802.11b to 802.11g was not much of a transition, just higher speeds without any real protocol improvements. Back then when I was using long distance (~4 km rural wireless hops -- was too far for DSL) 802.11g links, they were atrociously unreliable. It wasn't until 802.11n gear finally came out is when wireless finally began to work reasonably well for me. MIMO meant that reflections and other oddities were better compensated for. Moore's law strikes again - more transistors, more math, better performance!