80211ax

802.11ax, commercially marketed as Wi-Fi 6, is an amendment to the IEEE 802.11 WLAN standards designed to improve efficiency and performance in dense wireless environments. It builds on prior generations by increasing capacity and reducing latency for many concurrent users.

Its core technologies include orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) to subdivide channels for simultaneous transmissions, multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) for both downlink and uplink, and higher-order modulation up to 1024-QAM. It also supports wider channel bandwidths up to 160 MHz, improved backward compatibility, BSS coloring to distinguish neighboring networks, and Target Wake Time to extend device battery life.

802.11ax operates in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. A later extension marketed as Wi-Fi 6E adds operation in the 6 GHz band, expanding available spectrum and reducing interference for supported devices.

The standard enables theoretical maximum data rates up to 9.6 Gbps (with 160 MHz channels and 1024-QAM on multiple spatial streams), but real-world speeds depend on environment, channel width, and client capabilities. It emphasizes efficiency and reliability in dense deployments.

First ratified in 2019 by the IEEE 802.11 Working Group, 802.11ax is backward compatible with earlier 802.11 generations. It is widely implemented in consumer routers and access points and commonly used with WPA3 security. It remains the basis for subsequent updates and the evolution toward higher performance alongside 802.11be (Wi-Fi 7).