RangeLAN2
RangeLAN2 was a broad family of wireless devices developed by Proxim Wireless, and is a trademark of that company. It also refers to the RangeLAN2 wireless communications protocol, used by these devices, but the protocol was officially renamed OpenAir. This protocol was in use prior to the adoption of the IEEE 802.11b standard, and was in competition with it, and uses approximately the same portion of the radio spectrum. When 802.11b was adopted as a standard, the RangeLAN2 market began to contract.
Performance
RangeLAN2 devices have typical bandwidths of about 2 Mbit/s, and an indoor range of about 150 ft (46 m), similar to 802.11b. RangeLAN2 uses spread-spectrum radio transmission technology. These devices can interoperate with 802.11b and can still be used today. Support for RangeLAN2 products was aimed primarily at the Microsoft Windows market, but drivers for some RangeLAN2 products (such as PCMCIA cards) for Mac OS 9 were developed, although these did not get wide distribution. Linux drivers were also developed for many RangeLAN2 devices.
Typical RangeLAN2 figures:
- Radio Data Rate: 1.6 Mbit/s per channel, 800 kbit/s fallback rate
- Channels: Supports 15 independent, non-interfering "virtual channels"
- Official Indoor Range: Up to 500 feet (~150 m) radius (not necessarily reached in practice)
- Official Outdoor range: 1,000+ feet (300+ m) radius