Wireless networking enables devices to connect and communicate over radio frequencies without physical cables, forming the backbone of modern mobile connectivity in homes, enterprises, and public spaces. Built on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards and operating primarily in the 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz bands, Wi-Fi has evolved from basic 11 Mbps connections (802.11b) to multi-gigabit speeds exceeding 30 Gbps (Wi-Fi 7). Understanding wireless networking requires balancing three competing priorities: coverage area, throughput capacity, and interference management—because radio spectrum is a shared, finite resource where every transmitted frame consumes airtime that cannot be reused by nearby devices. The key mental model: think of wireless as a half-duplex shared medium where hidden nodes, co-channel contention, and signal attenuation create challenges that wired networks never face.