Early IEEE 802.11 standards had limited transmission capacity and were not popular.
Later versions, such as 802.11g, offered increased bandwidth and were widely
accepted by the IT industry. The more recent 802.11n uses multiple input/multiple output
(MIMO) technology to boost performance. MIMO relies on multiple data paths,
also called multipath design, to increase bandwidth and range. An even newer MIMO
version, called 802.11y, is currently being tested. If wireless capacity continues to
expand and security issues can be overcome, WLANs could replace wired networks in
many situations. Wireless security is discussed in detail in Chapter 12, Managing
Systems Support and Security.