The Wi-Fi Alliance, dedicated to developing new wireless networking standards, is planning to with the upcoming launch of the newest Wi-Fi standard, 802.11ax. 802.11ax 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.'
The Wi-Fi Alliance, the non-profit organization that promotes Wi-Fi technology, has introduced a new naming system that’ll make it easier for consumers to identify Wi-Fi generations.
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, 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.
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.