The foundation of mainstream WLAN products began with the original 802.11 standard developed in 1997 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). That base standard continues to be enhanced through document additions that are designated by a letter following the 802.11 name, such as 802.11b, 802.11a, or 802.11g. The letter suffix represents the task group that defines the extension to the standard. These enhancements bring increases in data rate and functionality leading to rapid progression of the WLAN market. The following table briefly summarizes the enhancements related to data rate (the WLAN physical layer).