Wi-Fi has always had a bit of a branding problem. The ubiquitous wireless networking standard is set by the IEEE (the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and uses the engineers' arcane numbering system.

The original Wi-Fi standard was numbered 802.11, with speedier extensions getting letters at the end: 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11n. Eventually, with more amendments to 802.11 than letters, the engineers started wrapping around: 802.11ad isn't the fourth addition to 802.11a, but an amendment of its own.

In any case, that's always been confusing (is ac faster than n?) so finally, the Wi-Fi Alliancethe industry group that handles Wi-Fi certification and branding—has rebranded the speeds for consumers.

We're now swapping letters for version numbers. There is no Wi-Fi 1, 2, or 3, formally, but there are places for those versions in Wi-Fi's history. Here's how the six current consumer standards will get renamed.

Old Name New Name Introduced Max. Speed Bands 802.11b "Wi-Fi 1" (unofficial) 1999 11Mbps 2.4GHz 802.11a "Wi-Fi 2" (unofficial) 1999 54Mbps 5GHz 802.11g "Wi-Fi 3" (unofficial) 2003 54Mbps 2.4GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi 4 2009 600Mbps 2.4GHz and 5GHz 802.11ac Wi-Fi 5 2013 3.46Gbps 5GHz 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6 2018/2019 10.53Gbps 2.4GHz and 5GHz

You're likely to see these new names taking hold in 2019 and really becoming widespread in 2020. You'll see the new numbering on routers, laptops, and other Wi-Fi devices going forward.

The Wi-Fi Alliance will try to get device makers to push people toward newer Wi-Fi devices by having user interface icons show the Wi-Fi level a device is connected to. So, if you get a Wi-Fi 6 router but all your devices are on Wi-Fi 4, you'll see an icon that clearly shows you need to upgrade your devices to get better speeds.

Why do you want Wi-Fi 6, anyway? I wrote an explainer on what was once 802.11ax back in 2017. The details are still correct, except for the launch dates, which were too optimistic. In short, 802.11ax really improves performance in crowded Wi-Fi areas, where there are a lot of different networks or a lot of people on your network.

802.11ax access points started becoming available this summer, ahead of official certification, which is coming in 2019. There are no 802.11ax clients yet, but expect many 2019 mobile phones to support the standard.

Wi-Fi Alphabet Soup

The well-known forms of Wi-Fi aren't the only versions of the 802.11 standard. The IEEE has had working groups on 802.11 back to the 1990s, and it's currently working on amendments to the Wi-Fi standard that wouldn't take effect before 2022. You can see all these amendments on the IEEE's official timeline. But here's a quick rundown of what each one does and when it was approved.





802.11 ... What does it do? Publish Date a Old Wi-Fi standard for high-speed 5GHz networks. 1999 b The oldest consumer Wi-Fi standard. 1999 c A standard that explains how wireless bridges work. 1997 d Helps Wi-Fi comply with different countries' spectrum regulations. 2001 e A quality-of-service system, needed for Skype and such. 2005 f A way for access points to talk to each other. 2003 g Consumer Wi-Fi that was as fast as 802.11a. 2003 h An amendment to prevent Wi-Fi devices from interfering with satellites and radar. 2003 i The WPA2 security standard for encrypting Wi-Fi connections. 2004 j An amendment to let Wi-Fi work on a band that's only available in Japan. 2004 k Helps clients roam between access points on the same network. 2008 n "Speedy" Wi-Fi introduced in 2009; now Wi-Fi 4. 2009 p Car-to-car networking for driverless cars. 2010 r Faster handoffs between access points, mostly for Wi-Fi phones. 2008 s Mesh networking. 2011 u "Hotspot 2.0" authentication for public access points. 2011 v Lets Wi-Fi devices chat with each other about network conditions. 2011 w A very low-level security standard. 2009 y 802.11a Wi-Fi in the 3.6GHz band. 2008 z Tunneled direct links, similar to Wi-Fi Direct. 2010 ac Speedier Wi-Fi standard, now called Wi-Fi 5. 2013 ad "Wi-Gig" for transmitting data very short distances on the 60GHz band. 2012 af "White Spaces" standard for transmitting Wi-Fi over empty TV channels. 2013 ah Low power, low speed, extended range data transmission, aka "Wi-Fi HaLow." 2017 ak Lets Wi-Fi be used to bridge other networks more efficiently. 2018 ai A standard that lets Wi-Fi devices connnect to a network in 100ms. 2016 aj Wi-Gig for China using the 45GHz band. 2018 aq A standard to help devices negotiate connections. 2018 Not locked down yet... ax Wi-Fi 6, the next version of fast consumer Wi-Fi. 2019 ay A proposed enhancement to Wi-Gig to make it faster. 2019 az A way for Wi-Fi devices to better determine their physical location. 2021 ba "Wake up radios" that use very little power to wake up the main radio. 2020 bb Networking using visible light. 2021

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