Apple's Beats brand in April unveiled the Powerbeats Pro, a redesigned wire-free version of its popular fitness-oriented Powerbeats earbuds.
Wi-Fi Alliance Simplifies Wi-Fi Naming Scheme With Upcoming 'Wi-Fi 6' Release
The Wi-Fi Alliance, dedicated to developing new wireless networking standards, is planning to make Wi-Fi naming simpler with the upcoming launch of the newest Wi-Fi standard, 802.11ax.
802.11ax will be known as "Wi-Fi 6," making it easier for Wi-Fi users to understand the difference between 802.11ax, 802.11ac, and 802.11n.
With the launch of Wi-Fi 6, 802.11ac will be known as "Wi-Fi 5," while 802.11n will be known as "Wi-Fi 4."
In 802.11ax tests, speeds of up to 4.8Gbit/s over the 5GHz band have been reached. In demonstrations at CES, speeds maxed out at 11Gbit/s.
The new capabilities being introduced are outlined below, as specified by the Wi-Fi Alliance.
802.11ax will be known as "Wi-Fi 6," making it easier for Wi-Fi users to understand the difference between 802.11ax, 802.11ac, and 802.11n.
With the launch of Wi-Fi 6, 802.11ac will be known as "Wi-Fi 5," while 802.11n will be known as "Wi-Fi 4."
"For nearly two decades, Wi-Fi users have had to sort through technical naming conventions to determine if their devices support the latest Wi-Fi," said Edgar Figueroa, president and CEO of Wi-Fi Alliance. "Wi-Fi Alliance is excited to introduce Wi-Fi 6, and present a new naming scheme to help industry and Wi-Fi users easily understand the Wi-Fi generation supported by their device or connection."Wi-Fi 6 will introduce higher data rates, increased capacity, better performance in dense environments like concerts and sporting events, and improved power efficiency so Wi-Fi won't eat up as much battery on future devices.
In 802.11ax tests, speeds of up to 4.8Gbit/s over the 5GHz band have been reached. In demonstrations at CES, speeds maxed out at 11Gbit/s.
The new capabilities being introduced are outlined below, as specified by the Wi-Fi Alliance.
- Uplink and downlink orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) increases efficiency and lowers latency for high demand environments
- 1024 quadrature amplitude modulation mode (1024-QAM) enables peak gigabit speeds for emerging, bandwidth-intensive use cases
- Improved medium access control (MAC) control signaling increases throughput and capacity while reducing latency
- Increased symbol durations make outdoor network operations more robust
Tag: wi-fi
[ 103 comments ]
Top Rated Comments
(View all)
10 months ago
I support this wholeheartedly... Having to do tech support for family and friends is tedious with the technobabble. This just makes a lot of sense.
10 months ago
Que all the questions of. Will my 802.11n device work with WiFi 5? What's better 802.11 ac or WiFi 5?
10 months ago
This is "meh". All it does is create the false illusion that the higher number is better. It's not, in all cases. On a very basic level, a higher number is better, but for example, people would absolutely prefer WiFi4 over WiFi5 in a large house, as the 802.11ac signal strength is weak.
If we are to believe that all future versions of WiFi - for example, WiFi7 - would both increase in signal strength, power, distance, speed, etc - then I'm all for this, otherwise it's the same problem we have now with a different name. With the way the 802.11 protocol has worked so far, this hasn't proven true, there are often revisions that focus more on speed or power, but rarely both.
If we are to believe that all future versions of WiFi - for example, WiFi7 - would both increase in signal strength, power, distance, speed, etc - then I'm all for this, otherwise it's the same problem we have now with a different name. With the way the 802.11 protocol has worked so far, this hasn't proven true, there are often revisions that focus more on speed or power, but rarely both.
10 months ago
Of course they announce a new standard just weeks after I upgrade my home WiFi to Mesh. Oh well, I'm pretty happy with what I have.
It will be years before everyone catches up. I’m dumping my time capsule for a current mesh system myself very soon.
10 months ago
Of course they announce a new standard just weeks after I upgrade my home WiFi to Mesh. Oh well, I'm pretty happy with what I have.
10 months ago
Everyone saying consumers still won’t understand is missing the point
Any regular consumer will be able to tell that Wifi 6 is newer than 5 but they wouldn’t be able to tell that 802.11n is older than 802.11ac
Any regular consumer will be able to tell that Wifi 6 is newer than 5 but they wouldn’t be able to tell that 802.11n is older than 802.11ac
10 months ago
Why did it take until now for someone to figure this out? This is a way better naming convention.
[ Read All Comments ]
Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming tvOS 13 software update to its public beta testing group, giving non-developers a chance to try out the new software ahead of its fall public release....
Apple today seeded the fifth beta of an upcoming iOS 12.4 update to developers, two weeks after seeding the fourth iOS 12.4 beta, and over a month after releasing iOS 12.3, a major update that...
Apple today seeded the third beta of an upcoming macOS Mojave 10.14.6 update to developers, two weeks after seeding the second macOS Mojave 10.14.6 beta and more than a month after the release of...
Apple today seeded the fourth beta of an upcoming watchOS 5.3 update to developers, two weeks after releasing the third watchOS 5.3 beta and a month after the launch of watchOS 5.2.1, an update that...
B&H Photo is further discounting a set of previous generation iMacs, providing the lowest ever price for the 21.5-inch model with 8GB RAM and a 1TB Fusion Drive. You can get this model for...
Microsoft plans to launch a small foldable Surface tablet in the first half of 2020, according to Jeff Lin, an analyst at research firm IHS Markit.
Microsoft Surface Go
In an email shared...
Augmented reality game Harry Potter: Wizards Unite got a surprise early release last week in the U.S. and the U.K., and Niantic has now rolled the game out to a global audience.
Early Sunday...
For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with Tap to give MacRumors readers a chance to win one of the company's wearable keyboards, which Tap believes is the keyboard of the future.
...
