New applications supporting COVID-19 guidelines, global Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 6 momentum, and greater WPA3™ security adoption expected next year

Austin, Texas – January 11, 2021 –Wi-Fi® played a critical role in providing digital infrastructure to support increased connectivity demands during the global pandemic. With greater worldwide availability of 6 GHz, wider adoption of WPA3™ security, and global momentum of Wi-Fi 6 across more enterprise and vertical markets expected in the coming year, Wi-Fi is ready to deliver innovation and advanced connectivity when and where users need it most. As the world reflects on a challenging 2020, Wi-Fi Alliance® looks ahead at five Wi-Fi predictions for 2021 that will help people safely resume their normal activities, achieve better performance in their home networks, and deliver greater reliability and latency for telehealth, virtual learning, and telepresence.

Wi-Fi Alliance predictions for Wi-Fi in 2021 include:

1. Wi-Fi 6 global momentum

Wi-Fi 6 is the latest generation of Wi-Fi offering greater capacity, efficiency, and performance for advanced connectivity. Wi-Fi 6 will see strong global adoption across PCs, access points, smartphones, and IoT devices in enterprises, homes, and public arenas – with nearly 2 billion Wi-Fi 6 device shipments expected in 2021. The pandemic has proven a strong need for state-of-the-art networks to support more online activity. Wi-Fi 6 networks will become more widely deployed in the home and see steady rollout in the enterprise to ensure all networked devices perform at an optimal level and support environments with greater capacity and coverage. Wi-Fi 6 will be deployed in market verticals, such as industrial and hospital networks, delivering wireless efficiency and low latency connections. New connected use cases facilitated by Wi-Fi 6 will emerge to meet health and safety guidelines amid COVID-19 at transportation hubs, airports, and stadiums to deliver social distance measurement, security checkpoints, mobile concessions, health check screening, and passenger communications.

2. Wi-Fi 6E will deliver 6 GHz to users

Regulatory momentum around 6 GHz will lead to greater availability of unlicensed spectrum for Wi-Fi worldwide in 2021. The U.S. recently cleared unlicensed access to 1200 MHz of spectrum in the 6 GHz band. The U.K., Europe, South Korea, Chile, Brazil, and the United Arab Emirates are expected to deliver 6 GHz to their citizens before the end of the year, and many other countries are following their lead. Users will see worldwide rollout of Wi-Fi 6E devices as multiple vendors embrace 6 GHz. Up to seven superwide 160 MHz channels can be used with this newly available spectrum, triggering development and innovation for higher bandwidth applications including unified communications, AR/VR, and even holographic video. New use cases will emerge to support telemedicine, virtual learning, and telepresence that rely on Wi-Fi 6E’s speed and latency benefits. With features like OFDMA extended into the less congested 6 GHz band, Wi-Fi 6E will help address the reliability and deterministic needs demanded by industrial applications, helping facilitate the transition from wired to wireless in Industrial IoT environments. Wi-Fi Alliance certification for Wi-Fi 6E will ensure Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ devices operating in 6 GHz worldwide are secure and interoperable, and will serve as an inflection point for greater adoption.

3. Passpoint® bridges the gap between Wi-Fi and cellular

Solutions such as Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Passpoint® will help bridge the gap between cellular and Wi-Fi to make Wi-Fi more accessible and secure. Passpoint streamlines Wi-Fi access and eliminates the need to reauthenticate to networks previously visited, enabling users to focus on productivity without manually switching their device between cellular and Wi-Fi to determine the best connection. The industry will see greater Passpoint adoption through initiatives such as Wireless Broadband Alliance OpenRoaming and Aruba Air Pass, to provide seamless Wi-Fi connectivity beyond a user’s home, automate roaming between cellular and Wi-Fi networks, and deliver next generation services to enterprises – all with advanced security. Passpoint, along with other Wi-Fi Alliance programs like Wi-Fi Vantage™, will help enable Wi-Fi and cellular to be stronger complements and provide enterprise-wide, citywide, and global wireless services.

4. Strong adoption of WPA3 security

The latest generation of Wi-Fi security, WPA3, brings critical updates to personal and enterprise networks to protect users wherever they connect. Wi-Fi Alliance now requires all new Wi-Fi CERTIFIED devices to support WPA3 security, and in 2021 the industry will see greater adoption of WPA3 across more devices, networks, and environments – including sensitive environments like governments and financial institutions. The number of devices connected to the internet, including machines, sensors, and smart home devices is forecast to reach 41.6 billion in the next four years1. With that tremendous growth comes demand for strong security mechanisms to protect the increasing amount of user data generated by IoT devices. 

5. Wi-Fi is critical link to keep businesses and individuals connected

Wi-Fi has played a key role in helping reduce the negative impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic. As the world maintained social distance, Wi-Fi limited the impact of social isolation by enabling business, education, healthcare, and other services to move online. The way users work, socialize, and communicate may never be the same as in pre-pandemic times, and Wi-Fi will now be acknowledged for delivering a strong digital foundation that enables the world to maintain productivity and economic prosperity. In 2021, Wi-Fi will help further mitigate economic damage resulting from the global pandemic. Wi-Fi will keep economies running, supporting telecommuting needs, distance learning, telemedicine, and delivering connectivity to remote or underserved areas. The need for strong, reliable multi-device connectivity highlighted during the pandemic will generate permanent effects as we continue to adapt to more of our daily activities moving online. Wi-Fi will be seen as an indispensable technology providing a key resource in many aspects of our daily lives. Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 6E, Passpoint, and other Wi-Fi technologies will drive a surge in technology innovation continuing well after the pandemic is behind us.

For 2021 Wi-Fi Alliance member predictions from AirTies, Aruba, ASSIA, Boingo, Broadcom, Cisco, CommScope, Extreme Networks, Intel, Laird Connectivity, LANCOM Systems, Linksys, ON Semiconductor, Qualcomm Technologies, and Texas Instruments, see our full video playlist here: http://bit.ly/2MId5Qx.

1IDC, June 2019

About Wi-Fi Alliance®
www.wi-fi.org
Wi-Fi Alliance® is the worldwide network of companies that brings you Wi-Fi®. Members of our collaboration forum come together from across the Wi-Fi ecosystem with the shared vision to connect everyone and everything, everywhere, while providing the best possible user experience. Since 2000, Wi-Fi Alliance has completed more than 50,000 Wi-Fi certifications. The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ seal of approval designates products with proven interoperability, backward compatibility, and the highest industry-standard security protections in place. Today, Wi-Fi carries more than half of the internet’s traffic in an ever-expanding variety of applications. Wi-Fi Alliance continues to drive the adoption and evolution of Wi-Fi, which billions of people rely on every day.

Media Contact:
Stephanie Burke
Highwire PR for Wi-Fi Alliance
wi-fi@highwirepr.com
(415) 692-0745 ext. 116

Telecom Advisory Services paper concludes Wi-Fi mitigates negative impacts of global pandemic

Austin, Texas – December 9, 2020 – A new paper demonstrates the role of Wi-Fi® in mitigating the socioeconomic disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper, released today by Telecom Advisory Services, underscores various ways Wi-Fi is helping to improve economic resiliency and is contributing to critical use cases at a personal and enterprise level.

The findings demonstrate multiple areas where Wi-Fi is essential to maintaining digital resilience during the global pandemic. At the individual consumer level, Wi-Fi delivers essential connectivity that allows users to accomplish daily activities and carry out tasks that previously required physical contact – such as grocery shopping, buying essential goods, virtual learning, and telehealth appointments – all while supporting simultaneous access to these activities at once. At the enterprise level, Wi-Fi provides workers with virtual tools for telecommuting and digitization of supply chains and distribution channels to maintain productivity when face-to-face interactions with colleagues, customers, and suppliers must be avoided. Additionally, free public Wi-Fi networks deployed outdoors have provided essential connectivity for COVID-19 healthcare facilities, “Wi-Fi on wheels” for education, and coverage in rural or underserved areas.   

“The global pandemic further highlights Wi-Fi’s role as a critical component of every country’s digital infrastructure,” said Raul Katz, President, Telecom Advisory Services. “Wi-Fi networks are a significant contributor to national resilience in the face of COVID-19.”

The paper concludes that countries with highly developed digital infrastructure can reduce the long-term, negative economic impact implied by COVID-19 by more than half, and elaborates on three areas where Wi-Fi plays the most socially impactful role during natural disasters such as the global pandemic: distance learning, telecommuting, and elder care. The findings suggest that Wi-Fi’s role in critical use cases mitigates economic damage by keeping the economy up and running and allowing people and businesses to continue operating during the global pandemic. 

