Wi-Fi Альянс: владелец и развитие торговой марки Wi-Fi

Non profit organization that owns the Wi Fi trademark

The Wi Fi Alliance is a non profit organization that owns the Wi Fi trademark. Manufacturers may use the trademark to brand products certified for Wi Fi interoperability. It is based in Austin, Texas.

Early 802.11 products suffered from interoperability problems because the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) had no provision for testing equipment for compliance with its standards. In 1999, pioneers of a new, higher speed variant endorsed the IEEE 802.11b specification to form the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA) and branded the new technology Wi Fi. The group of companies included 3Com, Aironet (acquired by Cisco), Harris Semiconductor (now Intersil), Lucent (was Alcatel Lucent, then acquired by Nokia), Nokia and Symbol Technologies (acquired by Motorola, Zebra Technologies, and now Extreme Networks). The alliance lists Apple, Comcast, Samsung, Sony, LG, Intel, Dell, Broadcom, Cisco, Qualcomm, Motorola, Microsoft, Texas Instruments, and T Mobile as key sponsors. The charter for this independent organization was to perform testing, certify interoperability of products, and to promote the technology. WECA renamed itself the Wi Fi Alliance in 2002. Most producers of 802.11 equipment became members, and as of 2012, the Wi Fi Alliance included over 550 member companies. The Wi Fi Alliance extended Wi Fi beyond wireless local area network applications into point to point and personal area networking and enabled specific applications such as Miracast.

The 802.11 protocols are IEEE standards, identified as 802.11b, 11g, 11n, 11ac, etc. In 2018 The Wi Fi Alliance created the simpler generation labels Wi Fi 4 6 beginning with Wi Fi 5, retroactively added Wi Fi 4 and later added Wi Fi 6 and Wi Fi 6E. Wi Fi 5 had Wave 1 and Wave 2 phases. Wi Fi 6E extends the 2.4/5 GHz range to 6 GHz, where licensed. Listed in historical and capacity order. See the individual 802.11 articles for version details or 802.11 for a composite summary.

WiGig refers to 60 GHz wireless local area network connection. It was initially announced in 2013 by Wireless Gigabit Alliance, and was adopted by the Wi Fi Alliance in 2013. They started certifying in 2016. The first version of WiGig is IEEE 802.11ad, and a newer version IEEE 802.11ay was released in 2021.

In October 2010, the Alliance began to certify Wi Fi Direct, that allows Wi Fi enabled devices to communicate directly with each other by setting up ad hoc networks, without going through a wireless access point or hotspot. Since 2009 when it was first announced, some suggested Wi Fi Direct might replace the need for Bluetooth on applications that do not rely on Bluetooth low energy.

Wi Fi Protected Access is a security mechanism based on IEEE 802.11i amendment to the standard that the Wi Fi Alliance started to certify from the year of 2003.

IBSS with Wi Fi Protected Setup would enable the creation of ad hoc network between devices directly without central access point.

Wi Fi Passpoint, alternatively known as Hotspot 2.0, is a solution for enabling inter carrier roaming. It utilizes IEEE 802.11u.

Wi Fi Easy Connect is a protocol that would enable easily establishing connections via QR code.

Wi Fi Protected Setup (WPS) is a network security standard to simply create a secure wireless home network, created and introduced by Wi Fi Alliance in 2006.

Miracast, introduced in 2012, is a standard for wireless display connections from devices such as laptops, tablets, or smartphones. Its goal is to replace cables connecting from the device to the display.

Wi Fi Aware is an interoperability certification program announced in January 2015 that enables device users, when in the range of a particular access point or another compatible device, to receive notifications of applications or services available in the proximity. Later versions of this standard included new features such as the capability to establish a peer to peer data connection for file transfer. Fears were voiced immediately in media that it would be predominantly used for proximity marketing.

Wi Fi Location is a type of Wi Fi positioning system, and the certification could help providing accuracy to in door positioning.

TDLS, or Tunneled Direct Link Setup, is "a seamless way to stream media and other data faster between devices already on the same Wi Fi network" based on IEEE 802.11z and added to Wi Fi Alliance certification program in 2012. Devices using it communicate directly with one another, without involving the wireless network's router.

The certification of Wi Fi Agile Multiband indicate devices can automatically connect and maintain connection in the most suitable way. It covers the IEEE 802.11k standard about access point information report, the IEEE 802.11v standard that enable exchanging information about state of network, IEEE 802.11u standard about additional information of a Wi Fi network, IEEE 802.11r about fast transition roaming between different access points, as well as other technologies specified by Wi Fi alliance.

Wi Fi EasyMesh is a certification program based on its Multi Access Point specification for creating Wi Fi meshes from products by different vendors, based on IEEE 1905.1. It is intended to address the problem of Wi Fi systems that need to cover large areas where several routers serve as multiple access points, working together to form a larger/extended and unified network.

Formerly known as Carrier Wi Fi, Wi Fi Vantage is a certification program for operators to maintain and manage quality Wi Fi connections in high usage environment. It includes a number of certification, such as Wi Fi certified ac (as in 802.11ac), Passpoint, Agile Multiband, and Optimized Connectivity.

Wi Fi Multimedia (WMM) or known as Wireless Multimedia Extensions is a Wi Fi Alliance interoperability certification based on the IEEE 802.11e standard. It provides basic quality of service (QoS) features to IEEE 802.11 networks.

Wi Fi Home Design is a set of guidelines released by Wi Fi alliance for inclusion of wireless network in home design.

Wi Fi HaLow is a standard for low power wide area (LPWA) connection standard using sub 1 GHz spectrum for IoT devices. It is based on IEEE 802.11ah.