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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: 3, Funny) by MostCynical on Thursday October 04 2018, @02:56AM (6 children)
does this mean the product naming person from apple has changed employers?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Thursday October 04 2018, @03:19AM (5 children)
"...Wi-Fi standards that have long served as a source of potential confusion for users...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."
Is that really true? I mean, I'm already more confused than I was before reading this. And I have a long background in working with this stuff.
Guess I'm just getting old (f--king Millennials)...now get off my lawn!
The Musk/Trump interview appears to have been hacked, but not a DDOS hack...more like A Distributed Denial of Reality.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 04 2018, @03:56AM (4 children)
If you're really that confused, and really that old, then you can break out your number line. It will help you determine which one is newer, better and more advanced.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday October 04 2018, @06:27AM (3 children)
In which case, the conclusion is, it is not. 3G? 4Glte, not quite 4G, but with the lte? And now 5G! With full Chinese spying, or it is just 5Glte, which is only 4Glte, with a modicum of throughput improvement. Old timers are a valuable resource to you Millennials, and you should cherish them. When the tell you to "get off their lawn", look for something that is just about to screw you over so bad that it make Micro$oft Bob look like a reason to actually marry Bill Gates. Learn from our mistakes, you younglings! Oh, and just be glad we do not have an Anakin Skywalker. Killing kids, that just ain't ever right!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 04 2018, @08:06AM (2 children)
Millennial? Artichoke, I'm a fucking dinosaur. I was programming before there was a Microsoft. I still have - and wear - clothes that are older than millennials.
If you, or anyone, is too old to understand a piece of technology (or things like 3, 3G, 3Gee this is hard, etc) then you are incapable of using it properly. Go get your walker and your home healthcare aide named Bob and watch reruns of game shows that reference pop culture and technology you'll understand, and be thankful that Logan's Run never came to pass. The rest of us are too busy keeping up with, and enjoying, a changing world.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 04 2018, @12:09PM (1 child)
What a waste of electrons.
Shut up if you have nothing to contribute, asshole.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 04 2018, @03:34PM
Surely the AC's post contributed more to the conversation than your post, which contributed less than nothing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 04 2018, @03:02AM (1 child)
Think Wi-Fi 5!
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Thursday October 04 2018, @03:45AM
Hi 5 [wikipedia.org]!
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 3, Funny) by krishnoid on Thursday October 04 2018, @03:03AM
Alternate between maintenance versions, starting with W, and feature/performance improvements, starting with F: Wifi Walrus, Wifi Falcon, Wifi Weasel, Wifi Fennec ...
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday October 04 2018, @03:37AM (2 children)
I remain puzzled as to what it is about 802.11xx that has anything to do with Fidelity.
TCP is lossless but TCP audio streams can stutter if packet retransmission is required. UDP doesn't require retransmission but the audio is sometimes corrupted.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by coolgopher on Thursday October 04 2018, @04:35AM (1 child)
The "Fi" isn't for "fidelity", it's for "fiddling", as in "wireless fiddling". Anyone with WiFi experience can tell you it takes a bunch of fiddling with settings to make it work well in any given location and with any given set of devices.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 04 2018, @08:49AM
I can see that you tried for humour here, but this cuts too close to the truth.
It's just the sad reality of hardware IT.
(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.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Snospar on Thursday October 04 2018, @03:46PM
99% of people will continue to call it simply "Wi-Fi" and will have no clue that there is, or has ever been, confusion over the naming of the underlying network standards.
True, these same people will also refer to their cellular radio service as "Wi-Fi" too but let's leave them in their happy ignorance shall we?
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