To access the full paper, please visit: https://www.wi-fi.org/file/covid-19-and-the-economic-value-of-wi-fi-2020. 

About Wi-Fi Alliance®
www.wi-fi.org
Wi-Fi Alliance® is the worldwide network of companies that brings you Wi-Fi®. Members of our collaboration forum come together from across the Wi-Fi ecosystem with the shared vision to connect everyone and everything, everywhere, while providing the best possible user experience. Since 2000, Wi-Fi Alliance has completed more than 50,000 Wi-Fi certifications. The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ seal of approval designates products with proven interoperability, backward compatibility, and the highest industry-standard security protections in place. Today, Wi-Fi carries more than half of the internet’s traffic in an ever-expanding variety of applications. Wi-Fi Alliance continues to drive the adoption and evolution of Wi-Fi, which billions of people rely on every day.

Media Contact:
Stephanie Burke
Highwire PR for Wi-Fi Alliance
wi-fi@highwirepr.com
(415) 692-0745 ext. 116

Wi-Fi 6 certification is here, marks evolution in delivery of Wi-Fi connectivity

Austin, Texas, - September 16, 2019 – The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6™ certification program from Wi-Fi Alliance® is now available and delivers the best user experience with devices based on IEEE 802.11ax. The certification program brings new features and capabilities that enable substantially greater overall Wi-Fi® network performance in challenging environments with many connected devices such as stadiums, airports, and industrial parks. With adoption of the latest Wi-Fi generation increasing, product vendors and service providers can trust Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ will distinguish Wi-Fi 6 products and networks that meet the highest standards for security and interoperability. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 provides significant capacity, performance, and latency improvements to the entire Wi-Fi ecosystem, while ensuring products across vendors to work well together to deliver greater innovation and opportunity.

Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 supports a more diverse set of devices and applications, from those requiring peak performance in demanding enterprise environments to those requiring low power and low latency in smart homes or industrial IoT scenarios. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 delivers nearly four times the capacity of Wi-Fi 5, and is an evolutionary advancement for Wi-Fi’s ability to deliver high-performance infrastructure and optimized connectivity to all devices on a network simultaneously – bringing noticeable improvements in densely connected Wi-Fi environments. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 delivers critical connectivity that supports cellular networks, and leverages high speeds, low latency, power efficiency, greater capacity, and enhanced coverage to deliver many advanced 5G services.

“Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 is ushering in a new era of Wi-Fi, building on Wi-Fi’s core characteristics to provide better performance in every environment for users, greater network capacity for service providers to improve coverage for their customers, and new opportunities for advanced applications,” said Edgar Figueroa, president and CEO, Wi-Fi Alliance. “Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 will deliver improvements in connectivity, including in high density locations and IoT environments.”

Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 delivers advanced security protocols and requires the latest generation of Wi-Fi security, Wi-Fi CERTIFIED WPA3™. Advanced capabilities available in Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 include:

• Orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA): effectively shares channels to increase network efficiency and lower latency for both uplink and downlink traffic in high demand environments
• Multi-user multiple input multiple output (MU-MIMO): allows more downlink data to be transferred at once and enables an access point to transmit data to a larger number of devices concurrently
• 160 MHz channels: increases bandwidth to deliver greater performance with low latency
• Target wake time (TWT): significantly improves battery life in Wi-Fi devices, such as Internet of Things (IoT) devices
• 1024 quadrature amplitude modulation mode (1024-QAM): increases throughput in Wi-Fi devices by encoding more data in the same amount of spectrum
• Transmit beamforming: enables higher data rates at a given range resulting in greater network capacity

“Wi-Fi 6 brings greater speeds and more efficiency to Wi-Fi networks, expanding its role as a critical communication platform,” said Phil Solis, research director at IDC. “Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 drives a higher quality experience for all Wi-Fi’s many use cases, further propelling the Wi-Fi market and ensuring Wi-Fi maintains its strong position as the connectivity landscape evolves.”

Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 expands on Wi-Fi’s core strengths including affordable performance, efficient operation, commitment to security, ease of use, self-deployment, and long-term compatibility, while also supporting a more reliable user experience in areas of high user demand. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 leverages Wi-Fi’s global ubiquity to more efficiently connect users in more environments, support growing data requirements, and expand advanced use cases including augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), streaming high-definition content, real-time monitoring, and mission critical applications. As more spectrum is made available for Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 will only continue to drive greater global Wi-Fi innovation and economic contributions.

“Spectrum-based services have already changed the world and unlocked immeasurable economic potential and consumer benefit. As we enter a new chapter of interconnectivity with the transition to next-generation broadband networks, Wi-Fi 6 will play a critical role in improving the businesses and the lives of everyday Americans,” said Congresswoman Doris Matsui (CA-06), Vice-Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee and Co-Chair of the Congressional Spectrum Caucus. “The capacity and performance of Wi-Fi 6 will enable new IoT and high-density applications that will help us reimagine and build the infrastructure of the future. I look forward to working with the Wi-Fi Alliance in their efforts to deliver the next generation of Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi-connected devices.”

“It’s so exciting to see the initiation of the Wi-Fi 6 certification process, which really serves as the kick-off to making this technology a market reality.  As a user and a regulator, I can’t wait for the vast improvements in speed and capacity that Wi-Fi 6 will bring, especially in dense, multi-device environments, and the innovation and entrepreneurship it will foster,” said Commissioner Michael O’Rielly, Federal Communications Commission. “Thank you to the Wi-Fi community for continuing to amaze us with technological advancements that revolutionize the Internet experience.”

The Samsung Galaxy Note10 and the Ruckus R750 are the world’s first Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 smartphone and access point, respectively. Wi-Fi Alliance expects most leading phones and access points will soon support the latest generation of Wi-Fi. The first products designated Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 which comprise the test bed for certification include:

• Broadcom® BCM4375
• Broadcom® BCM43698
• Broadcom® BCM43684
• Cypress CYW 89650 Auto-Grade Wi-Fi 6 Certified
• Intel® Wi-Fi 6 (Gig+) AX200 (for PCs)
• Intel® Home Wi-Fi Chipset WAV600 Series (for routers and gateways)
• Marvell 88W9064 (4x4) Wi-Fi 6 Dual-Band STA
• Marvell 88W9064 (4x4) + 88W9068 (8x8) Wi-Fi 6 Concurrent Dual-Band AP
• Qualcomm® Networking Pro 1200 Platform
• Qualcomm® FastConnect 6800 Wi-Fi 6 Mobile Connectivity Subsystem
• Ruckus R750 Wi-Fi 6 Access Point

For more information on Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 please visit: https://www.wi-fi.org/discover-wi-fi/wi-fi-certified-6

Industry support for Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6:

“In addition to increased speed and capacity, Wi-Fi 6 will support the growing density of connected devices in the home, delivering lower latency, enhanced battery life, and better overall performance. Wi-Fi 6 helps guarantee that users get the most out of these new functionalities in complex environments where they cohabit with legacy devices will require smart management of the whole ecosystem. AirTies’ Smart Wi-Fi software and cloud-based management software will ensure that service providers maximize their investment in Wi-Fi 6 to meet the evolving needs of their customers. We look forward to supporting Wi-Fi Alliance and its new Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 program.” – Metin Taskin, CTO of AirTies

“Wi-Fi is the primary connectivity method for billions of devices, users and things. We applaud Wi-Fi Alliance’s Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 program as it will provide users with confidence that their devices meet the highest standards for security and interoperability and that they will provide the best possible user experience. As device densities continue to climb, bandwidth needs continue to surge and sophisticated new security threats continue to emerge, it will be increasingly important for users to select devices that are certified to meet the market’s most exacting standards, so they can take advantage of the emerging, innovative, next-generation use cases that Wi-Fi 6 is enabling.” – Chuck Lukaszewski, vice president of wireless standards and strategy for Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company

“ASSIA’s mission is to develop technologies that improve reliability of wired and wireless network connections. ASSIA has built a large portfolio of wireless technologies that utilize Wi-Fi 6 today, and for Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 devices these ASSIA technologies bring significant gains in network performance as well as vendor neutral network management options. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 will help build a massive IoT ecosystem at a fraction of the cost of deploying licensed band equivalent systems. We look forward to being part of evolution during this exciting time!” – Tuncay Cil, Chief Strategy Officer, ASSIA

"With the growing number of connected personal and IoT devices pushing current Wi-Fi to its limits, Wi-Fi 6 ushers in a new era of networking performance, and the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 certification program ensures users get the best home Wi-Fi experience out of this amazing new technology. As a pioneer of the world's first Wi-Fi 6 router and a rapidly expanding ecosystem of Wi-Fi 6 network adapters, motherboards, laptops and mini PCs, we at ASUS believe Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 is the answer for multi-device households and are happy to see the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 certification program from Wi-Fi Alliance is available now." – said Tenglong Deng, General Manager, ASUS Networking and Wireless Devices Business Unit.

