Technical white paper
Cisco public
IEEE 802.11ax: The Sixth
Generation of Wi-Fi
© 2018 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
1 Executive summary
Wireless is evolving, driven by more devices, more connections, and more bandwidth-hungry applications. Future
networks will need more wireless capacity and reliability. That’s where the sixth generation of Wi-Fi comes in.
The emerging IEEE 802.11ax standard is the latest step in a journey of nonstop innovation. It builds on the
strengths of 802.11ac, while adding flexibility and scalability that lets new and existing networks power next-
generation applications. IEEE 802.11ax couples the freedom and high speed of gigabit wireless with the
predictability we find in licensed radio (LTE).
IEEE 802.11ax allows enterprises and service providers to support new and emerging applicationson the same
Wireless LAN (WLAN) infrastructure, while delivering a higher grade of service to older applications. This scenario
sets the stage for new business models and increased Wi-Fi adoption.
IEEE 802.11ax lets access points support more clients in dense environments and provide a better experience
for typical wireless LAN networks. It also powers more predictable performance for advanced applications such
as 4K video, Ultra HD, wireless office, and Internet of Things (IoT). Flexible wake-up time scheduling lets client
devices sleep much longer than with 802.11ac, and wake up to less contention, extending the battery life of smart
phones, IoT, and other devices.
IEEE 802.11ax achieves these benefits by pushing on three different dimensions:
• Denser modulation using 1024 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM), enabling a more-than-35-percent
speed burst
• Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA)-based scheduling to reduce overhead and latency
• Robust high-efficiency signaling for better operation at a significantly lower Received Signal Strength
Indication(RSSI)
IEEE 802.11ax OFDMA technology lets even first-wave 802.11ax access points support eight spatial streams and
deliver up to 4800 Mbps at the physical layer, depending on vendor implementation. All clients will achieve higher
effective throughput at the MAC layer, for a better overall user experience.
Unlike 802.11ac, 802.11ax is a dual-band 2.4- and 5-GHz technology, so 2.4-GHz-only clients can take advantage
of its benefits right away. Most importantly, 802.11ax 2.4-GHz support significantly increases the range of Wi-Fi,
adding standards-based sounding and beamforming, and enabling new use cases and business models for
indoor and outdoor coverage.
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