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by John W. Simek, Vice President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.

Wi-Fi Gets New Names

October 4, 2018

I remember eating Campbell's Alphabet soup as a child. It's a similar feeling when talking about all the different versions of Wi-Fi. The first version is known as 802.11b (notice they didn't start with the letter a). To confuse you more, the second version is 802.11a (back to the start of the alphabet). You may see terms such as 802.11ac or a/b/g/n. It is all very confusing. Not to worry. The Wi-Fi Alliance has introduced a new naming convention based on number instead of letter. Therefore, the next version will be known as Wi-Fi 6 (the 6th version). To help you out, all of the previous versions will be identified by number.

  • Wi-Fi 1: 802.11b (1999)
  • Wi-Fi 2: 802.11a (1999)
  • Wi-Fi 3: 802.11g (2003)
  • Wi-Fi 4: 802.11n (2009)
  • Wi-Fi 5: 802.11ac (2014)

Now isn't that a lot easier to remember? Finally something that make sense.

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