"Wi-Fi 6 is a game changer in unlicensed connectivity, offering consumers exactly what they are seeking – the fastest, most responsive and reliable Wi-Fi.” – JR Wilson, Vice President of Tower Strategy and Roaming, AT&T

“Wi-Fi 6 is a game changer for dense and congested environments, helping operators like Boingo facilitate a more seamless connected experience in large venues that include airports and stadiums. Higher data rates, better spectrum usage, and increased network capacity are among the standout features of Wi-Fi 6 and we’re excited to see the technology’s certification program take off.” – Dr. Derek Peterson, chief technology officer, Boingo

“Broadcom is thrilled to have three of our best-in-class devices included in the certification test bed for today’s official launch of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 — the BCM4375, BCM43698, and BCM43684. These Broadcom devices already power 10s of millions of Samsung Galaxy phones and routers around the world. Capable of supporting up to 160 MHz wide channels, Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 devices offer consumers lower latency, better battery life and as yet unseen throughputs, all of which are critical for 5G services. As the full 6 GHz band is made available for unlicensed use - with multiple 160 MHz-wide channels — the Wi-Fi 6 consumer experience will be turbocharged for the gigabit home and AR/VR.” – Vijay Nagarajan, Vice President, Wireless Communications & Connectivity Division, Broadcom  

“We are seeing strong demand for our Wi-Fi 6 IP solutions for a wide range of market segments, including IoT, smart home, networking and mobile. We welcome the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 program release as it will enable massive adoption of this latest standard and the inherent benefits it brings. The host of new features and impressive performance and power improvements Wi-Fi 6 offers, greatly improve the overall user experience.” - Ange Aznar, Vice President and General Manager of the Wireless IoT Business Unit at CEVA

"Thanks to the work of Wi-Fi Alliance and the commitment of its members to interoperability, Wi-Fi has changed the world. Wi-Fi 6 represents a significant evolution of Wi-Fi, taking wireless connectivity to new heights and enabling new applications and use cases that will continue to shape the world we live in. As the rollout of Wi-Fi 6 accelerates, the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 program will provide Cisco’s customers assurance that the network and user devices will interoperate as expected; maximizing the benefits for businesses, the economy and users – which is exactly what Wi-Fi has been doing for the last 20 years.” – Matt MacPherson, Wireless CTO, Cisco

"Our world is becoming increasingly hyper-connected, and what gets me really excited about Wi-Fi 6, beyond the huge improvements in capacity and performance is the support for 2.4 GHz band and the power consumption improvements. With Wi-Fi Alliance and the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 certification program, we can ensure peak performance for all devices with next generation WPA3 security, no matter the use case. Whether for a factory, a stadium, or an office building, Cisco Meraki customers can be confident that deploying a Wi-Fi 6 network will deliver a secure, simple and superlative experience.” – Jayanthi Srinivasan, Director of Product Management, Cisco Meraki

“Wi-Fi 6 will help us meet the demands of tomorrow’s connectivity, with increased speed delivered to numerous devices simultaneously. Offering lower latency, better range, higher capacity and improved battery life for devices, Wi-Fi 6 ushers in the next generation of the world’s predominant wireless networking technology. We believe that Wi-Fi 6 will open a vast number of new applications and possibilities for our business.” – Cole Reinwand, Comcast Cable Communications, XFINITY WiFi

“Ruckus has always been at the leading edge of new certified technologies from Wi-Fi Alliance, and we’re proud that our extensive collaboration with Wi-Fi Alliance has contributed to the successful launch of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6. By being one of the first to incorporate Wi-Fi 6 features, the Ruckus R750 access point is both among the first fully Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 products and a high-performance Wi-Fi 6 access point used in the Wi-Fi Alliance test bed for interoperability certification. We look forward to participating with Wi-Fi Alliance in this exciting next phase of Wi-Fi industry growth.” – Morgan Kurk, CTO at CommScope

“Cypress' early Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 leadership underscores our commitment to market enablement with advanced automotive applications including BSS color mapping, support for scheduling, and high performance in congested environments. The high-data rates supported by Wi-Fi 6 will also enable efficient factory automation using over-the-air downloads on parallel manufacturing lines. Consumers will be able to enjoy uniform home-to-car experiences benefiting from robust, secure, and longer-range Wi-Fi 6 connections while maintaining backward-compatible Wi-Fi 5 IoT device connections already installed in their home networks.” – Brian Bedrosian, vice president of marketing, IoT Compute and Wireless Business Unit at Cypress

“Some hype is just noise — but some new technologies really do transform their market. By finally gaining a megaphone, Wi-Fi 6 is one of those technologies. In addition to providing added capacity and coverage to support more connected devices, Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 access points have the potential to completely transform enterprises and end-user experiences, something Wi-Fi 6 compliant and Wi-Fi 6 compatible access points can never claim.” – Perry Correll, Director of Product Marketing, Extreme Networks

“Wi-Fi 6 incorporates many new technologies, such as OFDMA technology, which divides the WLAN channel into multiple narrower subchannels, reducing competition, backoff and network latency and improving network efficiency. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 guarantees the experience of these new technologies and continues to enhance the competitiveness and influence of Wi-Fi in the data transmission field." – Joe Yu, Wireless Product director at H3C

“Wi-Fi 6 is a major step forward in the evolution of Wi-Fi. Not only does it bring higher maximum data rates, it also improves robustness in crowded Wi-Fi environments, creating a better user experience with a sustained level of performance for the user. In addition, Wi-Fi 6 brings significant benefits to new low-power markets such as IoT and wearables, enhancing the current Wi-Fi 5 products targeting these markets with improved power consumption, low data rates, and the addition of OFDMA to share spectrum efficiently.” – Richard Edgar, Senior Director of Product Management, Ensigma, Imagination Technologies

“Wi-Fi 6 is the greatest advancement to Wi-Fi in the last decade. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 ensures that products across the industry will live up to the full potential and deliver user experiences promised by Wi-Fi 6. Intel is honored that our leadership solutions for both client PC/IoT and home routers/gateways were selected for the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 test bed.” – Eric McLaughlin, GM, Wireless Solutions Group, Intel Corp.

“Wi-Fi 6 has already taken center stage in serving public hotspots like coffee shops and sports arenas as well as residential customers, where high data rate and efficient access control among users are strongly demanded.” – Jaehyung Koo, Vice President, KT

“Wi-Fi 6 marks a major paradigm shift in the evolution of Wi-Fi technology, pairing unprecedented speeds with low latency, high network utilization, and innovative power saving technologies to enable new mission critical applications, while providing a significantly enhanced user experience even in high density environments. Marvell is proud to play a leading role in enabling Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 to ensure seamless interoperability and drive rapid adoption in the market place.” - Mark Montierth, VP and GM of the Wireless Business at Marvell Semiconductor 

“As a leader in delivering new Wi-Fi connections and experiences to consumers worldwide, NETGEAR is thrilled to see the advancement of the Wi-Fi 6 certification program. With a broad range of Wi-Fi 6 routers via our Nighthawk performance Wi-Fi line, and a mesh Wi-Fi 6 system joining the Orbi Whole Home Wi-Fi family, NETGEAR is committed to improving the way people live through the connections we make.” – David Henry, senior vice president of Connected Home Products for NETGEAR

“Quantenna is committed to providing an exceptional Wi-Fi user experience and is actively involved in the development and standardization process of Wi-Fi 6. With Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6, consumers can easily identify and be assured that the devices they get include advanced capabilities for quality and interoperability. We look forward to certifying our products that enhance next generation Wi-Fi use cases.” – Irvind Ghai, vice president of Marketing, Quantenna Connectivity Solutions Division at ON Semiconductor

"Wi-Fi 6 is a key development that brings end-users a superior roaming experience. It is a milestone for this technology which offers improved connectivity, especially in dense areas of population and means an overall enhanced roaming capacity." – Cedric Gonin, International Carriers, Orange

“At Qualcomm Technologies, we’ve been heavily supporting the global transition to Wi-Fi 6 for several years and are happy to be a part of Wi-Fi Alliance’s Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 program. Qualcomm Technologies has shown its commitment in Wi-Fi 6 on the strength of our dogged pursuit and investment in the full potential of the new standard. We are excited to see the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 program launching, as it’s yet another indicator of the broad industry readiness to further establish a fervent, growing ecosystem of Wi-Fi 6 networks and devices.” – Rahul Patel, senior vice president and general manager, connectivity, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

