Nice Guy Wi-Fi

Wireless Naming Conventions

Ā·

Matt Glosson Avatar
Matt Glosson

On my Wi-Fi Terminology page, I mention a few bits of information about organizations. This is a slightly different take on those definitions, with some additional clarification (hopefully). The idea is that all of these, with exception of “wireless” are applicable to devices whose PHY is one of:

  • OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing)
    aka 802.11a
  • HR-DSSS (High Rate Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum)
    aka 802.11b
  • OFDM-ERP (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing Extended Rate PHY)
    aka 802.11g
  • HT (High Throughput)
    aka 802.11n
  • VHT (Very High Throughput)
    aka 802.11ac, or Wi-Fi 5
  • HE (High Efficiency)
    aka 802.11ax, or Wi-Fi 6
  • EHT (Extremely High Throughput)
    aka 802.11be, or Wi-Fi 7
  • UHR (Ultra High Reliability)
    aka 802.11bn, or Wi-Fi 8 (presumably)

Here’s the list proper:

  • Wireless – Sort of a catch-all term; it can mean CB radio, HAM radio, cellular communication, WBAN, WPAN, etc. It’s essentially any communication without wires.
  • WLAN – Wireless Local Area Network. I don’t feel like I hear this term used much anymore. But it implies 802.11, which, in its simplest form is essentially an Ethernet frame wrapped with a different PHY/MAC header (A-MPDU and A-MSDU notwithstanding).
  • Wi-Fi – Registered trademark owned by the Wi-Fi AllianceĀ®. The Wi-Fi Alliance is sometimes referred to as WFA.
  • 802.11 – IEEE working group in charge of setting WLAN standards. IEEE 802.11 makes the standards, and the WFA certifies them.
  • Wifi or WiFi – A way I’ve seen some vendors refer to 802.11 wireless without stepping on the registered trademark of the Wi-Fi AllianceĀ® [which is Wi(dash)Fi].
  • WBA (Wireless Broadband Alliance) – Another certifications body, similar to the Wi-Fi Alliance, but with a somewhat different makeup and goals:
    • WFA is made up more of chipset and hardware vendors, whereas WBA is made up more of carriers
    • WFA is focused on certifications and standards for device interoperability, WBA is more focused on deployment interoperability (e.g., OpenRoaming)

Sometimes WFA and WBA have competing standards. For example, WFA has Passpoint, but WBA has OpenRoaming. Both are based on IEEE 802.11u.

In my own general usage, which I believe is the most common, I just call use “Wi-Fi” to refer to anything compatible with 802.11a,b,g,n,ac,ax,be,bn.