WiFi – the most common ways to connect to the internet today. WiFi is a way in which we can connect to a computer network by using wireless signal. It uses electromagnetic waves, to let you connect wirelessly to a computer network. It is popular and widely used because it’s easy.
Imagine a world without WiFi. To connect your phone, Tablet or Laptop, you would always need a physical cable connection. This limitation would also mean that connecting other smart IoT (Internet of Things) devices like fridges and light bulbs would be made way harder.
A Look Down Memory Lane
WiFi really has come a long way. The earliest implementation of wireless connectivity was back in 1971 when ALOHAnet connected Hawaiian Islands using a UHF wireless packet network. the ALOHA protocol was used on this early WiFi network.
Vic Hayes known as the father of WiFi, earned this title because of the work he did beginning in 1974 during his time at NCR Corp. Hayes was the first Chairman of the IEEE 802.11 group. In 1997 they finalized the first official wireless standard. NCR as a company, first got interested with wireless technology because they wanted to find an easier way to connect their cash registers to their back-end end main-frames (servers). With that goal in mind they put Hayes on the job to develop the standard.
1999 was a year that also saw the formation of the WIFI Alliance, an organization that oversees and promotes WiFi technology. The WiFi Alliance also certifies WiFi devices that are produced by different companies.
WiFi has evolved since then over the years, getting improved with every new 802.11 release. Let’s take look at the important changes that WiFi has gone through during its evolution.
WiFi Evolution
| Generation | IEEE Standard | Maximum Linkrate |
| Wi‑Fi 6 | 802.11ax | 600–9608 Mbit/s |
| Wi‑Fi 5 | 802.11ac | 433–6933 Mbit/s |
| Wi‑Fi 5 | 802.11n | 72–600 Mbit/s |
| Legacy WiFi | 802.11 | 2-11 Mbit/s |
802.11 (Legacy WiFi) – 1997
The original version of WiFi was defined by the first IEEE 802.11 standard. This version, released in 1997 allowed speeds up to 2 Mbps. This standard operated at radio frequencies of 2.4 GHz. Some earlier WiFi technologies operated at frequencies as low as 900 GHz.
802.11b – 1999
This was an upgrade to the original standard released in 1997. It provided improved performance allowing speeds up to 11Mbps. This standard works on the 2.4 GHz radio frequency band. Devices running on this standard were vulnerable to interference from other devices running in the same frequency. Devices that interfere at this frequency include Microwave Ovens, bluetooth devices, baby monitors, cordless telephones etc.
802.11a (OFDM WaveForm) – 2012
OFDM Waveform at 5GHz was a clause added to the 802.11b standard as an answer to the congested 2.4GHz frequency. This update provided better performance with speeds up to 54Mbps. The less congested frequency range provided an advantage, however it also came with a downside. The range of the wireless network reduced considerably. Because of the higher frequency the WiFi signal at 5GHz was not able to penetrate materials like walls the same way that 2.4GHz could. This means 5GHz wireless covers less distance.
802.11g – 2003
In June 2003 a 3rd WiFi technology standard was released that used the same modulation technique as 802.11a. This standard provides speeds up to 54Mbps and operates at the 2.4GHz frequency range. This standard was made backward compatible with 802.11b and is widely referred to as 802.11b/g.
802.11 (Merge) – 2007
In 2007, many of the changes made to the 802.11 standard from 1999 (802.11a, b, d, e, g, h, i, j) were rolled up into one document called 802.11ma.
802.11n 2009
This update to the standard allowed the use of MIMO Antennas (Multiple Input Multiple Output) for transmission on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequency bands. This standard allowed for speeds between 54Mbps to 600Mbps at both frequency bands.
A number of standard updates/upgrades occurred between 2009 to date, all of them bringing with them added features and performance tweaks to improve WiFi as whole.
WiFi 6 – The Latest and Greatest
The latest update to WiFI comes in the shape of 802.11ax AKA WiFi 6. It builds on the innovations brought about by 802.11ac to provide more efficiency, flexibility and scalability. WiFi 6th generation brings with it the following benefits:
- Reliability – provides a consistent dependable network connection
- Capacity – transfers more data to more devices (including IoT) than any previous WiFi standard
- Bandwidth – allows up to 4 times more speed than 802.11ac (1.2 Gbps)
- Added Features – Improves battery efficiency for mobile devices like smartphones, tablets and IoT devices.
In the past WiFi speeds have been notorious for not been consistent due to a number of factors like range and number of users connecting to the same WiFi access point. The further you are from the AP the slower your connection may become. The more wireless users in the area, the slower your connection may be. To address this, WiFi 6 aims to make data transmissions more efficient, so that you can achieve more consistent, high speeds over the wireless network.
The major WiFi 6 improvements include the following:
1. OFDMA
The biggest change coming with WiFi 6th generation is OFDMA – Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access. OFDMA breaks up each wireless channel into multiple partial/sub channels. This allows up to 30 different wireless devices to talk to the wireless access point at one go, instead of just one device at a time (like in 802.11ac). Even though each partial channel has a smaller size than the main channel, this method allows the access point to allocate bandwidth to each device to match that device’s transmission needs. e.g, a computer that is streaming a conference call will be given more bandwidth than a smart fridge that wants to connect to an app that controls it on its owners phone.
2. MU MIMO
MU MIMO – Multi User – Multiple Input Multiple Output, is a technology that allows a single wireless access point to attend to multiple users at the same time using channels to separate traffic. In older generations of WiFi, an access point could only attend to one device at a time. This meant that devices would have to wait for the access point to be free before it could serve them and transfer their data. With MU-MIMO and OFDMA working together, WiFi generation 6 allows for 8 simultaneous devices to be attended to instead of just 4, which was the case in WiFi generation 5. Generation 6 takes it a step further by allowing both upload and download traffic to be handled separately for all 8 devices, unlike before.
3. BSS Coloring
Another new feature in generation 6 is BSS Coloring. This feature colors each data chunk so that the access point can know if that data is coming from another wireless network. To prevent interference, wireless access points would not transmit if they detected any other transmissions over the airwaves even from other wireless networks. This network noise, would mean that if an area has many wireless networks, it would affect WiFi speeds because of this noise. With WiFi 6 and BSS coloring, the access point can tell that a wireless transmission is coming from another network, and then still be able to transfer its data over the air without having to wait.
4. Target Wakeup Time
Target Wake up Time is another innovation added to WiFi 6. It allows a wireless device and the access point to negotiate how often and how long a device must communicate and exchange data. This lets the wireless device sort of sleep when transmission is not necessary. It therefore allows improved battery life and efficiency of your wireless devices.
Check out this video from @LinusTech, which breaks down the improvements that come with WiFi generation 6.
So…
With this exciting innovation, we will soon see the release of more and more WiFi 6 routers and access points which are WiFi 6 capable. More Smart Phones and mobile devices will be released in 2019 that are WiFi 6 ready. The best part is that WiFi 6 is backward compatible, so if you got yourself a WiFi 6 phone or laptop, you will still be able to use it with existing WiFi networks.
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