“Samsung is excited for the official launch of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6. High speed 5G services need Wi-Fi 6 and so do consumers who want to seamlessly share the moments they create on their mobile devices. As a leading innovator in smartphone technology, we made this a reality when we launched the Samsung Galaxy S10 - the world’s first Wi-Fi 6 phone - earlier this year. Today, we are proud to officially announce that the Galaxy Note10 is the world’s first Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 smartphone.” – Inkang Song, VP and Head of Technology Strategy Group of IT & Mobile Communications Division at Samsung Electronics

“The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 program ensures that devices based on 802.11ax technology meet industry standards for interoperability and security, thereby delivering superior performance and better coverage to users experiencing Wi-Fi 6. In the meantime, Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 includes advanced features, which provide devices with features of peak performance and low latency in smart home or IoT scenarios, ensuring a fast, flexible and connected Wi-Fi ecosystem.” – John Yin, Marketing Manager, TP-Link

“Wi-Fi 6, as the newest generation of Wi-Fi technology, can bring users higher throughput, lower latency, lower power consumption, and also enhance network efficiency.  As an important member of the Wi-Fi Alliance, Xiaomi is committed to supporting Wi-Fi 6 technology in our applications, as well as engaging more deeply in Wi-Fi 6 certification, to bring our global users more and higher quality Wi-Fi 6 products.” Baoqiu Cui, Vice President of Xiaomi Corporation, Chairman of Technical Committee

About Wi-Fi Alliance®
www.wi-fi.org
Wi-Fi Alliance® is the worldwide network of companies that brings you Wi-Fi®. Members of our collaboration forum come together from across the Wi-Fi ecosystem with the shared vision to connect everyone and everything, everywhere, while providing the best possible user experience. Since 2000, Wi-Fi Alliance has completed more than 50,000 Wi-Fi certifications. The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ seal of approval designates products with proven interoperability, backward compatibility, and the highest industry-standard security protections in place. Today, Wi-Fi carries more than half of the internet’s traffic in an ever-expanding variety of applications. Wi-Fi Alliance continues to drive the adoption and evolution of Wi-Fi, which billions of people rely on every day.

Media contacts: 
Andrea Torres
Highwire PR for Wi-Fi Alliance
wi-fi@highwirepr.com
+1-415-963-4174 ext. 13

Wi-Fi Alliance® celebrates 20-year milestone, industry momentum continues

Austin, TX – February 21, 2019 – For two decades, Wi-Fi® has been connecting users around the world. Wi-Fi has increased speeds, enhanced capabilities, and expanded to deliver peer-to-peer connectivity and multi-gigabit performance, smart and efficient home networks, and seamless authentication and roaming. Wi-Fi has helped bridge the digital divide in underdeveloped areas, enabled more productive and flexible work environments, and opened entirely new markets because of its ability to deliver flexible, affordable connectivity. Wi-Fi will continue this momentum in 2019 with cumulative device shipments reaching 30 billion – more than 4 billion Wi-Fi devices will ship this year alone, expanding Wi-Fi’s installed base to over 13 billion.

Below is a preview of what is ahead for Wi-Fi in 2019:

• Wi-Fi Alliance® celebrates 20 years of Wi-Fi: Wi-Fi celebrates 20 years in 2019. 2019 will be a year to reflect on the incredible success story that Wi-Fi has become as the industry celebrates #20yearsofwifi throughout the year. Twenty years ago, Wi-Fi was a nascent technology and now achieves gigabit speeds and is responsible for critical business operations around the world. Wi-Fi Alliance member companies will be celebrating Wi-Fi’s impact in 2019, introducing innovative new products, and setting the vision for the next 20 years.
• Next generation Wi-Fi: Wi-Fi Alliance introduced new Wi-Fi terminology which has seen rapid industry adoption, particularly with the latest generation of Wi-Fi – Wi-Fi 6. In 2019, Wi-Fi 6 will begin making its way into more access points and consumer products to increase their speeds and performance – and offer improved capabilities in congested environments including stadiums and even home environments with many devices. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6™ will be available later in 2019 and will be an inflection point for wide-scale adoption of Wi-Fi 6, ensuring the latest devices meet industry agreed standards for interoperability and security.  
• Evolving Wi-Fi security: Homes and devices continue to get smarter and more feature-rich, propelled by technologies like Wi-Fi that help mobile devices interact with a range of smart home objects and bring more efficiencies and greater productivity through connected services at the office. While smart devices have become more common, users are no less concerned with securing their personal information. With greater adoption of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED WPA3™, the marketplace will begin seeing an enhanced level of security in home and enterprise networks. Public venues with open Wi-Fi networks will also get a boost with Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Enhanced Open™, providing data encryption that maintains the ease of use of open networks.
• The quest for mid-band unlicensed spectrum: Due in large part to Wi-Fi, unlicensed spectrum has become one of society’s most valuable resources. Last year, Wi-Fi contributed nearly $2 trillion in global economic value, and that number is expected to surpass $3.47 trillion by 2023. Wi-Fi plays an understated role in society but is critical to many businesses and services that users rely on every day. Additional unlicensed spectrum will be important to maintaining a good user experience with Wi-Fi devices. In 2019, Wi-Fi Alliance will continue advocating for additional unlicensed spectrum for Wi-Fi in both the 5 GHz and 6 GHz bands and will further its global efforts to communicate the value of Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi Alliance looks forward to working with policymakers and regulators around the world, in addition to groups like the U.S. congressional Wi-Fi Caucus, to ensure Wi-Fi continues to innovate and provide a good user experience for years to come.
• Advanced Wi-Fi use cases become “reality”: In 2019, Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) technologies will start moving beyond marketing trials to broader adoption where they will begin impacting experiences in offices, sports arenas, and homes. Wi-Fi will deliver more robust AR and VR experiences, leveraging technologies like Wi-Fi 6 for higher performance and Wi-Fi CERTIFIED WiGig™ for multigigabit speeds and low latency. Leveraging its inherent strengths, commitment to security, and efficient operations in unlicensed bands, Wi-Fi will continue to reinforce its ability to serve advanced use cases and to provide better throughput, lower latency, more advanced network management and optimization, and enhanced user access.
• Whole-home, Wi-Fi coverage: As homes become increasingly more connected, Wi-Fi mesh systems have increased in popularity to deliver reliable coverage to every area of a home. A variety of vendors have introduced Wi-Fi mesh solutions, and a wave of mesh products are beginning to incorporate Wi-Fi 6 to meet the surge in home network traffic. Device vendors will leverage Wi-Fi CERTIFIED EasyMesh™ to bring a standards-based approach to Wi-Fi networks that utilize multiple access points, allowing greater flexibility in device choice that comes with interoperable Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ devices. New home buyers can also purchase homes that integrate professionally designed Wi-Fi networks directly into builder floorplans with Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Home Design™. Enhancements to Wi-Fi Home Design™ coming in 2019 will expand the types of homes which can deliver move-in-ready Wi-Fi optimized to allow for a growing array of future smart home devices and systems.

For more information on 20 years of Wi-Fi, please visit: www.20yearsofwifi.com.

2019 Wi-Fi insights from Wi-Fi Alliance members:

“Historically speaking, most predictions miss the mark as the result of a technology in constant flux with disparate organizations and vendors driving Wi-Fi’s strategic and tactical advancements. However, there are some undeniable truths, and mine is that 2019 will be the most transformative year since Wi-Fi’s inception. The launch and embracement of Wi-Fi 6, WPA3, and the explosion of wireless IoT devices will fundamentally change the way Wi-Fi operates, how it secures, and the devices it must now support, with IoT adding a whole new generation of wireless products. Wi-Fi systems are done getting faster since networks have grown even larger and more mission critical than before. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) capabilities, insightful analytics, automated onboarding, classification, control, and mitigation are now the key innovations targeted for 2019. You will see Wi-Fi advancements from Wi-Fi Alliance, as well as individual vendors including Aerohive, focused on simplifying and optimizing the operation of Wi-Fi networks. If you have been watching closely, some have already started to appear. Bottom line: Key innovations in 2019 will be solutions that leverage AI to augment, enhance and simplify the life of network administrators.” – Perry Correll, product management director, Aerohive Networks

“2019 will be the year of Wi-Fi 6 - bringing increased speed and capacity to more efficiently support the increasing density of devices in the connected home with lower latency and enhanced battery life. We expect Wi-Fi 6 to be coupled with AirTies’ solutions so operators will be able to upgrade Wi-Fi performance and coverage, proactively fix and monitor Wi-Fi issues, and improve overall customer satisfaction for the super connected homes of tomorrow.” – Metin Taskin, CTO of AirTies

