primitiveforms of ad-hoc networking, but they are currently not used in ad-hoc mode except by a few researchers, enthusiasts and hackers.
Each standard has in mind one (or several) specific application, ranging from providing broadband Internet access to eliminating cumbersome wires.
The focus of WALAN research in the area of LAN and MAN is to determine optimum use of the LAN and MAN technology as defined by the IEEE standards. While it seems that research based on existing standards is useless (being a standard you cannot change it even if you find a better solution), the standards are in most cases sufficiently flexible that many enhancements can be implemented without breaking the compatibility with the standard. For example, many standards allow the companies to tune certain MAC parameters to optimize the throughput of their systems. Another example is determining the optimum placement of 802.11 access points given a budget and a desired coverage area.