'Wi-Fi 6' Is Coming Out Next Year, 37% Faster Than Your Home Wi-Fi & With Greater Signal Range

Most people might think Wi-Fi is fairly simple. That's because they don't know the difference in various Wi-Fi standards, which have changed through the years.

The Wi-Fi alliance knows this, so they're trying to make the system a little easier for lay people to comprehend.

There are a ton of differences between Wi-FI 802.11n and 802.11ac for instance, and those are just the two most recent. Across specifications, they vary in transfer speed, band usage, and broadcast method. Therefore, though not common, it's possible you can purchase a device that's not suited to your Wi-Fi router at home, and vice versa.

The Wi-Fi Alliance is a non-profit that certifies wireless transfer protocols developed by IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). All companies that want to use Wi-Fi in their products and carry the branding have to be certified by them. They know the differences in Wi-Fi, and they also know it's not easy for a regular person to parse. So instead they're now naming each of these standards with simple numerals, much like Android and iOS version numbers.

The new system states that 802.11n will now simply be called Wi-Fi 4, while 802.11ac will be called Wi-Fi 5. A new version of the wireless standard named 802.11ax, coming 2019, will instead be referred to as Wi-Fi 6. And don't worry about what comes before Wi-Fi 4, it's too old to matter to you as no one's moving backward with their wireless technology.

"For nearly two decades, Wi-Fi users have had to sort through technical naming conventions to determine if their devices support the latest Wi-Fi," Edgar Figueroa, president and CEO of the Wi-Fi Alliance, said in the announcement. "Wi-Fi Alliance is excited to introduce Wi-Fi 6, and present a new naming scheme to help industry and Wi-Fi users easily understand the Wi-Fi generation supported by their device or connection."

These new names won't just be on product spec sheets either, companies will also be encouraged to put them on their products so consumers can make a more informed choice. It'll also be featured in interfaces so you can see what Wi-Fi your device uses. That makes a big difference if you're looking for the maximum range of the 2.4GHz band as opposed to the better speed of the 5GHz. Now, you won't have to sort through the confusion, just look up the simple version name that's best for you.

The new naming system goes into effect when Wi-Fi 6 launches sometime next year. Based on the IEEE 802.11ax standard, it's expected to provide higher data rates, good capacity and improved performance even in densely crowded spaces like clubs, stadiums, and airports. And all of this with lower battery consumption than before.

The new standard uses uplink and downlink orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), which improves its efficiency. It subdivides the Wi-Fi channel into smaller partitions, allowing the technology to serve up to nine users simultaneously. It also makes use of 1024 quadrature amplitude modulation mode. This increases the throughput of Wi-Fi 6 by 25 percent over Wi-Fi 5, meaning it has better bandwidth capacity at gigabit speeds.

Basically, come 2019, you'll see pretty much every smartphone, home router, IoT device, and office Internet switching over to the new standard.