WPA
Before the ratification of the 802.11i standard, the Wi-Fi Alliance released the Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) standard, which most wireless LAN vendors rapidly adopted. WPA is actually a snapshot of the pre-ratified 802.11i standard involving TKIP and IEEE 802.1x standards. Eventually, the Wi-Fi Alliance released WPA2, which includes AES. This mirroring of standards has been effective for end users because the Wi-Fi Alliance requires special interoperability testing before a wireless LAN vendor can claim that its radio cards and access points are Wi-Fi Alliance certified.