“It’s taken 20 years of innovation and evolution, but consumers and businesses will experience dramatic changes this year as the Wi-Fi 6 standard unlocks new possibilities for how we stay connected. We’ll see retail shelves stocked with advanced Wi-Fi 6 mesh routers that will bring consumers multigigabit speeds to every device in every room of the home. We will see IT and enterprise decision makers upgrade their WLAN infrastructure to Wi-Fi 6 for increased efficiency, more capacity, and improved connectivity at work, in hotels, schools, and stadiums. Wi-Fi 6 access points will provide enhanced QoS to enable high-resolution, latency-sensitive video in ultra-high density user environments. ISPs will update their flagship services with Wi-Fi 6, and we’ll also see the first smartphones and tablets emerge to take advantage of new performance capabilities. Perhaps more importantly, we’ll see lab trials of 6GHz Wi-Fi 6 driving new product introductions for the second half of 2020 bringing non-collision access to new bandwidth levels. This will replace the need for any wires in the home.” – Charles Cheevers, CTO, Customer Premises Solutions at ARRIS

“There’s no doubt about it — 2019 will be the year of Wi-Fi 6. We will see a rapid rollout of the full Wi-Fi 6 ecosystem, including smartphones, routers, and access points. In fact, with the launch of the world’s first Wi-Fi 6 smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S10, 2019 is off to a great start. Consumers will experience the more immersive social media experience that they crave. It’s an exciting time for Wi-Fi!” – Vijay Nagarajan, Vice President of Marketing, Wireless Communications and Connectivity Division at Broadcom

“At Comcast, we operate the largest Wi-Fi network in the country and in 2019 will continue to be focused on enhancing and evolving our nationwide Wi-Fi network so customers will always be connected and have the best overall Wi-Fi experience for our customers. With Xfinity xFi we are helping our users change the way they Wi-Fi by offering the best speed, coverage, control, and now, security to over 15M families across the US.” – Eric Schaefer, General Manager and Senior Vice President of Comcast’s Xfinity Services

“I believe that in 2019, we will see the next generation of low-power Wi-Fi platforms driving IoT innovation. We have been addressing a growing demand from designers for low-latency, cloud-independent decision-making based on contextual awareness, coupled with requirements for longer battery life. This has been fueled by always-on human-machine interfaces using touch, voice, mobile apps, or environmental prompts.” – Brian Bedrosian, vice president of marketing for the IoT Compute and Wireless Business Unit at Cypress

“Since Aruba’s founding almost two decades ago, we have watched Wi-Fi evolve significantly, from its initial role as a secondary network designed to enable mobility to the mission-critical position it holds today as the primary connectivity method for billions of devices, users, and things. As we celebrate Wi-Fi’s 20th anniversary, we look back at how far this critical technology has come in terms of speed, coverage, capacity, and security, and we look ahead with excitement to the vast array of possibilities it holds for improving user experiences across all manner of industries and geographies. With developments such as Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi CERTIFIED WPA3, Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Enhanced Open, and innovative new use cases and progress in important areas such as gaining access to additional unlicensed spectrum, the future of Wi-Fi is bright.” – Chuck Lukaszewski, vice president of wireless strategy and standards for Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company

“Wi-Fi will continue to evolve from a stand-alone technology to becoming an integral part of a whole ecosystem of radio technologies, each fulfilling specific requirements. In particular with regard to IoT, Wi-Fi vendors will provide solutions integrating support for other wireless systems, thus allowing users to benefit from highly integrated platforms catering for even the most diverse wireless needs.” – Jan Buis, Vice President Business Development, LANCOM Systems

“We’d like to congratulate Wi-Fi Alliance on 20 successful years of revolutionizing wireless connectivity and driving standardization across the whole industry. As a founding member and leader in Wi-Fi technologies, Marvell is also celebrating our success in providing state-of-the-art solutions and technologies to our customers and the Wi-Fi community. We are looking forward to another 20 years of continued collaboration with Wi-Fi Alliance in bringing secure and higher performing technologies, such as Wi-Fi 6, to market.” – Mark Montierth, Vice President and General Manager, Wireless Connectivity Business Unit at Marvell Semiconductor

"NETGEAR, a pioneer of Wi-Fi technology, has been at the forefront of each generational transition of Wi-Fi and expects 2019 to big a big year for the introduction of Wi-Fi 6 products. We are excited to help drive adoption this year and enable the increased capacity and bandwidth of Wi-Fi 6 networks." – David Henry, senior vice president of Connected Home Products for NETGEAR

“The past two decades of Wi-Fi have brought about many transformations and the best is yet to come. 2019 marks the beginning of a new era of wireless connectivity as Wi-Fi 6 takes performance, capacity and efficiency at range to new levels and 60 GHz Wi-Fi gains momentum, harnessing unlicensed mmWave spectrum to deliver unprecedented double digit gigabit speeds and imperceptible latencies. As a global leader in the shipment of Wi-Fi enabled products, we look forward to continuing our longstanding support of Wi-Fi Alliance driven technology advancements and to providing our customers with next generation Wi-Fi toolkits for a new era in connected experiences,” – Rahul Patel, senior vice president and general manager, connectivity, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

“Wi-Fi has constantly evolved over the past 20 years, serving the ever-growing need for faster speeds and more reliable connectivity. For 2019, we see Wi-Fi 6 becoming mainstream by making use of advanced features such as 8-stream MIMO and multi-user MIMO. The next big innovation will happen with the opening of 6 GHz spectrum that will add a lot of unobstructed spectrum for Wi-Fi, allowing for even higher performance and quality of service.” – Ambroise Popper, VP of Strategy & Corporate Marketing, Quantenna

About Wi-Fi Alliance®
www.wi-fi.org
Wi-Fi Alliance® is the worldwide network of companies that brings you Wi-Fi®. Members of our collaboration forum come together from across the Wi-Fi ecosystem with the shared vision to connect everyone and everything, everywhere, while providing the best possible user experience. Since 2000, Wi-Fi Alliance has completed more than 45,000 Wi-Fi certifications. The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ seal of approval designates products with proven interoperability, backward compatibility, and the highest industry-standard security protections in place. Today, Wi-Fi carries more than half of the internet’s traffic in an ever-expanding variety of applications. Wi-Fi Alliance continues to drive the adoption and evolution of Wi-Fi, which billions of people rely on every day.

Media contacts: 
Andrea Torres
Highwire PR for Wi-Fi Alliance
wi-fi@highwirepr.com
+1-415-963-4174 ext. 13

Wi-Fi Alliance® certification program supports next generation Wi-Fi®
 

Austin, TX and Las Vegas, NV – January 8, 2019 – With industry momentum mounting around Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi Alliance® introduces Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6™ to ensure devices based on IEEE 802.11ax technology meet industry agreed standards for interoperability and security. The Wi-Fi Alliance certification program, coming in the third quarter of 2019, will provide capacity, coverage, and performance required by users to experience next generation Wi-Fi® use cases, from streaming ultra high-definition (Ultra HD) movies to mission critical business applications.

Advanced capabilities supported by Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 bring innovation for Wi-Fi to excel even in diverse Wi-Fi environments with many devices. Key benefits include higher data rates, increased network capacity, improved performance in congested environments, and improved power efficiency. These capabilities include:

• Uplink and downlink orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA): increases network efficiency and lowers latency for high demand environments
• Multi-user multiple input multiple output (MU-MIMO): allows more data to be transferred at once and enables an access point to transmit to a larger number of concurrent clients at once
• Transmit beamforming: enables higher data rates at a given range resulting in greater network capacity
• 1024 quadrature amplitude modulation mode (1024-QAM): increases throughput in Wi-Fi devices by encoding more data in the same amount of spectrum
• Target wake time (TWT): significantly improves battery life in Wi-Fi devices, such as Internet of Things (IoT) devices

Earlier this year, Wi-Fi Alliance introduced a new consumer friendly naming structure that provides users with an easy to understand designation for both the Wi-Fi technology supported in their device and the Wi-Fi technology available for the connection to a network. Recent polling data by Wakefield Research on behalf of Wi-Fi Alliance indicates more than half of users want the latest technology in their devices, but nearly three-quarters of respondents avoid buying devices when it is too difficult to understand technical labels and descriptions. New generational terminology will help consumers more easily identify devices with the latest Wi-Fi technology and better understand if devices will deliver the expected Wi-Fi experience.

