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IEEE 802.11
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IEEE 802.11
IEEE 802.11 is part of the IEEE 802 set of local area network (LAN) protocols, and specifies the set
of media access control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) protocols for implementing wireless local area
network (WLAN) Wi-Fi computer communication in various frequencies, including but not limited to
2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, 6 GHz, and 60 GHz frequency bands.
They are the world's most widely used wireless computer networking standards, used in most home
and office networks to allow laptops, printers, and smartphones to talk to each other and access the
Internet without connecting wires. They are created and maintained by the Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers (IEEE) LAN/MAN Standards Committee (IEEE 802). The base version of the
standard was released in 1997, and has had subsequent amendments. The standard and amendments
provide the basis for wireless network products using the Wi-Fi brand. While each amendment is
officially revoked when it is incorporated in the latest version of the standard, the corporate world tends
to market to the revisions because they concisely denote capabilities of their products. As a result, in
the marketplace, each revision tends to become its own standard.
The protocols are typically used in conjunction with IEEE 802.2, and are designed to interwork
seamlessly with Ethernet, and are very often used to carry Internet Protocol traffic.
Although IEEE 802.11 specifications list channels that might be used, the radio frequency spectrum
availability allowed varies significantly by regulatory domain.

General description[edit]
The 802.11 family consists of a series of half-duplex over-the-air modulation techniques that use the
same basic protocol. The 802.11 protocol family employs carrier-sense multiple access with collision
avoidance whereby equipment listens to a channel for other users (including non 802.11 users) before
transmitting each packet.
802.11-1997 was the first wireless networking standard in the family, but 802.11b was the first widely
accepted one, followed by 802.11a, 802.11g, 802.11n, and 802.11ac. Other standards in the family (c–
f, h, j) are service amendments that are used to extend the current scope of the existing standard,
which may also include corrections to a previous specification. [1]
802.11b and 802.11g use the 2.4 GHz ISM band, operating in the United States under Part 15 of the
U.S. Federal Communications Commission Rules and Regulations; 802.11n can also use that band.
Because of this choice of frequency band, 802.11b/g/n equipment may occasionally suffer interference
in the 2.4 GHz band from microwave ovens, cordless telephones, and Bluetooth devices etc. 802.11b
and 802.11g control their interference and susceptibility to interference by using direct-sequence
spread spectrum (DSSS) and orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) signaling methods,
respectively.
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802.11a uses the 5 GHz U-NII band, which, for much of the world, offers at least 23 non-overlapping
20 MHz-wide channels rather than the 2.4 GHz ISM frequency band offering only three non-overlapping
20 MHz-wide channels, where other adjacent channels overlap—see list of WLAN channels. Better or
worse performance with higher or lower frequencies (channels) may be realized, depending on the
environment. 802.11n can use either the 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz band; 802.11ac uses only the 5 GHz band.
The segment of the radio frequency spectrum used by 802.11 varies between countries. In the US,
802.11a and 802.11g devices may be operated without a license, as allowed in Part 15 of the FCC
Rules and Regulations. Frequencies used by channels one through six of 802.11b and 802.11g fall
within the 2.4 GHz amateur radio band. Licensed amateur radio operators may operate 802.11b/g
devices under Part 97 of the FCC Rules and Regulations, allowing increased power output but not
commercial content or encryption.[2]
In 2018, the Wi-Fi Alliance began using a consumer-friendly generation numbering scheme for the
publicly used 802.11 protocols. Wi-Fi generations 1–6 refer to the 802.11b, 802.11a, 802.11g, 802.11n,
802.11ac, and 802.11ax protocols, in that order. [3][4]

History[edit]
802.11 technology has its origins in a 1985 ruling by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission
that released the ISM band[1] for unlicensed use.[5]
In 1991 NCR Corporation/AT&T (now Nokia Labs and LSI Corporation) invented a precursor to 802.11
in Nieuwegein, the Netherlands. The inventors initially intended to use the technology for cashier
systems. The first wireless products were brought to the market under the name WaveLAN with raw
data rates of 1 Mbit/s and 2 Mbit/s.
