Wi-Fi 802.11ac becomes Wi-Fi 5: It goes towards the simplification of names

The Wi-Fi Alliance, an organization dedicated to the development of new wireless network standards, is planning a name change for the various protocols in order to make them simpler with the arrival of Wi-Fi 802.11ax.

The latter will be made known to the public with the name ” Wi-Fi 6 ” , in order to more logically define the technological evolution with a numerical progression. In this way the current Wi-Fi 802.11ac will be known as Wi-Fi 5, while the ” n ” protocol like Wi-Fi 4.

” For about two decades, users of Wi-Fi technologies have had to use technical name conventions to understand if their Wi-Fi devices adopted the latest technologies, ” commented Edgar Figueroa, President and CEO of the Wi-Fi Alliance.” The organization is happy to introduce Wi-Fi 6, presenting a new naming scheme to help the industry and users easily understand the generation of Wi-Fi supported by their devices or connection. ”

The Wi-Fi 6 will introduce higher speeds on the market, a higher capacity in terms of the number of devices connected to a single router, at the same time better performance in situations of intense traffic and better energy efficiency. In the tests carried out on the new technology, 4.8 Gbit/s were achieved on the 5 GHz band, while in the CES demonstrations a maximum speed of 11 Gbit/s was obtained.

The new protocol is designed to better respond to new technological trends in progress, or that will become more massive in the near future. At home, it is clear that Wi-Fi 6 is preparing for the Internet of Things, so there will be dozens of devices all interconnected and with internet access, while it can offer various advantages also for large corporate networks. The standard will be finalized next year.