PROXIM ANNOUNCES SUPPORT FOR EMERGING IEEE 802.11 MEDIA ACCESS CONTROL
(MAC) LAYER STANDARD

Las Vegas, Nevada, November 22, 1993 -- Proxim, Inc., the leader in
wireless local area networking, today announced its support for the IEEE
802.11 MAC layer "foundation" protocol, approved on November 11, 1993 in
West Palm Beach, Florida. This foundation protocol represents a basic
framework upon which enhancements and refinements will be added in future
802.11 meetings.

As a pioneer in wireless local area networking, Proxim several years ago
anticipated much of what has emerged as the 802.11 foundation protocol in
its wireless protocol development efforts. Proxim's original RangeLAN
wireless LAN adapter family, based on direct sequence. spread spectrum
technology, was implemented using a distributed MAC layer protocol similar
in many respects to the proposal ratified by the IEEE committee at its
recent meeting. Furthermore, Proxim's RangeLAN2 family, based on frequency
hopping spread spectrum technology, incorporates many additional elements
such as protocol independent roaming, advanced synchronization, power
management and other key features now embedded in the newly adopted 802.11
foundation protocol.

This new IEEE MAC layer foundation combines elements of a wide range of
proposals and is not the selection of a single company's submission. To
accommodate this new protocol, all current vendors, including Proxim, will
be required to modify their existing products to ensure compliance.
Because Proxim's network architecture is fundamentally similar to this new
802.11 foundation protocol, the changes required in Proxim's MAC layer
design will be minimal. This means that Proxim will be able to conform
very quickly to the final standard once it is fully specified and approved
by the IEEE committee.

"Proxim is in a unique position to contribute to the IEEE 802.11 standards
development effort given our extensive, market-driven experience in
wireless local area networking." commented David King, Proxim's President
and Chief Executive Officer. Proxim is currently the only manufacturer
shipping a PCMCIA spread spectrum LAN adapter and seamless roaming for
mobile computer users and has shipped a total of over 50,000 spread
spectrum products to date. "We look forward to helping the committee
further specify a detailed standard based on our empirical understanding
of real world user environments and our wireless networking technology
expertise." said King.

PROXIM INDUSTRY STANDARDS INITIATIVES 

Proxim demonstrated its commitment to industry standards earlier this year
by becoming one of the first vendors to ship a fully compliant PCMCIA
product, including support of Card and Socket services. As part of its
initiative to assist the 802.11 in forging a final industry standard
specification, Proxim will focus its efforts in the following three
areas.

Enhanced Central Management Features 

Proxim plans to urge tighter integration of several critical central
management elements required to support time bounded services for client /
server environments. These elements will be critical in achieving superior
synchronization, enhanced power management, higher performance in
centrally managed environments, and easier facilitation of isochronous
traffic for wireless multimedia services (i.e. voice and compressed video)
in the future.

Higher Speed Physical Layer Standard 

Proxim is committed to ensuring interoperability with other vendors at the
recently approved 802.11 standard data rate of 1.0 Mbps, while striving to
achieve higher speed wireless communications for users of its products.
Proxim has submitted a proposal to the 802.11 to establish an enhanced,
higher speed physical layer standard based on its RangeLAN2 product line
which operates at 1.6 Mbps.

Seamless Multivendor Interoperability 

To achieve full interoperability among all vendors, the IEEE 802.11 must
define its MAC layer protocol in much greater detail. In addition to
helping 802.11 further specify its protocol, Proxim is committed to
working with other major vendors in the industry to ensure system and
network level interoperability.

A number of leading wireless companies have voiced support for Proxim's
efforts in the development of wireless LAN standards. Jim Slane, Group
Business Manager for Digital Equipment Corporation's mobile wireless
products, said, "As with Digital's efforts in other networking arenas, we
are committed to achieving the goal of multivendor interoperability in
wireless networking. As such, Proxim's effort to ensure the inclusion of
the best elements of both client server and peer-to-peer wireless LAN
architectures represents the best approach to achieve a unified
industry-wide standard."

Ann Marie McGee, Director of Strategic Marketing for Fujitsu Personal
Systems, Inc. (FPSI) added, "Fujitsu is a long time strategic partner of
Proxim's, having incorporated Proxim's spread spectrum technology into
several of our wireless products, including our recently announced Fujitsu
Pad Plus RF handheld computer. FPSI is pleased to have an emerging
standard which closely matches Proxim's wireless networking protocols.
This should ensure a smooth migration path for our customers as the
industry moves toward an open standard."

PROXIM BACKGROUND 

Proxim is the leading supplier of wireless local area networking products
for mobile computer users. In June 1993, Proxim introduced RangeLAN2, a
family of high performance wireless systems designed for the corporate LAN
market. Based on frequency hopping spread spectrum technology in the 2.4 -
2.4835 GHz band, RangeLAN2 offers the longest range and power consumption
of any wireless LAN product in its class. RangeLAN2 delivers an
uncompressed data rate of 1.6 Mbps per channel across 10 independent
channels, creating an aggregate network bandwidth of 16 Mbps.

Proxim's original award-winning RangeLAN family of products, which began
shipping early 1992, is designed for less data-intensive LAN applications
such as E-mail, printer-sharing and file transfer, as well as many
industry-specific mobile computing applications. Operating at a data rate
of 242 Kbps per channel across three independent channels, the original
RangeLAN family has a range of 300-500 feet in normal office environments
and 800-1000 feet in outdoor or open space environments. Proxim, Inc.,
headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., was founded in 1984 to develop and
market wireless networking solutions.

Proxim Inc
295 North Bernardo Ave, Mountain View, CA 94043
415-960-1630,  fax 415-964-5181

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