More from the 5G glossary
View all 5G glossary entriesWhat is 802.11ax?
The 802.11ax standard—officially known as IEEE 802.11ax-2019—is the latest generation of Wi-Fi (Wi-Fi 6). It builds upon the previous 802.11ac and 802.11n standards by adding numerous improvements that make it faster, more efficient, and more capable of handling dense networks.
One of the most significant changes in 802.11ax is the introduction of OFDMA, a form of frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) that allows multiple devices to share the same channel without contention. This makes 802.11ax particularly well-suited for dense networks, where many devices are competing for limited bandwidth.
In addition to OFDMA, 802.11ax also introduces a number of other improvements, such as higher-order modulation, higher-density modulation, and multiple-user MIMO (MU-MIMO). These all work together to increase the data rate and efficiency of 802.11ax networks.