“Wi-Fi continues to be a predominant technology for accessing the internet, with a strong history of success,” said Andrew Zignani, Senior Research Analyst, ABI Research. “Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 will further escalate Wi-Fi’s role, with more than one billion Wi-Fi 6 chipsets expected to be shipped annually in 2022.”

Wi-Fi 6 products will be prominently featured at #CES2019. High-performance access points, laptops, and other new products will be displayed by Wi-Fi Alliance members on the show floor. Wi-Fi 6 devices will enhance the user experience in both consumer and enterprise applications and will be particularly useful in homes, smart cars, businesses, e-Learning, IoT, stadiums, public venues, and transportation hubs. Wi-Fi 6 will support a range of use cases in these scenarios, including high-definition streaming, virtual reality, interactive HD and 4K video, asset tracking and sensors, and more efficient uploading and downloading capabilities.

“Wi-Fi 6 delivers features to satisfy users’ evolving connectivity needs and to enable more efficiency in the expanding places where users rely on Wi-Fi,” said Edgar Figueroa, president and CEO, Wi-Fi Alliance. “Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 continues a nearly 20-year history of providing standards-based, interoperability testing to ensure Wi-Fi devices meet expectations for quality and interoperability.”

For more information on Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6, please visit: https://www.wi-fi.org/discover-wi-fi/wi-fi-certified-6.

Industry support for Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6

“Wi-Fi 6 is expected to bring increased speed and capacity, and it will more efficiently support the increasing density of devices in the connected home with lower latency and enhanced battery life. Coupled with AirTies’ Smart Wi-Fi software and cloud-based management, operators will be able to upgrade Wi-Fi performance and coverage, proactively fix and monitor Wi-Fi issues, and improve overall customer satisfaction for the super connected homes of tomorrow.” – Metin Taskin, CTO of AirTies

 “Wi-Fi 6 is a welcomed improvement in a technology that has revolutionized how people manage their lives and connect with others, and what most enterprises rely on as the backbone of their business. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 will be an important step in ensuring the best user experience, and ARRIS looks forward to certifying Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 solutions that improve connectivity and Wi-Fi management in the most demanding residential and enterprise environments, including hospitality, education, outdoor venue, and smart city applications.” – Charles Cheevers, CTO, Customer Premises Solutions at ARRIS

“The sixth generation of Wi-Fi is here today. Market-leading Wi-Fi 6 routers, powered by Broadcom's chips, are already available at retail outlets including Amazon and Best Buy. 2019 will be the year of Wi-Fi 6 as it rapidly proliferates with smart phones. The wireless experience on our mobile phones will now be ever so swift, secure, and steady as we seamlessly stream or share our digital memories. So don't forget to ask for Wi-Fi 6 when you buy your new phone or wireless router this year.” – Vijay Nagarajan, Vice President of Marketing, Mobile Connectivity Division at Broadcom

“The rollout of this Wi-Fi 6 certification is another exciting step forward for the unlicensed ecosystem. Wi-Fi 6 brings enhanced performance to connected environments and will be key for powering next generation use cases. As the industry gathers at #CES2019, the inherent strengths of Wi-Fi will be front and center and Wi-Fi 6 will demonstrate how wireless is being reimagined.” – Dr. Derek Peterson, CTO, Boingo Wireless

“CEVA is proud to release Wi-Fi 6 MAC and modem IP platforms to the market and we look forward to achieving W-Fi CERTIFIED 6 status once available. Our existing Wi-Fi 4 and Wi-Fi 5 customers are already upgrading to Wi-Fi 6 to benefit from the host of new features and the impressive performance and power consumption improvements that this latest generation standard provides. We expect Wi-Fi 6 to be widely adopted across mobile, smart home, networking, and the Internet of Things.” – Aviv Malinovitch, GM of the Connectivity BU at CEVA

“Wi-Fi 6 deepens and expands Wi-Fi as the de facto home networking technology, offering uninterrupted, long-range performance for high-density networks of connected automation and media devices. The efficient and scheduled network performance of Wi-Fi 6 enables Cypress to bring a more robust user experience from the home to in-car infotainment with advanced media coexistence and power efficient networking.” – Brian Bedrosian, vice president of marketing for the IoT Compute and Wireless Business Unit at Cypress Semiconductor Corp.

“2019 will be a breakout year for Wi-Fi users who will be amazed at what their devices will accomplish for the next-generation of consumer and business applications resulting from the performance and security enhancements realized by Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 (“Wi-Fi 6”) infrastructure. Users will also receive an operator-grade radio experience, enabling 5G networks to seamlessly incorporate Wi-Fi 6 for additional capacity. As always, Aruba will continue to ensure our networking technologies are fully compliant with Wi-Fi Alliance certification standards for interoperability and security.” - Chuck Lukaszewski, vice president of wireless strategy and standards for Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company

 “Wi-Fi 6 is a game changer in connectivity, offering consumers exactly what they are seeking – the fastest, most responsive and reliable Wi-Fi for their always-connected lives. Intel supports Wi-Fi 6 and is on track for Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 solutions for both PCs and home routers and gateways to ensure our market-leading products deliver the best possible connected experiences.” – Eric McLaughlin, General Manager of Wireless Solutions Group, Intel Corporation

“Marvell remains at the forefront of wireless solutions with innovations like Wi-Fi 6, which will greatly improve the reliability and security for users. Marvell has worked closely with Wi-Fi Alliance to bring this technology to market and is one of the first to offer a full line of products that fully implement Wi-Fi 6 capabilities.” - Mark Montierth, Vice President and General Manager, Wireless Connectivity Business Unit at Marvell Semiconductor

“As a global leader in the shipment of Wi-Fi enabled products, we recognize the importance of Wi-Fi Alliance certification as we bring the latest Wi-Fi technologies to a widening base of consumers and enterprises, and we are a proud supporter of the forthcoming interoperability program for Wi-Fi 6 (11ax).  With our long history of collaboration with Wi-Fi Alliance, and extensive support of program development and interoperability test beds for new Wi-Fi programs, you can expect to see Qualcomm Technologies, and our mobile and infrastructure customers, to receive this vital Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 designation by Wi-Fi Alliance,” said Rahul Patel, senior vice president and general manager, connectivity and networking, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

“Quantenna welcomes Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 and the significant benefits it has to offer. We are offering a full array of Wi-Fi 6 products and plan to actively participate in the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6™ program. By full implementation of this program, we continue our commitment to enhance connectivity for an exceptional user experience.” – Ambroise Popper, vice president of strategy and corporate marketing, Quantenna

About Wi-Fi Alliance®
www.wi-fi.org
Wi-Fi Alliance® is the worldwide network of companies that brings you Wi-Fi®. Members of our collaboration forum come together from across the Wi-Fi ecosystem with the shared vision to connect everyone and everything, everywhere, while providing the best possible user experience. Since 2000, Wi-Fi Alliance has completed more than 45,000 Wi-Fi certifications. The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ seal of approval designates products with proven interoperability, backward compatibility, and the highest industry-standard security protections in place. Today, Wi-Fi carries more than half of the internet’s traffic in an ever-expanding variety of applications. Wi-Fi Alliance continues to drive the adoption and evolution of Wi-Fi, which billions of people rely on every day.

Media contacts: 
Andrea Torres
Highwire PR for Wi-Fi Alliance
wi-fi@highwirepr.com
+1-415-963-4174 ext. 13

Methodological note: The Wi-Fi Alliance Survey was conducted by Wakefield Research (www.wakefieldresearch.com) among 1,000 U.S. adults, ages 18+, between December 14 and December 19, 2018, using an email invitation and an online survey. Quotas have been set to ensure reliable and accurate representation of the U.S. adult population 18 and older.

Results of any sample are subject to sampling variation. The magnitude of the variation is measurable and is affected by the number of interviews and the level of the percentages expressing the results. For the interviews conducted in this particular study, the chances are 95 in 100 that a survey result does not vary, plus or minus, by more than 3.1 percentage points from the result that would be obtained if interviews had been conducted with all persons in the universe represented by the sample.

Wi-Fi evolves, maintains core strengths for next generation use cases

Austin, TX – December 18, 2018 – Wi-Fi® addresses a broad range of next generation connectivity scenarios both today and in the future, as explored by Wi-Fi Alliance® in a new whitepaper, Next generation Wi-Fi: The future of connectivity. With an array of portfolio enhancements and evolution to Wi-Fi 6, the whitepaper details Wi-Fi’s broadening ability to support advanced use cases while maintaining inherent strengths that have made Wi‑Fi a success. Wi-Fi delivers reliability, security, and interoperability, and will soon deliver greater capacity, faster speeds, and lower latency to support next generation use cases such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), Ultra high-definition (Ultra HD) video, multiparty gaming, Internet of Things (IoT), and other immersive experiences.

