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Next year’s generation of wireless to be called WiFi 6

When it comes to WiFi, as with all things in connectivity, there are different generations and standards. The latest according to a recent WiFi Alliance blog post is the introduction of WiFi 6 next year.

The numbered system will be allocated to products and networks in terms of how they support the next generation of WiFi. Namely 802.11ax technology, which will now be referred to as WiFi 6 to make things a bit easier to understand.

The new standard is also said to be faster and more reliable than its predecessor.

As for previous generations, the other WiFi standards will now be referred to as the following:

WiFi 1 – 802.11b (1999)
WiFi 2 – 802.11a (1999)
WiFi 3 – 802.11g (2003)
WiFi 4 – 802.11n (2009)
WiFi 5 – 802.11ac (2014)
WiFi 6 – 802.11ax (2019)

“The generation names can be used by product vendors to identify the latest Wi-Fi technology a device supports, by OS vendors to identify the generation of Wi-Fi connection between a device and network, and by service providers to identify the capabilities of a Wi-Fi network to their customers,” explains the WiFi Alliance in their blog post.

While the WiFi Alliance is not an omnipotent entity when it comes to wireless technology, they do represent many of the major manufacturers which produce devices that feature sort sort of WiFi technology within them.

As such, the proposed change will likely take effect across the industry, and it’s hard to argue against it, with the numbered system far easier to understand than the previous method.

This should therefore help consumers have a better idea of the capabilities of the device they’re buying.

[Image – CC 0 Pixabay]

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