Wi-Fi

Legacy IEEE 802.11 standards (802.11b, 802.11a, and 802.11g) established commercial consumer wireless networking between 1999 and 2003, transitioning from 11 Mbps DSSS/CCK in the 2.4 GHz band to 54 Mbps OFDM modulation across both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands.

Wi-Fi 4 (IEEE 802.11n) was ratified in 2009, introducing Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) spatial streaming and optional 40 MHz channel bonding across both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, achieving maximum theoretical physical link rates up to 600 Mbps.

Wi-Fi 5 (IEEE 802.11ac) was ratified in 2013, operating exclusively in the 5 GHz band. It introduced 80 MHz and 160 MHz channel bonding, 256-QAM modulation, and multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) downlink, reaching theoretical maximum data rates up to 6.93 Gbps.

Wi-Fi 6 (IEEE 802.11ax) was ratified in 2021, operating across both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. Engineered for high-density network efficiency, it introduced Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), bi-directional MU-MIMO, 1024-QAM, and Target Wake Time (TWT), reaching physical rates up to 9.6 Gbps.

Wi-Fi 6E is an extension of the IEEE 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) standard into the unlicensed 6 GHz frequency band (5.925–7.125 GHz). It provides up to 1,200 MHz of additional contiguous spectrum, unlocking 14 extra 80 MHz or 7 extra 160 MHz channels completely free from legacy interference and radar DFS restrictions.

Wi-Fi 7 (IEEE 802.11be, Extremely High Throughput) was approved by IEEE-SA in 2024, operating across 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz bands. It features 320 MHz channel bandwidth, 4096-QAM modulation, 8x8 MU-MIMO (an early draft's 16 spatial streams was dropped before finalization), and Multi-Link Operation (MLO), achieving theoretical speeds up to about 23 Gbps in a single band.