30th September marked the 20th anniversary of the announcement of the IEEE wireless standard 802.11b. This was the first 802.11 standard to be released under the name ‘Wi-Fi’, and was a commercial success, adopted by several hardware vendors. All products with the familiar “yin-yang” style Wi-Fi logo have a certificate issued by The Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance, which in 2002 changed its name to the Wi-Fi Alliance. The Wi-Fi mark guarantees compatibility between different Wi-Fi-enabled devices, including backward compatibility.
Networking manufacturers have also done a lot to improve the compatibility and performance of Wi-Fi. Launched as early as 2002, the Cisco Compatible eXtensions free license program allowed Wi-Fi products offered by other vendors to work with Cisco wireless networks while maintaining a high level of security.