Vic Hayes, who held the chair of IEEE 802.11 for 10 years, and has been called the "father of Wi-Fi",
was involved in designing the initial 802.11b and 802.11a standards within the IEEE.[6]
In 1999, the Wi-Fi Alliance was formed as a trade association to hold the Wi-Fi trademark under which
most products are sold.[7]
The major commercial breakthrough came with Apple Inc. adopting Wi-Fi for their iBook series of
laptops in 1999. It was the first mass consumer product to offer Wi-Fi network connectivity, which was
then branded by Apple as AirPort.[8][9][10] One year later IBM followed with its ThinkPad 1300 series in
2000.[11]
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Protocol[edit]
802.11-1997 (802.11 legacy)[edit]
Main article: IEEE 802.11 (legacy mode)
The original version of the standard IEEE 802.11 was released in 1997 and clarified in 1999, but is now
obsolete. It specified two net bit rates of 1 or 2 megabits per second (Mbit/s), plus forward error
correction code. It specified three alternative physical layer technologies: diffuse infrared operating at
1 Mbit/s; frequency-hopping spread spectrum operating at 1 Mbit/s or 2 Mbit/s; and direct-
sequence spread spectrum operating at 1 Mbit/s or 2 Mbit/s. The latter two radio technologies
used microwave transmission over the Industrial Scientific Medical frequency band at 2.4 GHz. Some
earlier WLAN technologies used lower frequencies, such as the U.S. 900 MHz ISM band.
Legacy 802.11 with direct-sequence spread spectrum was rapidly supplanted and popularized by
802.11b.
802.11a (OFDM waveform)[edit]
Main article: IEEE 802.11a-1999
802.11a, published in 1999, uses the same data link layer protocol and frame format as the original
standard, but an OFDM based air interface (physical layer). It operates in the 5 GHz band with a
maximum net data rate of 54 Mbit/s, plus error correction code, which yields realistic net achievable
throughput in the mid-20 Mbit/s.[32] It has seen widespread worldwide implementation, particularly within
the corporate workspace.
Since the 2.4 GHz band is heavily used to the point of being crowded, using the relatively unused
5 GHz band gives 802.11a a significant advantage. However, this high carrier frequency also brings a
disadvantage: the effective overall range of 802.11a is less than that of 802.11b/g. In theory, 802.11a
signals are absorbed more readily by walls and other solid objects in their path due to their smaller
wavelength, and, as a result, cannot penetrate as far as those of 802.11b. In practice, 802.11b typically
has a higher range at low speeds (802.11b will reduce speed to 5.5 Mbit/s or even 1 Mbit/s at low
signal strengths). 802.11a also suffers from interference, [33] but locally there may be fewer signals to
interfere with, resulting in less interference and better throughput.
802.11b[edit]
Main article: IEEE 802.11b-1999
The 802.11b standard has a maximum raw data rate of 11 Mbit/s (Megabits per second), and uses the
same media access method defined in the original standard. 802.11b products appeared on the market
in early 2000, since 802.11b is a direct extension of the modulation technique defined in the original
standard. The dramatic increase in throughput of 802.11b (compared to the original standard) along
with simultaneous substantial price reductions led to the rapid acceptance of 802.11b as the definitive
wireless LAN technology.
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Devices using 802.11b experience interference from other products operating in the 2.4 GHz band.
Devices operating in the 2.4 GHz range include microwave ovens, Bluetooth devices, baby monitors,
cordless telephones, and some amateur radio equipment. As unlicensed intentional radiators in
this ISM band, they must not interfere with and must tolerate interference from primary or secondary
allocations (users) of this band, such as amateur radio.
802.11g[edit]
Main article: IEEE 802.11g-2003
In June 2003, a third modulation standard was ratified: 802.11g. This works in the 2.4 GHz band (like
802.11b), but uses the same OFDM based transmission scheme as 802.11a. It operates at a maximum
physical layer bit rate of 54 Mbit/s exclusive of forward error correction codes, or about 22 Mbit/s
average throughput.[34] 802.11g hardware is fully backward compatible with 802.11b hardware, and
therefore is encumbered with legacy issues that reduce throughput by ~21% when compared to
802.11a.[citation needed]
The then-proposed 802.11g standard was rapidly adopted in the market starting in January 2003, well
before ratification, due to the desire for higher data rates as well as reductions in manufacturing costs.
By summer 2003, most dual-band 802.11a/b products became dual-band/tri-mode, supporting a and
b/g in a single mobile adapter card or access point. Details of making b and g work well together
occupied much of the lingering technical process; in an 802.11g network, however, activity of an
802.11b participant will reduce the data rate of the overall 802.11g network.
Like 802.11b, 802.11g devices also suffer interference from other products operating in the 2.4 GHz
band, for example wireless keyboards.
