Initial comments on IEEE 802.11

• MAC protocol is too complex
• For an access node, can the MAC be partitioned between the access point itself and a server in the infrastructure (see figure 1)
• In the future radios will provide data rates of 1, 10, 100 Mbits/s [with current best of 10Mbits/s], what are the core functions that require hardware assist, i.e., serialization/deserialization, address comparison, ...
• Can a ``soft MAC'' architecture that can support these functions or support 802.3 CAMA/CD or 100Mbit/s functions on a downloadable basis be constructure? (i.e., similar to DSP, could a Serial Bit Processor (SBP) be constructed?)