A university capture of a staff WLAN shows high-efficiency operation on the access points. Which standard defines that PHY?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
High efficiency is a label with an author, and the author is the IEEE amendment for that generation. Your capture is 802.11ax. The very-high-throughput amendment is the previous generation, and the extremely-high-throughput amendment is the next one.
Full Explanation
IEEE 802.11ax is the amendment that defines high-efficiency PHY operation, the technology Wi-Fi 6 is built on. A capture that shows high-efficiency operation is showing 802.11ax. IEEE 802.11ac specifies very high throughput, the generation before high efficiency. IEEE 802.11n specifies high throughput, an earlier PHY. IEEE 802.11be specifies extremely high throughput, the Wi-Fi 7 PHY, which is a different amendment from the one in this capture. High efficiency is the PHY name in the capture, and 802.11ax is the amendment that defines it. The earlier and later amendments use different PHY names, so they do not match this frame. Confirm the result on one live client before changing anything else. Exam caveat: a generation nickname is not the amendment number. Saying Wi-Fi 6 in a design review is fine, and the standard that defines the PHY is still 802.11ax. Operational check: read the PHY label in the capture beside a beacon and confirm it is high efficiency before you troubleshoot it as a Wi-Fi 7 multi-link problem.