The IEEE accepted the 802.11 wireless specification in 1997, so sometime this is also referred to as IEEE 802.11-1997 standard.

IEEE 802.11 standard (commonly referred to as 802.11) refers to a family of specifications developed by the IEEE for wireless (over the air) networking (WLAN) technology.

In other words, 802.11 standard specifies an over-the-air interface between between two wireless client devices, or a wireless client device and a wireless base station.

802.11 LANs provide between 1 to 2 Mbps transmission rate in the 2.4 GHz frequency band. It may involve making use of either frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) or direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS).

IEEE 802.11 standard makes use of WEP & WPA for security.