The 802 project is one of many IEEE projects; however, it is the only project
that will be addressed in this book.
IEEE projects are subdivided into working groups to develop standards that address specific problems or needs. For instance, the IEEE 802.3 working group was responsible for the
creation of a standard for Ethernet, and the IEEE 802.11 working group was responsible for
creating the wireless standard. The numbers are assigned as the groups are formed, so 11 was
assigned to the wireless group since it was the 11th working group that was formed under the
IEEE 802 project.
As the need arises to revise existing standards created by the working groups, task groups
are formed. These task groups are assigned a sequential single letter (multiple letters are
assigned if all single letters have been used) that is added to the end of the standard number
(for example, 802.11a, 802.11g, and 802.3af). Some letters such as o and l are not assigned.
This is done to prevent confusion with the numbers 0 and 1. Other task group letters may not
be assigned to prevent confusion with other standards. For example, 802.11x has not been
assigned because it can be easily confused with 802.1X and because 802.11x has become a
common casual reference to the 802.11 family of standards.