Wi-Fi 6 / 802.11ax
Wi-Fi 6/6E is the current enterprise and consumer wireless standard. OFDMA and TWT are especially relevant for dense IoT deployments and high-density venues like offices and stadiums.
What It Defines
Wi-Fi 6 introduces OFDMA (multi-user parallel subcarrier allocation), MU-MIMO (up to 8 spatial streams), BSS Coloring for interference reduction, Target Wake Time (TWT) for IoT power savings, and 1024-QAM. Operates in 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. Peak throughput ~9.6 Gbps. Wi-Fi 6E adds the uncongested 6 GHz band.
Canonical (Normative)
Convenient (Practical)
The world's largest technical professional organization. IEEE 802 LAN/MAN Standards Committee publishes Ethernet (802.3), Wi-Fi (802.11), VLAN tagging (802.1Q), and port-based NAC (802.1X). Standards require purchase but are the normative reference for all wired/wireless networking.
Related Specs
Wi-Fi 7 is arriving in enterprise and consumer hardware now. MLO's simultaneous multi-band operation fundamentally changes how wireless latency and throughput scale.
802.1X is how enterprises authenticate devices before allowing network access. Required knowledge for corporate Wi-Fi, VPN alternatives, and zero-trust network access designs.