For nearly two decades, Wi-Fi networks have created a distributed connectivity fabric that brings Wi-Fi where it is needed most: in homes, inside buildings, and in dense outdoor areas. Wi-Fi has done this while protecting users with a high level of security and making efficient use of available unlicensed spectrum. The new whitepaper includes details on the many inherent strengths in today’s Wi-Fi that further pave the way towards addressing next generation connectivity, such as:

• Affordable performance
• Unlicensed spectrum operation
• Ease of use
• Self-deployment
• Long-term compatibility

“Wi-Fi continues to add a richer set of capabilities that broaden deployment scenarios,” said Edgar Figueroa, president and CEO, Wi-Fi Alliance. “Excitement around new technologies will come and go, and meanwhile, Wi-Fi maintains its strong track record and commitment to core competencies that will continue to deliver mission critical connectivity and to carry the bulk of the world’s data traffic.”

The Wi-Fi Alliance portfolio of technologies delivers a broad range of scenarios from low power to high-performance and capacity. Today’s Wi-Fi already supports high-resolution video streaming, Wi‑Fi calling, smart home monitoring, hotspot access, automation of city-wide services, residential AR/VR applications, and seamless roaming. Wi-Fi 6 brings a new level of Wi-Fi capacity and performance, and enhancements to WiGig in the 60 GHz millimeter wave band will deliver faster speeds and longer ranges. Wi-Fi will provide connectivity for many advanced use cases in connected homes, connected enterprises, IoT, smart cities, carrier services, and public venues. Additionally, Wi-Fi HaLow™ will enable a variety of power-efficient use cases for connected car, digital healthcare, and industrial scenarios.

Wi-Fi’s installed base of more than nine billion devices enables delivery of next generation connectivity as part of a gradual transition, with backward compatibility to support legacy devices. Wi-Fi 6 will be introduced where needed and will not require a sizeable investment in new infrastructure, while still providing many advancements in performance and capacity. Similarly, users will be able to upgrade to Wi‑Fi 6 devices as desired. Wi-Fi's ability to address many next generation use cases today reduces the pressure and urgency for operators to deploy more expensive cellular networks, and for subscribers to buy new mobile devices to experience advanced use cases.

Next generation Wi-Fi: The future of connectivity expands on Wi-Fi’s five key inherent strengths that have made it nearly ubiquitous in devices and networks, and further explores Wi-Fi’s evolution to address many important, next generation use cases. The paper outlines advanced use cases that are available today, while also building excitement for what is to come over the next few years. The paper also describes Wi-Fi’s complementary role with 5G, as well as further describing the economic and societal benefits that Wi-Fi brings to our lives.

The full paper is available for download here.

Industry support for next generation Wi-Fi

“Where previous generations of Wi-Fi offered mostly improved data rates and performance, Wi-Fi 6 is designed to deliver transformational change to the traditional Wi-Fi architecture. Wi-Fi 6’s ability to effectively communicate with multiple clients simultaneously adds a level of capacity, performance, and network efficiency never before thought possible over a wireless network. In additional to traditional wireless network demands, IoT, smart cities, connected home, and VR/AR demands will put additional strain on the Wi-Fi network. Wi-Fi 6 has the capability to support and deliver this level of performance. Wi-Fi 6 will support a positive experience to the user (and IT administrator) even in the most dense environments.” - Perry Correll, product management director, Aerohive Networks

"Wi-Fi remains the future of connectivity, as outlined in this concise and insightful new white paper from Wi-Fi Alliance. Innovations such as Wi-Fi 6 coupled with AirTies’ Smart Wi-Fi software will help operators upgrade Wi-Fi performance and coverage, proactively fix and monitor Wi-Fi issues, and improve overall customer satisfaction for the super connected homes of tomorrow." – Metin Taskin, CTO of AirTies 

“Technologies like Wi-Fi 6 and Passpoint will steer unlicensed networks into the 5G era, meeting high performance expectations across speed, latency, reliability, security and traffic management. To realize digital transformations for both people and things, we’ll need Wi-Fi and its ability to carry the bulk of data traffic with unparalleled efficiencies.” – Dr. Derek Peterson, CTO at Boingo Wireless

“In our increasingly digital world, Wi-Fi is more important than ever. It connects us in a cost-effective way whether we are at work, at home or on the go. It adds nearly $2 trillion to the global economy every year. As we look for new ways to seamlessly share what we create, Wi-Fi 6 will keep pace to deliver a swift, steady, and secure consumer experience. This white paper by Wi-Fi Alliance aptly highlights the continuous impact of Wi-Fi.” – Vijay Nagarajan, Vice President of Marketing, Mobile Connectivity Division at Broadcom

“At CEVA, we are already seeing strong market demand for Wi-Fi 6, due to the new features, significantly improved performance and lower power consumption it enables for a wide range of use cases. We have been developing and licensing Wi-Fi MAC and modem IPs for many generations and both our existing customers and our many new prospects are very excited by the capabilities that Wi-Fi 6 brings to the next-generation of smart and connected devices.” – Aviv Malinovitch, general manager of the connectivity business unit at CEVA

“For many years, Wi-Fi has fulfilled its brand promise of “anyone, anytime, anyplace” connectivity at a great price, driving almost $2T of global economic value per annum. The Wi-Fi Alliance’s whitepaper provides yet more evidence that every market segment, including Cisco’s customers in the sophisticated and very demanding enterprise and Service Provider segments, can be confident that Wi-Fi 6 will continue fulfilling this promise and solve real problems well into the future." – Matt MacPherson, Wireless CTO, Cisco

“Wi-Fi is the primary connectivity method for billions of devices, users and things. With the new capabilities offered by Wi-Fi 6, and the pending expansion of unlicensed spectrum, Wi-Fi is in a unique position as the ideal connectivity medium to support a wide range of emerging, innovative, next-generation use cases, including those expected from 5G.” – Chuck Lukaszewski, vice president of wireless strategy and standards for Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Wi-Fi is a true mass phenomenon. Millions of households and businesses in Europe operate their own Wi-Fi networks, making them the fundamental basis for modern, digital, life and digitalized business processes. This is a role only Wi-Fi will be able to play, even in an era of 5G deployments.  – Jan Buis, Vice President Wireless LAN, IoT & Switches, LANCOM Systems

“Wi-Fi technology connects billions of people and their wireless devices to the content and experiences they depend on and enjoy every day. As the number of connected devices and the expectations for faster, more efficient networks grow for families, businesses, and beyond, new technologies like Wi-Fi 6 are meeting the demands of tomorrow’s connected world today. As a global leader in Wi-Fi shipments and deployments, Qualcomm works with leading manufacturers to deliver Wi-Fi 6 technology for the most innovative use cases.” –  Rahul Patel, senior vice president and general manager, connectivity and networking, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

“Wi-Fi 6 will help enable the next generation of Wi-Fi connectivity by providing significant benefits to end users by enabling faster access to the network, reduced interference and easier integration of IoT devices. Quantenna is a strong supporter of Wi-Fi 6 and our portfolio of advanced solutions provides our customers with its full benefits.” – Ambroise Popper, vice president, strategy and corporate marketing, Quantenna

“With more than 20 billion devices shipped and many new features coming, there is no doubt that Wi-Fi will continue to play a dominant role in our increasingly wireless world. The Wi-Fi Alliance’s new paper, Next Generation Wi-Fi, does a nice job highlighting the major capabilities and services enabled by Wi-Fi 6 and WiGig technologies, the disparate spectrum bands that will be utilized, and the societal and economic benefits of Wi-Fi. Ruckus looks forward to continuing our leadership in Wi-Fi innovation as we enter the ‘5G Era.” – Dave Wright, director of regulatory affairs and network standards, Ruckus Networks, an ARRIS Company

About Wi-Fi Alliance®
www.wi-fi.org
Wi-Fi Alliance® is the worldwide network of companies that brings you Wi-Fi®. Members of our collaboration forum come together from across the Wi-Fi ecosystem with the shared vision to connect everyone and everything, everywhere, while providing the best possible user experience. Since 2000, Wi-Fi Alliance has completed more than 40,000 Wi-Fi certifications. The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ seal of approval designates products with proven interoperability, backward compatibility, and the highest industry-standard security protections in place. Today, Wi-Fi carries more than half of the internet’s traffic in an ever-expanding variety of applications. Wi-Fi Alliance continues to drive the adoption and evolution of Wi-Fi, which billions of people rely on every day.