802.11-2007[edit]
In 2003, task group TGma was authorized to "roll up" many of the amendments to the 1999 version of
the 802.11 standard. REVma or 802.11ma, as it was called, created a single document that merged 8
amendments (802.11a, b, d, e, g, h, i, j) with the base standard. Upon approval on 8 March 2007,
802.11REVma was renamed to the then-current base standard IEEE 802.11-2007.[35]
802.11n[edit]
Main article: IEEE 802.11n-2009
802.11n is an amendment that improves upon the previous 802.11 standards, that had the first draft of
certification published in 2006. The 802.11n standard was retroactively labelled as Wi-Fi 4 by the Wi-Fi
Alliance.[36][37] The standard added support for multiple-input multiple-output antennas (MIMO). 802.11n
operates on both the 2.4 GHz and the 5 GHz bands. Support for 5 GHz bands is optional. Its net data
rate ranges from 54 Mbit/s to 600 Mbit/s. The IEEE has approved the amendment, and it was published
in October 2009.[38][39] Prior to the final ratification, enterprises were already migrating to 802.11n
networks based on the Wi-Fi Alliance's certification of products conforming to a 2007 draft of the
802.11n proposal.
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802.11-2012[edit]
In May 2007, task group TGmb was authorized to "roll up" many of the amendments to the 2007
version of the 802.11 standard.[40] REVmb or 802.11mb, as it was called, created a single document that
merged ten amendments (802.11k, r, y, n, w, p, z, v, u, s) with the 2007 base standard. In addition
much cleanup was done, including a reordering of many of the clauses. [41] Upon publication on 29
March 2012, the new standard was referred to as IEEE 802.11-2012.
802.11ac[edit]
Main article: IEEE 802.11ac
IEEE 802.11ac-2013 is an amendment to IEEE 802.11, published in December 2013, that builds on
802.11n.[42] The 802.11ac standard was retroactively labelled as Wi-Fi 5 by Wi-Fi Alliance.[36][37] Changes
compared to 802.11n include wider channels (80 or 160 MHz versus 40 MHz) in the 5 GHz band, more
spatial streams (up to eight versus four), higher-order modulation (up to 256-QAM vs. 64-QAM), and
the addition of Multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO). The Wi-Fi Alliance separated the introduction of ac
wireless products into two phases ("wave"), named "Wave 1" and "Wave 2".[43][44] From mid-2013, the
alliance started certifying Wave 1 802.11ac products shipped by manufacturers, based on the IEEE
802.11ac Draft 3.0 (the IEEE standard was not finalized until later that year). [45] In 2016 Wi-Fi Alliance
introduced the Wave 2 certification, to provide higher bandwidth and capacity than Wave 1 products.
Wave 2 products include additional features like MU-MIMO, 160 MHz channel width support, support
for more 5 GHz channels, and four spatial streams (with four antennas; compared to three in Wave 1
and 802.11n, and eight in IEEE's 802.11ax specification). [46][47]
802.11ad[edit]
Main article: IEEE 802.11ad
IEEE 802.11ad is an amendment that defines a new physical layer for 802.11 networks to operate in
the 60 GHz millimeter wave spectrum. This frequency band has significantly different propagation
characteristics than the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands where Wi-Fi networks operate. Products
implementing the 802.11ad standard are being brought to market under the WiGig brand name. The
certification program is now being developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance instead of the now defunct Wireless
Gigabit Alliance.[48] The peak transmission rate of 802.11ad is 7 Gbit/s.[49]
IEEE 802.11ad is a protocol used for very high data rates (about 8 Gbit/s) and for short range
communication (about 1–10 meters).[50]
TP-Link announced the world's first 802.11ad router in January 2016. [51]
The WiGig standard is not too well known, although it was announced in 2009 and added to the IEEE
802.11 family in December 2012.
