How Do Wireless Networks Work?

Wireless networks work using radio waves rather than wires to transmit information between computers. That is the simple version. Then it is all explained in this report, if you are interested to understand what’s going on in detail.

Ones and Zeros.

I am positive you understand that computers transmit data digitally, using binary: ones and zeros. This is a means of communicating that translates very well to radio waves, because the computer can transmit ones and zeros as different kinds of beep. These beeps are so fast they’re outside a human’s hearing range — radio waves which you can’t hear are, in fact, all around you all the time. A computer will not stop from using them.

Morse Code.

The way it works is much like Morse code. You most likely already know that Morse code is a means of representing the alphabet so it could be transmitted over radio using a dot (short beep) and a dash (long dash). It eventually become a method of getting data from one place, and had been used manually for decades. More importantly for this case it is a system, much like a computer’s ones and zeros.

You might think of wireless networking as being like Morse code. You plug a combined radio receiver and transmitter , and the monitor is able to send out its equivalent of dots and dashes (bits, in computer-speak) to get your information from one area to another.

All About Frequencies.

You may wonder the way the computer could possibly transmit enough bits to send and receive data at the speed it will. There must be a limit on just how much can be transmitted into a second before it just becomes useless nonsense, right? Well, yes, but the key to wireless network is that it gets around this issue.

First of all, wireless transmissions are sent at very high frequencies, meaning that more information can be transmitted per second. Most wireless connections use a frequency of 2.4 gigahertz (2.4 billion cycles per second) — a similar frequency to mobile phones and microwave ovens. As you may understand, however, a frequency this high means that the wavelength must be very brief, and that’s the reason why wireless networking only works over a limited area.

In addition, wireless networks make use of a technique called’frequency hopping’. They use dozens of frequencies in the range they are given, and constantly switch between them. This makes wireless networks more immune to interference from other radio signals than they’d be if they only transmitted on one frequency.

Access Points.

The last step is when it comes to all the computers on a network sharing Internet access. This is done with a special piece of wireless equipment called an access point. Access points are more expensive than wireless cards for one computer, as they contain radios that are capable of talking to around 100 computers at precisely the identical period, and sharing out access. Dedicated access points are only essential for larger networks, however — it is likely to use one of them since the access point, or you might just get a wireless router if you just have a few computers.

They Understand Each Other.

That is all well and good but how does wireless equipment made by entirely different companies manage to work together when this is all so complex? Well, the answer is that there are standards that all wireless devices follow. These standards are technically called the 802.11 standards, and are determined by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). It’s thanks to people sticking to their standards that wireless networking is simple and cheap to use today.

You Don’t Need to Be Concerned.

You do not have to worry, if all this talk of frequencies gets you a little concerned — wireless network components and software manages all of this automatically. Don’t feel that you’re going to need to inform a wireless device what frequency since it is just not going to happen, someone is using, okay? Wireless networking, for most of its complex workings, is actually far more simple to use than you would ever expect.