Media contacts: 
Andrea Torres
Highwire PR for Wi-Fi Alliance
wi-fi@highwirepr.com
+1-415-963-4174 ext. 13

New generational approach enables users to easily differentiate between Wi-Fi® technologies

Austin, TX, - October 3, 2018 – Wi-Fi Alliance® introduces Wi-Fi 6 as the industry designation for products and networks that support the next generation of Wi-Fi®, based on 802.11ax technology. Wi-Fi 6 is part of a new naming approach by Wi-Fi Alliance that provides users with an easy-to-understand designation for both the Wi-Fi technology supported by their device and used in a connection the device makes with a Wi-Fi network.

The new naming system identifies Wi-Fi generations by a numerical sequence which correspond to major advancements in Wi-Fi. The generation names can be used by product vendors to identify the latest Wi-Fi technology a device supports, by OS vendors to identify the generation of Wi-Fi connection between a device and network, and by service providers to identify the capabilities of a Wi-Fi network to their customers. The generational terminology may also be used to designate previous Wi-Fi generations, such as 802.11n or 802.11ac. The numerical sequence includes:

• Wi-Fi 6 to identify devices that support 802.11ax technology
• Wi-Fi 5 to identify devices that support 802.11ac technology
• Wi-Fi 4 to identify devices that support 802.11n technology

Each generation of Wi-Fi offers new features – faster speeds, increased throughput, and better experiences. Industry adoption of the new terminology will help users better understand the experience they can expect. Wi-Fi 6 will deliver an improved experience to address device and application needs in a range of consumer and enterprise environments. The generational terminology is expected to be widely adopted by the Wi-Fi ecosystem.

“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.”

In addition to describing the capabilities of the device, device manufacturers or OS vendors can incorporate the generational terminology in User Interface (UI) visuals to indicate the current type of Wi-Fi connection. The UI visual will adjust as a device moves between Wi-Fi networks so users have real-time awareness of their device connection. Beginning with Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi Alliance certification programs based on major IEEE 802.11 releases will use a generational Wi-Fi name; Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6™ certification is coming in 2019.

Please visit https://www.wi-fi.org/wi-fi-6 and download the Wi-Fi 6 white paper and/or Generational Wi-Fi User Guide for more information.

Industry support for Wi-Fi 6

“Aerohive enthusiastically supports Wi-Fi Alliance’s new consumer-friendly Wi-Fi 6 naming convention in support of the emergence of IEEE’s new 802.11ax technology. Wi-Fi Alliance is now providing consumers the same type of generational Wi-Fi naming conventions to match what cellular technology has done since the beginning. Wi-Fi technology has evolved and improved over the last 21 years – from only a few megabits to several Gigabit speeds – yet this information is currently not provided. With Wi-Fi 6, consumers can easily identify the level of Wi-Fi provided and demand superior services. Additionally, we look forward to Wi-Fi Alliance’s launch of their Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6™ certification program next year, and will submit our latest generation of Aerohive devices for certification at the first opportunity.” – Perry Correll, product management director, Aerohive Networks

“AirTies commends Wi-Fi Alliance for simplifying Wi-Fi naming conventions and making them more consumer friendly. We look forward to using the term Wi-Fi 6, instead of 802.11ax, and educating our customers about the next-generation of Wi-Fi services and capabilities." – Metin Taskin, CTO of AirTies 

“Wi-Fi has evolved significantly since Aruba was founded 16 years ago – from its initial role as a secondary network within the enterprise enabling mobility to the mission-critical role it plays today as the primary connectivity method for billions of devices, users, and things. We applaud this effort by Wi-Fi Alliance to simplify the terminology used to differentiate between the different generations of technologies as it will help users more quickly and easily discern the technology their particular device or network supports.” – Lissa Hollinger, Vice President of Portfolio Marketing for Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company

 “Wi-Fi has revolutionized nearly every aspect of the last two decades, fueling significant social and economic development. As we enter a new generation of connectivity, Wi-Fi isn’t resting on its laurels. We’re packing in new capabilities that deliver blazing fast speeds, high throughput, ultra-low latency, enhanced security and new features like target wake time for a seamless connected experience across a wide range of use cases. Boingo is proud to be part of this generational Wi-Fi launch and work alongside Wi-Fi Alliance to establish programs that further evolve the wireless ecosystem.” – Dr. Derek Peterson, chief technology officer, Boingo Wireless

“Consumers love Wi-Fi – nearly every Internet connected device has it and over 80% of all wireless traffic goes over it. The sixth generation of Wi-Fi - 802.11ax - is the most advanced ever, bringing faster speeds, greater capacity and coverage, and will make the user experience even more enjoyable.  This simple, generational representation will let consumers differentiate phones and wireless routers based on their Wi-Fi capabilities, helping them pick the device that suits their needs best. When they see that their device contains Wi-Fi 6, they will know that they have the best wireless connectivity on the market.”
– Vijay Nagarajan, senior director of marketing for Wireless Communications and Connectivity at Broadcom  

 “CEVA welcomes the introduction of the clear terminology. We have been licensing MAC and Modem IP for many years and across many generations of the technology spanning 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax. The new naming structure gives a simple and consistent framework to boost user awareness, which is especially important now at the dawn of Wi-Fi 6.” – Aviv Malinovitch, GM of the Connectivity BU at CEVA

“Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) is a major advancement that keeps Wi-Fi as the technology of choice for local wireless connectivity for consumers and enterprises. Intel will deliver Wi-Fi 6 solutions for both clients and home infrastructure as part of our continued commitment to improve connectivity and security for the best possible user experiences.” – Eric McLaughlin, General Manager of Wireless Solutions, Client Computing Group at Intel Corp

“Wi-Fi 6, based on 802.11ax technology, will greatly improve the user experience. Real world, dense environments require reliable, secure and consistently excellent download and upload experience. Marvell has worked closely with Wi-Fi Alliance in bringing this technology to market and offers a broad array of products that fully implement Wi-Fi 6, including the technologically and superior upload capabilities.”  - Mark Montierth, vice president and general manager, Wireless Connectivity Business Unit at Marvell Semiconductor

“Wi-Fi Alliance’s mission to connect everyone and everything aligns with MediaTek’s vision to make great technology accessible to everyone. As consumers depend on fast, reliable connectivity to support the growing number of connected devices in their homes, this new terminology will help consumers better understand the latest Wi-Fi technology advancements and make more informed buying decisions for their connectivity needs.” – Finbarr Moynihan, VP of Corporate Sales & Business Development (Americas & Europe) at MediaTek

“NETGEAR welcomes an easy way to highlight for customers what level of Wi-Fi technology they are using. We believe this will help customers better understand and appreciate the generational differences in Wi-Fi technology and usher in the latest 802.11ax standard.” – David Henry, senior vice president of Connected Home Products for NETGEAR

 “Given the central role Wi-Fi plays in delivering connected experiences to hundreds of millions of people every day, and with next generation technologies like 802.11ax emerging, the Wi-Fi Alliance generational naming scheme for Wi-Fi is an intuitive and necessary approach to defining Wi-Fi’s value for our industry and consumers alike. We support this initiative as a global leader in Wi-Fi shipments and deployment of Wi-Fi 6, based on 802.11ax technology, along with customers like Ruckus, Huawei, NewH3C, KDDI Corporation/NEC Platforms, Charter Communications, KT Corp, and many more spanning enterprise, venue, home, mobile and computing segments.” – Rahul Patel, senior vice president and general manager, connectivity and networking, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

“As one of the first Wi-Fi Alliance members, Ruckus Networks supports the new Wi-Fi Alliance naming scheme. This campaign will help the networking ecosystem better identify the different generations of Wi-Fi technologies in future releases.” – Greg Beach, Vice President of Wireless Products, Ruckus Networks, an ARRIS company

About Wi-Fi Alliance®
www.wi-fi.org
Wi-Fi Alliance® is the worldwide network of companies that brings you Wi-Fi®. Members of our collaboration forum come together from across the Wi-Fi ecosystem with the shared vision to connect everyone and everything, everywhere, while providing the best possible user experience. Since 2000, Wi-Fi Alliance has completed more than 40,000 Wi-Fi certifications. The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ seal of approval designates products with proven interoperability, backward compatibility, and the highest industry-standard security protections in place. Today, Wi-Fi carries more than half of the internet’s traffic in an ever-expanding variety of applications. Wi-Fi Alliance continues to drive the adoption and evolution of Wi-Fi, which billions of people rely on every day.

Media contacts: 
Stephanie Burke
Highwire PR for Wi-Fi Alliance
wi-fi@highwirepr.com
+1-646-838-1190 ext. 48