SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Wi-Fi Alliance rebrands 802.11ac as Wi-Fi 5, picks 802.11ax as Wi-Fi 6
The Wi-Fi Alliance today announced a significant rebranding of the "802.11" Wi-Fi standards that have long served as a source of potential confusion for users: Going forward, the current 802.11ac standard will be known as Wi-Fi 5, while its successor 802.11ax will be known as Wi-Fi 6, establishing a generational terminology that — like Bluetooth 3, 4, and 5 — will be easier for customers to remember and understand.
[...] Today's announcement is significant not just because of its impact on currently popular Wi-Fi standards, but also on one that's been on the fringe: 802.11ad. Also known as WiGig, 802.11ad notably depends on an extra, 60GHz millimeter wave wireless antenna to boost speeds of compatible devices in the same room as the router. A handful of routers and devices, including wireless VR adapters, have adopted 802.11ad over the past year or two.
But the announcement makes clear that the Wi-Fi Alliance sees 802.11ax, not 802.11ad, as the next stage of Wi-Fi's evolution. 802.11ax has no need for the extra antenna, instead making more efficient use of the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands already used by 802.11ac — err, Wi-Fi 5. Wi-Fi 6 promises up to 11 Gbps speeds across three or more devices, with a single Wi-Fi 6 device achieving up to 5 Gbps.
In a statement to VentureBeat, the Alliance explained how Wi-Fi 6 and WiGig will coexist:
"Wi-Fi 6 and WiGig, based on 802.11ad and eventually 802.11ay, will continue to evolve in parallel and remain strong complements to one another within the Wi-Fi portfolio of technologies. We fully expect some products to integrate Wi-Fi 6 and WiGig, which will remain a distinct brand to indicate products that support 60 GHz Wi-Fi for multi-gigabit, low-latency connectivity."
Also at Ars Technica, The Verge, and Tom's Hardware.
Related: Wi-Fi Alliance Approves 802.11ah "HaLow" Standard for the 900 MHz Band
D-Link Joins Hands With Microsoft to Give 'Super Wi-Fi' a Push
Intel to Cease Shipments of Current WiGig Products, Focus on WiGig for VR
(Score: 4, Insightful) by darkfeline on Thursday October 04 2018, @07:31AM (3 children)
This is really awesome. I have no idea who decided coming up with random combinations of letters for versions of a standard was a good idea.
So there's 802.11-1997 released in 1997. The next one released in 1999 is 802.11-1999 right? Nope, it's 802.11a. Next is 802.11b. So the next one is 802.11c? Nope, it's 802.11g. You can guess the next one is probably not 802.11h, it's 802.11n. After that is 802.11ad, of all things, followed by 802.11ac. It's not even in alphabetical order, I guess the c and d just got lost in spacetime. Remember that h we lost earlier? That's the next one, 802.11ah. Of course after that we're going to get 802.11aj, 802.11ax, 802.11ay, 802.11az.
Anyone want to place a bet on the next one?
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 04 2018, @09:02AM
Because the letters are other technologies:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11c [wikipedia.org] (Bridging on APs)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11d [wikipedia.org] (Additional regulatory domains
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11e [wikipedia.org] (QoS on Wireless LAN)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11f [wikipedia.org] (Inter-Access Point Protocol)
and so on...
The silliness of these standards is that they mix these unrelated (physicals, optional features, politics) things. They shouldn't have done that.
(Score: 2) by corey on Friday October 05 2018, @03:16AM
Same guy who works at Microsoft as the product namer.
Windows 3.0, 3.1, NT, 95, 98, 98SE, 2000, Vista, 2003, ME, 7, 10.
Consumers like simple numbers, higher is better. Like camera megapixels, 20 megapixels mobile phone is better than a 13mp camera right!
(Score: 4, Funny) by driverless on Friday October 05 2018, @06:41AM
I recently upgraded from 802.11ac to 802.11hvac, and I'm astounded by the difference it makes, my house is now much cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter, as well as having better WiFi performance.