Definitions - 2

antenna selection (ASEL) receiver: A station (STA) that performs receive ASEL.
antenna selection (ASEL) transmitter: A station (STA) that performs transmit ASEL.
association: The service used to establish access point/station (AP/STA) mapping and enable STA
invocation of the distribution system services (DSSs).
authentication: The service used to establish the identity of one station (STA) as a member of the set of
STAs authorized to associate with another STA.
authentication and key management (AKM) suite: A set of one or more algorithms designed to provide
authentication and key management, either individually or in combination with higher layer authentication
and key management algorithms outside the scope of this standard.

Authentication Server (AS): An entity that provides an authentication service to an Authenticator. This
service determines, from the credentials provided by the Supplicant, whether the Supplicant is authorized to
access the services provided by the Authenticator. (IEEE Std 802.1X-200412)
Authenticator: An entity at one end of a point-to-point LAN segment that facilitates authentication of the
entity attached to the other end of that link. (IEEE Std 802.1X-2004)
Authenticator address (AA): The medium access control (MAC) address of the IEEE 802.1X
Authenticator.
authorization: The act of determining whether a particular right, such as access to a resource, is granted to
an entity.
NOTE—See IETF RFC 2903 [B32].13
authorized: To be explicitly allowed.
average noise power indicator (ANPI): A medium access control (MAC) indication of the average noise
plus interference power measured when the channel is idle as defined by three simultaneous conditions:
1) the Virtual Carrier Sense (CS) mechanism indicates idle channel, 2) the station (STA) is not transmitting
a frame, and 3) the STA is not receiving a frame.
azimuth: The horizontal orientation of the front surface of a station or of a radio antenna system’s main lobe
measured clockwise from true north.
base channel: Channel on which the tunneled direct-link setup (TDLS) peer station (STA) is associated
with an access point (AP).
basic service area (BSA): The area containing the members of a basic service set (BSS). It might contain
members of other BSSs.

basic service set (BSS): A set of stations (STAs) that have successfully synchronized using the JOIN
service primitives14 and one STA that has used the START primitive. Alternatively, a set of STAs that have
used the START primitive specifying matching mesh profiles where the match of the mesh profiles has been
verified via the scanning procedure. Membership in a BSS does not imply that wireless communication with
all other members of the BSS is possible.
basic service set (BSS) transition: A station (STA) movement from one BSS to another BSS in the same
extended service set (ESS).
beamformee: A station (STA) that receives a physical layer convergence procedure (PLCP) protocol data
unit (PPDU) that was transmitted using a beamforming steering matrix.
beamformer: A station (STA) that transmits a physical layer convergence procedure (PLCP) protocol data
unit (PPDU) using a beamforming steering matrix.
beamforming: A spatial filtering mechanism used at a transmitter to improve the received signal power or
signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at an intended receiver. Syn: beam steering.
big endian: The concept that, for a given multi-octet numeric representation, the most significant octet has
the lowest address.