25 years of a world without cables: Wi-Fi and its evolution until today

Wi-Fi is one of those protocols that we already take for granted in 2022, to the point where we take for granted the ability to wirelessly connect to a hotspot anywhere. For this to happen, they had to go through at least 8 different connection standards.

For those wondering what exactly WiFiwe tell you that it can be summarized as follows: it is a protocol by which the Internet can be transmitted to several devices at the same time through wireless antennas, similar to radio signals.

Wi-Fi appears to be short for “Wireless Fidelity”. it is a pun on the terms “Hi-Fi” and “High Fidelity” once used in home stereos. In 1999, industry companies founded the Wi-Fi Alliance, a non-profit organization that today manages the Wi-Fi standard and brand.

Despite the debut of 802.11 in 1997, it wasn’t until 1999 that the first 802.11 products became commercially available. Actually, the company that promoted Wi-Fi the most to the mainstream, at least initially, was Mansana and a Wi-Fi product called the airport to accompany your iBook laptop at the turn of the last century.

Currently, 802.11n and 802.11ac are probably the most widely used standards as they both operate in the 2.4GHz or 5GHz band and support data rates up to 600Mbps and 1.1Gbps respectively.

WiFi: all versions

• 802.11 (1997): this original standard supported a maximum speed of 2 megabits per second (Mbps) and used the 2.4 GHz spectrum.
• 802.11b (1999): this update to the original standard increased the maximum speed to 11 Mbps, making it the first widely adopted Wi-Fi standard among home users.
• 802.11a (1999): it supported speeds up to 54 Mbps in the 5 GHz band, but was not widely used in home networks due to the adoption of the 802.11b standard.
• 802.11 g (2003): The famous Wi-Fi “G” upgrade has increased speeds to 54MB/s on the 2.4GHz band and is widely adopted in homes and businesses.
• 802.11n (2008): As a result of the “N” upgrade to 802.11 (commonly referred to as “Wi-Fi 4”), the maximum speed increased to a theoretical 600 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz radio bands.
• 802.11ac (2014): never sit still, the Wi-Fi 5 update supports speeds from 433 to 1100 Mbps in the 5GHz band.
• 802.11ax (2019, 2020): Wi-Fi 6 D WiFi 6E they raised the bar for data transfer rates from 600 to 9608 Mbps in the 2.4, 5 and even 6 GHz bands.
• 802.11be (no official date): Wi-Fi 7 just around the corner and promises a staggering 40 gigabits per second data transfer rate under ideal conditions.

Wi-Fi goes global

Today Today Wi-Fi technology this is integrated in nearly all small devices What unite a Internet and allowed in handheld devices such as smartphones are becoming practical. Through the implementation of this protocol, provides easy access to the Internet in public places such as cafes, hotels, airplanes and libraries. This greatly expanded access to the Internet and opened up new possibilities for entertainment, such as audio and video streaming. It is also widely used for online home multiplayer games.

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