The part of success behind the popularity of WLANs is due to the availability of the 802.11 standard from IEEE. The standard specifies operation of WLANs in three ways:
- Infrastructure Mode: Every WLAN workstation (WS) communicates to any machine through an access point (AP). The machine can be in the same WLAN or connected to the outside world through the AP.
- Ad Hoc Network Mode: Every WS talks to another WS directly.
- Mixed Network Mode: Every WS can work in the above two modes simultaneously. This is also called the Extended Basic Service Set (EBSS).
