This standard provides an overview to the family of IEEE 802 standards. It describes the reference models for the IEEE 802 standards and explains the relationship of these standards to the higher layer protocols; it provides a standard for the structure of IEEE 802 MAC addresses; it provides a standard for identification of public, private, prototype, and standard protocols; it specifies an object identifier hierarchy used within IEEE 802 for uniform allocation of object identifiers used in IEEE 802 standards; and it specifies a method for higher layer protocol identification.

This standard contains descriptions of the IEEE 802® standards published by the IEEE for frame-based data networks as well as a reference model (RM) for protocol standards. The IEEE 802 architecture is defined, and a specification for the identification of public, private, and standard protocols is included.

This standard serves as the foundation for the family of IEEE 802 standards published by IEEE for local area networks (LANs), metropolitan area networks (MANs), personal area networks (PANs), and regional area networks (RANs).