As WLANs (Wireless Local Area Networks) become increasingly common, it's becoming vital to be able to test them for proper performance and to optimize their operation. This book, written by a member of the IEEE committee that develops WLAN standards, is the first book addressing that need. It covers test equipment and methods for the RF (wireless) and physical layers of WLAN, protocols, the application layer, and manufacturing testing. The emphasis throughout is on underlying engineering principles along with modern metrics and methodologies, ensuring this book gives both a solid theoretical background along with field-proven techniques and applications.Much of the subject material is drawn from the author's own hands-on experience in the field, as an architect and engineer of WLAN test equipment, and a writer of standards for measuring WLAN equipment performance. A particularly engaging chapter deals with manufacturing test, describing some of the different manufacturing test setups and equipment. A concise introduction to deployment testing of "hotspots and WLANs in enterprises is also provided.*Gives proven techniques for maximizing the coverage area and performance of wireless networks *Author's insider position on the IEEE committee developing standards for WLAN testing ensures timeliness and technical integrity of the material *Includes coverage of newer multiple input/multiple output (MIMO) wireless networks