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802.11af[edit]
Main article: IEEE 802.11af
IEEE 802.11af, also referred to as "White-Fi" and "Super Wi-Fi",[52] is an amendment, approved in
February 2014, that allows WLAN operation in TV white space spectrum in the VHF and UHF bands
between 54 and 790 MHz.[53][54] It uses cognitive radio technology to transmit on unused TV channels,
with the standard taking measures to limit interference for primary users, such as analog TV, digital TV,
and wireless microphones.[54] Access points and stations determine their position using a satellite
positioning system such as GPS, and use the Internet to query a geolocation database (GDB) provided
by a regional regulatory agency to discover what frequency channels are available for use at a given
time and position.[54] The physical layer uses OFDM and is based on 802.11ac. [55] The propagation path
loss as well as the attenuation by materials such as brick and concrete is lower in the UHF and VHF
bands than in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, which increases the possible range.[54] The frequency
channels are 6 to 8 MHz wide, depending on the regulatory domain.[54] Up to four channels may be
bonded in either one or two contiguous blocks.[54] MIMO operation is possible with up to four streams
used for either space–time block code (STBC) or multi-user (MU) operation.[54] The achievable data rate
per spatial stream is 26.7 Mbit/s for 6 and 7 MHz channels, and 35.6 Mbit/s for 8 MHz channels.[30] With
four spatial streams and four bonded channels, the maximum data rate is 426.7 Mbit/s for 6 and 7 MHz
channels and 568.9 Mbit/s for 8 MHz channels.[30]
802.11-2016[edit]
IEEE 802.11-2016 which was known as IEEE 802.11 REVmc,[56] is a revision based on IEEE 802.11-
2012, incorporating 5 amendments (11ae, 11aa, 11ad, 11ac, 11af). In addition, existing MAC and PHY
functions have been enhanced and obsolete features were removed or marked for removal. Some
clauses and annexes have been renumbered.[57]
802.11ah[edit]
Main article: IEEE 802.11ah
IEEE 802.11ah, published in 2017,[58] defines a WLAN system operating at sub-1 GHz license-exempt
bands. Due to the favorable propagation characteristics of the low frequency spectra, 802.11ah can
provide improved transmission range compared with the conventional 802.11 WLANs operating in the
2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. 802.11ah can be used for various purposes including large scale sensor
networks,[59] extended range hotspot, and outdoor Wi-Fi for cellular traffic offloading, whereas the
available bandwidth is relatively narrow. The protocol intends consumption to be competitive with low
power Bluetooth, at a much wider range.[60]
802.11ai[edit]
Main article: IEEE 802.11ai
IEEE 802.11ai is an amendment to the 802.11 standard that added new mechanisms for a faster initial
link setup time.[61]
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802.11aj[edit]
IEEE 802.11aj is a rebanding of 802.11ad for use in the 45 GHz unlicensed spectrum available in some
regions of the world (specifically China).[61]
Alternatively known as China Millimeter Wave (CMMW).
802.11aq[edit]
IEEE 802.11aq is an amendment to the 802.11 standard that will enable pre-association discovery of
services. This extends some of the mechanisms in 802.11u that enabled device discovery to further
discover the services running on a device, or provided by a network. [61]
802.11ax[edit]
Main article: IEEE 802.11ax
IEEE 802.11ax (marketed as Wi-Fi 6 by the Wi-Fi Alliance) is the successor to 802.11ac, and will
increase the efficiency of WLAN networks. Currently in development, this project has the goal of
providing 4x the throughput of 802.11ac at the user layer,[62] having just 37% higher nominal data rates
at the PHY layer.[63] In the previous amendment of 802.11 (namely 802.11ac), Multi-User MIMO has
been introduced, which is a spatial multiplexing technique. MU-MIMO allows the Access Point to form
beams towards each Client, while transmitting information simultaneously. By doing so, the interference
between Clients is reduced, and the overall throughput is increased, since multiple Clients can receive
data at the same time. With 802.11ax, a similar multiplexing is introduced in the frequency domain,
namely OFDMA. With this technique, multiple Clients are assigned with different Resource Units in the
available spectrum. By doing so, an 80 MHz channel can be split into multiple Resource Units, so that
multiple Clients receive different type of data over the same spectrum, simultaneously. In order to have
enough amount of subcarriers to support the requirements of OFDMA, the number of subcarriers are
increased by a factor of 4 (compared to 802.11ac standard). In other words, for 20, 40, 80 and
160 MHz channels, there are 64, 128, 256 and 512 subcarriers in 802.11ac standard; while there are
256, 512, 1024 and 2048 subcarriers in 802.11ax standard. Since the available bandwidths have not
changed and the number of subcarriers are increased by a factor of 4, the subcarrier spacing is also
reduced by the factor of 4. This introduces 4 times longer OFDM symbols: for 802.11ac the duration of
an OFDM symbol is 3.2 microseconds, and for 802.11ax it is 12.8 microseconds (both without guard
intervals).