By now, everyone should understand WLAN naming schemes. Most think that 802.11ax is the same as Wi-Fi Certified 6 (or the marketing term, “WiFi6”)and that is also the same as HEW. Or you can compare that to any of the other standards created by the IEEE since 1997 when 802.11-Prime was created.
However, they are not the same. Here is why.
When the IEEE decides to work on a new PHY standard, they decide on the name of the PHY first. Let us take EHT as an example. Extremely High Throughout. They created a Study Group and assigned that name to it, “EHT SG.” The initial meeting for SG EHT was September of 2018, in Hawaii.
EHT probably won’t see the light of day until 2025 but it does have a name. This name will stick with these “rules” for the PHY forever or until deprecated out of the Standard.
Just recently, around March of 2019, the IEEE assign EHT a Task Group name. This will become the Amendment’s moniker until the day it is rolled up in to the Standard. After this time, the Amendment will no longer be referred to again. The Task Group was approved and given the Amendment name, 802.11be. I’m taking the tag line — ”Wi-Fi, Let it be!!” Just send me the money.
The IEEE recently posted a proposed date for the Task Group 802.11be to meet. That will be in May of 2019, in Atlanta. The Task Group will be known as “TGbe.” They will begin working on the P802.11be document.
So far you have EHT and 802.11be. And they will be the same until the time of the roll up, say in 2029 making the Standard “802.11-2029.” Why 2029? Prime number!
Somewhere along the way the Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA) will begin to prepare test documents to certify 802.11be devices. They have begun using the Wi-FiX naming, so I assume Wi-Fi Certified 7 will be the name. But will 802.11be and Wi-Fi Certified 7 be the same thing, probably not.
The WFA does not always include everything specified by the IEEE in the WFA testing suite. Some items will be optional, some completely ignored.
There are times when people are talking about Wi-Fi and different amendments. It probably isn’t really important when people are just talking and say, “802.11ac.” Everyone knows what point you’re making. But what if you’re at a Wi-Fi conference and you are presenting on 802.11ac? Technically, the 802.11ac name no longer exists as it has been rolled up in to 802.11-2016. Other than some fields and variables, you do not see “11ac” only “VHT.” Then, the only proper time to refer to “Wi-Fi Certified 6” is when referencing the WFA or a device and its specific capabilities as certified by the WFA.
“The Wi-Fi Standard says…” No. It’s either “the WLAN Standard says…” or “the WFA certification says…”
You can keep up with the happenings at:
Documents – https://mentor.ieee.org/802.11/documents?is_dcn=DCN%2C%20Title%2C%20Author%20or%20Affiliation&is_group=00be
Study Group – http://www.ieee802.org/11/Reports/ehtsg_update.htm
