Wi-Fi Alliance

Wi-Fi Alliance was founded in 1999 by the companies 3Com Cisco, Intersil Lucent, Nokia and Symbol Technologies. Initially the organization was called Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA) – renaming into Wi-Fi Alliance took place in 2000.

The companies which are a part of alliance which number exceeds 500 are engaged in development of standards of wireless networks of Wi-fi (IEEE 802.11) and also methods of creation of the matching local networks. The Wi-fi trademark was registered by alliance in 1999.

2019: Exception of Huawei of Wi-fi Alliance Association

In May, 2019 it became known that the Huawei company was limited significantly in the rights in the Wi-fi Alliance organization which is engaged in development new and promotion of the existing standards of Wi-fi technology^[1].

The official statement of the organization concerning discharge of Huawei sounds so: "Wi-Fi Alliance works according to the order of Ministry of Commerce of the USA. Membership of Huawei Technologies is not cancelled – the alliance temporarily limited its participation in the actions of the organization covered by the order". In spite of the fact that the place in alliance is said in the statement about preserving for Huawei, on its official site this company at the time of the publication of material did not appear in the participant list and was present only at the list of sponsors.

2016: Certification of devices and the equipment on compliance to standard 802.11ac of Wave 2 began

On June 30, 2016 Wi-Fi the Alliance organization announced the beginning of certification of devices and the equipment on compliance to the standard Wi-Fi 802.11ac Wave 2 which represents expansion of the standard Wi-Fi 802.11ac and will provide gigabit data transfer rates on wireless communication^[2].

802.11ac Wave 2 provides to wi-fi width of the channel in 160 MHz, against 80 MHz in 802.11ac (and four times big in comparison with 802.11n). Developers said, it will allow to reach gigabit speeds of wireless data transmission on consumer devices.

Table of comparative characteristics 802.11ac Wave 2, (2015)

802.11ac Wave 2 will allow to increase the number of channels at a frequency of 5 GHz that will cause effective use of a range and will help to avoid an interference between close wireless networks.

Capacity of the channel in 802.11ac Wave of 2 - 866 Mbps that there is twice more former. In total about four channels of simultaneous data transmission are supported. Joint speed of data transmission - 3.2 Gbps. Before about three channels of simultaneous data transmission were supported.

In Wave 2 there will be a support of Multi-user Multiple Input Multiple Output technology (MU-MIMO). MIMO is an encoding technique of a signal when data are transferred by several antennas and the same number of antennas are accepted, it allows to increase speed.

In number of the first controllers where the standard is supported, entered:

• Broadcom BCM94709R4366AC,
• Marvell Avastar 88W8964,
• MediaTek MT7615 AP
• MediaTek MT6632 STA,
• Qualcomm IPQ8065
• Quantenna QSR1000.

The alliance calculates that within five years the majority of the devices entering the market with support of Wi-fi technology will support standard 802.11ac of Wave 2.

2012

As the head of Wi-fi Alliance integrating the largest producers of the computer equipment and wireless devices in June, 2012 reported the certification process of networks and mobile devices on compatibility with Passpoint technology will begin. It will allow to switch automatically between 3G or 4G-networks of operators and available spot jotas with preserving of all security settings. It is supposed that roaming will significantly simplify access to Wi-Fi-networks and will make them even more popularly.

According to Edgar Figueroa (Edgar Figueroa), the chief executive of Wi-fi Alliance, not only owners of mobile devices, but also operators will benefit from an innovation. The first the Passpoint technology will help to use high-speed connections in the bigger number of places, the second – to avoid the raised loads of networks and, as a result, discontent of users with quality of the provided services. The last statement is confirmed by data of poll of owners of smartphones and tablets according to which 90% of respondents do not intend to refuse services of the existing operator in case of such technology. At the same time, 70% of users will replace the operator if he prohibits to work with Passpoint, 72% of respondents are ready to pay more for communication services in combination with the technology advanced by WiFi Alliance.

"Users voted for Wi-Fi long ago, – Figueroa claims. – The technology pleased much as opens ample opportunities of Internet access". According to the same poll, 85% of owners of smartphones and tablets are ready to prefer Wi-Fi to wireless connection of the operator, 83% are sure that universal distribution of Wi-Fi-networks will make the mobile Internet even more conveniently and more attractively, 87% of respondents are sure of need of increase in availability of spot jotas. Representatives of Wi-fi Alliance consider that in the long term switching of mobile devices between Wi-Fi-networks will be automatic completely needlessly every time to enter different passwords and to perform setup process. The perfect analogy to modern cellular transmission networks arises.

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