80211acax

80211acax refers to a proposed next‑generation IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN standard that would merge the capabilities of 802.11ac (Wi‑Fi 5) and 802.11ax (Wi‑Fi 6). It is not an officially defined standard by IEEE, and there is no ratified specification. The term is used informally in industry discussions to describe an imagined or developmental path that would combine high data‑rate features with advanced efficiency and multi‑user technologies.

If realized, it would potentially support multiple frequency bands, including 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, and possibly new spectrum. It might feature wider channel bandwidths, higher‑order modulation up to 1024‑QAM, and incorporation of OFDMA and MU‑MIMO for both downlink and uplink. Additional concepts such as BSS coloring, enhanced multi‑user scheduling, and Target Wake Time could improve spectral efficiency, latency, and power management. The goal would be higher average throughput and better performance in dense environments, with improved roaming support and reliability for real‑time applications and IoT.

Standardization status: there is no IEEE standard, no official technical specification, and no formal certification process for 80211acax. In practice, products that invoke this label would more likely reflect vendor‑specific implementations or marketing shorthand rather than a universal, agreed‑upon standard. Real‑world deployments would depend on formal IEEE consensus and broad industry adoption.

See also: IEEE 802.11ac, IEEE 802.11ax, Wi‑Fi 5, Wi‑Fi 6, Wi‑Fi 6E.