetooth interface card]]

A '''wireless network interface controller''' ('''WNIC''') is a [[network interface controller]] which connects to a [[wireless network]], such as [[Wi-Fi]] or, [[Bluetooth]], or [[LTE (telecommunication)|LTE]] (4G) or [[5G]] rather than a wired network, such as a [[Token Ring]] oran [[Ethernet]] network. A WNIC, just like other NICs, works on the layers 1 and 2 of the [[OSI model]] and uses an [[antenna (radio)|antenna]] to communicate via [[radio wave]]s.

A wireless network interface controller may be implemented as an [[expansion card]] and connected using [[Peripheral Component Interconnect|PCI]] bus or [[PCIe]] bus, or connected via [[USB]], [[PC Card]], [[ExpressCard]], [[Mini PCIe]] or [[M.2]].

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; Infrastructure mode

: In an infrastructure mode network the WNIC needs a [[wireless access point]]: all data is transferred using the access point as the central hub. All wireless [[Node (networking)|nodes]] in an infrastructure mode network connect to an access point. All nodes connecting to the access point must have the same [[service set identifier]] (SSID) as the access point, and if a kind. ofIf wireless security is enabled on the access point (such as [[Wired Equivalent Privacy|WEP]] or [[Wi-Fi Protected Access|WPA]]), they must share the sameNIC keysmust orhave othervalid [[authentication]] parameters in order to connect to the access point.

; Ad hoc mode

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Specifications commonly used in marketing materials for WNICs include:

*Wireless [[data transfer]] rates (measured in Mbit/s); these range from 2 Mbit/s to 549608 Mbit/s.<ref name="Meyers">Meyers, Mike: Network+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide, McGraw-Hill, 2004, p. 230.</ref>

*Wireless transmit power (measured in [[dBm]])

*Wireless network standards (may include standards such as [[802.11b]], [[IEEE 802.11a-1999|802.11g11a]], [[802.11n11g]], etc.) [[802.11g11n]], offers data transfer speeds equivalent to[[IEEE 802.11a &ndash; up to 54 Mbit/s &ndash; and the wider {{convert11ac-2013|300|ft|m|adj=on}} range of 802.11b11ac]], and is backward compatible with[[Wi-Fi 6|802.11b11ax]].

Most WNICs include 802.11, Bluetooth and 3GPP (2G, 3G, 4G, 5G) network standards.

Most Bluetooth cards do not implement any form of the 802.11 standard.

==Range==