802.11d – the one that made Wi-Fi go global

next up: IEEE Std 802.11d-2001, aka Amendment 3. dropped in 2001, and while it didn’t make headlines like the others, it was quietly essential. no official Task Group D – just another product of the 802.11 working group doing its thing.

so what was it for? basically, 802.11d made sure Wi-Fi could follow the rules outside the US. the original specs were kinda US-centric, and other countries had different ideas about things like which channels were okay, how long devices could hang on a frequency, and how much power they could blast out. 11d fixed that.

it added support for region-specific settings – so devices could adapt automatically based on where they were being used. stuff like transmit power levels (`dot11TxPowerLevels`), max dwell time (`dot11MaxDwellTime`), and how many channels could be used in hopping patterns. sounds low-level? it is. but without this, international roaming wouldn’t really work.

was it flashy? no. was it critical? absolutely. 802.11d laid the groundwork for Wi-Fi that didn’t break local laws just by crossing a border. later standards like 11h and 11k added more dynamic features, but this was the foundation.

as usual, it got rolled into the big IEEE 802.11-2007 revision, and kept on living through 2012, 2016, and 2020. hidden in the spec sheets, but still working in the background.

802.11d made Wi-Fi behave itself worldwide. no headlines, no glory, just compliance done right.