Overview of Wifi networks: Architecture and Operation

IEEE Wireless LAN standards

802.11a (Wifi 2)
→ 1999
→ 5GHz
→ 54Mbps

802.11b (Wifi 1)
→ 1999
→ 2.4GHz
→ 11Mbps

802.11g (Wifi 3)
→ 2003
→ 2.4GHz
→ 54Mbps

802.11n (Wifi 4)
→ 2009
→ 2.4 and 5 GHz
→ 600Mbps
→ Technological advancement: up until this point, you had an antenna that gave out one EM wave. In 2009, they introduced a MIMO antenna (multiple input, multiple output). They split the antenna, and each slice would emit an EM wave

802.11ac (Wifi 5)
→ 2014
→ 2.4 and 5GHz
→ 3.6Gbps

802.11ax (Wifi 6)
→ 2019
→ 2.4 and 5 GHz
→ 10-12Gbps

Wifi 7 is expected this year. 802.11be EHT (extremely high throughput)

Index