A part of the IEEE 802 standards (relating to LANs) that specifies the set of media access control and physical layer protocols for implementing WLANs. Most commonly known to be the standard employed by the Wi-Fi Alliance known as Wi-Fi.
IEEE 802.11a–802.11be
The Wi-Fi Alliance came up with a consumer-friendly generation numbering scheme in 2018. It denotes a numerical numbering system for different substandards employing the IEEE 802.11 protocol. The table below shows the details of each generation:
| Wi-Fi generation | IEEE standard | Frequency band | Maximum transmission rate | Year introduced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wi-Fi 1 | 802.11b | 2.4 GHz | 11 Mbps | 1999 |
| Wi-Fi 2 | 802.11a | 5 GHz | 54 Mbps | 1999 |
| Wi-Fi 3 | 802.11g | 2.4 GHz | 54 Mbps | 2003 |
| Wi-Fi 4 | 802.11n | 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz | 150 Mbps per stream, 4 antennae | 2009 |
| Wi-Fi 5 | 802.11ac | 5 GHz | 867 Mbps per stream, 8 antennae | 2014 |
| Wi-Fi 6 | 802.11ax | 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, 6 GHz | 9608 Mbps | 2019, 2021 (6 GHz) |
| Wi-Fi 7 | 802.11be | 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, 6 GHz | 46120 Mbps | 2024 |
IEEE 802.11s
The IEEE 802.11s standard enables wireless devices to conect to each other, creating a mesh network. The Wi-Fi Alliance created Wi-Fi EasyMesh that exists under this standard, bringing interoperability to mesh Wi-Fi hardware.