The Cisco Aironet WLAN Adapters, also referred to as client adapters or
NICs, are radio modules. They are pictured in Figure
. The primary
function of these wireless NICs is to provide transparent data communications
between other devices, both wireless and wired. The client adapters are fully
compatible with devices supporting Plug-and-Play (PnP) technology.
The
NICs operate at both Layers 1 and 2 of the OSI Reference Model, as shown in
Figure
. The
adapters operate similarly to a standard network adapter, except that the cable
has been replaced by a radio connection. No special wireless networking
functions are required. All existing applications that operate over a wired
network will operate using wireless adapters.
As with Ethernet, a driver
is needed to communicate with the OS on the computer. There are three types of
drivers available for wireless client adapters. They are NDIS, ODI, and Packet.
The Aironet Windows driver disk includes drivers for Windows 95, 98, ME, NT,
2000, and XP. Additionally, the driver is included on the operating system CD
for Windows Me, Windows 2000, and Windows XP.
The different driver types
and their platforms are as follows:
-
Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS) – The primary purpose
of NDIS is to define a standard API for NICs. NDIS also provides a library of
functions that can be used by MAC drivers, as well as higher-level protocol
drivers, such as TCP/IP. Current NDIS versions used by Windows are Microsoft
proprietary specifications. NDIS drivers are supported under 95/98, ME, NT,
2000, and XP. The Novell NetWare Client32 is also supported.
-
Open Data-link Interface (ODI) – ODI is analogous to NDIS, but is
NetWare specific. It is used in the Novell NetWare 3.x and 4.x environments and
will work with either NETX or VIMs. ODI drivers will also work under DOS.
-
Packet – This interface is for use with DOS-based IP stacks. Some of
the more popular DOS-based IP stacks that work with Cisco Aironet products
include FTP Software and NetManage.
-
Windows CE – Windows CE is necessary to develop a separately
compiled version of the driver, based on each processor and version. There are
supported Cisco Aironet drivers for Windows CE versions 2.11 and 3.0.