Wi-Fi Alliance officially announces Wi-Fi 6 certification

Wi-Fi Alliance, a group formed by numerous tech companies overseeing Wi-Fi’s standardization, has launched the Wi-Fi Certified 6 certification program, meaning manufacturers that meet its criterias get to put an important badge on their products’ packaging.

Wi-Fi 6, officially named as the 802.11ax standard by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), is the next chapter in wireless local area networks. Compared to Wi-Fi 5 (known as the IEEE 802.11ac standard), Wi-Fi 6 has made specific amendments to extend its range, provide higher bandwidth, improve energy use, and massively increase access. Its features can be scaled for home use or congested areas like concerts and sporting events.

Although it shares many similarities to 5G, Wi-Fi 6 is strictly geared towards local area networks. In other words, 5G addresses the entire communication stack, whereas Wi-Fi only applies to the connection between the users and local access points like routers.

The new Wi-Fi Alliance certification, launched on Monday, guarantees that compliant devices meet the full IEEE 801.11ax standard out of the box. Devices without the certification may require firmware updates in order to adhere to the finalized version.

Prior to the certification, Wi-Fi 6 enabled devices were based on a draft of the IEEE 802.11ax specification.

Although the IEEE expects to release the official 802.11ax specification by the year’s end, its development has essentially concluded in late 2018. As such, vendors including Qualcomm, Intel, and Broadcomm have been releasing pre-standard Wi-Fi 6 devices for nearly a year.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 10 is the first smartphone to earn the new certification.

Would you recommend this article?

Share

Thanks for taking the time to let us know what you think of this article!
We'd love to hear your opinion about this or any other story you read in our publication.


Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

Featured Download

Tom Li
Tom Li
Telecommunication and consumer hardware are Tom's main beats at IT World Canada. He loves to talk about Canada's network infrastructure, semiconductor products, and of course, anything hot and new in the consumer technology space. You'll also occasionally see his name appended to articles on cloud, security, and SaaS-related news. If you're ever up for a lengthy discussion about the nuances of each of the above sectors or have an upcoming product that people will love, feel free to drop him a line at tli@itwc.ca.

Featured Articles

Cybersecurity in 2024: Priorities and challenges for Canadian organizations 

By Derek Manky As predictions for 2024 point to the continued expansion...

Survey shows generative AI is a top priority for Canadian corporate leaders.

Leaders are devoting significant budget to generative AI for 2024 Canadian corporate...

Related Tech News

Tech Jobs

Our experienced team of journalists and bloggers bring you engaging in-depth interviews, videos and content targeted to IT professionals and line-of-business executives.

Tech Companies Hiring Right Now