WLANs and Access PointsĮvery component that connects to a WLAN is considered a station, and falls into one of two categories: access points (APs) and clients.
The hot spots themselves also constitute WLANs, of a particular kind. However, not every Wi-Fi device actually receives Wi-Fi Alliance certification, although Wi-Fi is used by more than 700 million people through about 750,000 Internet connection hot spots. Where “Wi-Fi connection” refers to a given wireless connection that a device uses, the WLAN is the network itself, which is different.Īlso, “Wi-Fi” is not a technical term, but is described as a superset of the IEEE 802.11 standard and is sometimes used interchangeably with that standard. First of all, although some may use the terms “Wi-Fi” and “WLAN” interchangeably, there are some semantic differences in play. WLAN should not be confused with the Wi-Fi Alliance's Wi-Fi trademark. Techopedia Explains Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN)
