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IEEE 802.11ax, officially marketed by the  Wi-Fi Alliance  as  Wi-Fi 6  (2.4  GHz and
5 GHz)[4] and Wi-Fi 6E (6  GHz),[5]  is an  IEEE  standard for wireless local-area networks (WLANs)
and the successor of 802.11ac. It is also known as High Efficiency Wi-Fi, for the overall improvements
to  Wi-Fi 6  clients under dense environments.[6]  It is designed to operate in  license-exempt
bands between 1 and 7.125 GHz, including the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands already in common use as well as
the much wider 6 GHz band (5.925–7.125 GHz in the US).[7]

The main goal of this standard is enhancing throughput-per-area[a] in high-density scenarios, such as

corporate offices, shopping malls and dense residential apartments. While the nominal data rate
improvement against 802.11ac is only 37%,[6]: qt   the overall throughput increase (over an entire
network) is 300% (hence High Efficiency).[8]: qt  This also translates to 75% lower latency.[9]

The quadrupling of overall throughput is made possible by a higher spectral efficiency. The key feature
underpinning 802.11ax is orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA), which is
equivalent to cellular technology applied into Wi-Fi.[6]: qt  Other improvements on spectrum utilization
are better power-control methods to avoid interference with neighboring networks, higher order
1024‑QAM, up-link direction added with the down-link of MIMO and MU-MIMO to further increase
throughput, as well as dependability improvements of power consumption and security protocols such
as Target Wake Time and WPA3.

The IEEE 802.11ax standard was finalised on September 1, 2020 when Draft 8 received 95% approval
in the sponsor ballot and received final approval from the IEEE Standards Board on February 1,
2021.[10]

Contents
Rate set
OFDMA
Technical improvements
Notes
Comparison
References
External links

Rate set

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Modulation and coding schemes

Data rate (Mbit/s)[ii]

MCS 160 MHz
Modulation Coding 20 MHz channels 40 MHz channels 80 MHz channels
channels
index[i] type rate
1600 ns 800 ns 1600 ns 800 ns 1600 ns 800 ns 1600 ns 800 ns
GI[iii] GI GI GI GI GI GI GI

0 BPSK 1/2 8 8.6 16 17.2 34 36.0 68 72

1 QPSK 1/2 16 17.2 33 34.4 68 72.1 136 144
2 QPSK 3/4 24 25.8 49 51.6 102 108.1 204 216
3 16-QAM 1/2 33 34.4 65 68.8 136 144.1 272 282
4 16-QAM 3/4 49 51.6 98 103.2 204 216.2 408 432
5 64-QAM 2/3 65 68.8 130 137.6 272 288.2 544 576
6 64-QAM 3/4 73 77.4 146 154.9 306 324.4 613 649
7 64-QAM 5/6 81 86.0 163 172.1 340 360.3 681 721
8 256-QAM 3/4 98 103.2 195 206.5 408 432.4 817 865
9 256-QAM 5/6 108 114.7 217 229.4 453 480.4 907 961
10 1024-QAM 3/4 122 129.0 244 258.1 510 540.4 1021 1081
11 1024-QAM 5/6 135 143.4 271 286.8 567 600.5 1134 1201

Notes

i. MCS 9 is not applicable to all combinations of channel width and spatial stream count.
ii. Per spatial stream.
iii. GI stands for guard interval.

OFDMA
In 802.11ac (802.11's previous amendment),  multi-user MIMO  was introduced, which is
a  spatial  multiplexing  technique. MU-MIMO allows the access point to form beams towards
each  client, while transmitting information simultaneously. By doing so, the interference between
clients is reduced, and the overall throughput is increased, since multiple clients can receive data
simultaneously.

With 802.11ax, a similar multiplexing is introduced in the frequency domain: OFDMA. With OFDMA,

multiple clients are assigned to different  Resource Units  in the available spectrum. By doing so, an
80  MHz channel can be split into multiple Resource Units, so that multiple clients receive different
types of data over the same spectrum, simultaneously.

To support OFDMA, 802.11ax needs four times as many subcarriers as 802.11ac. Specifically, for 20,
40, 80, and 160  MHz channels, the 802.11ac standard has, respectively, 64, 128, 256 and 512
subcarriers while the 802.11ax standard has 256, 512, 1,024, and 2,048 subcarriers. Since the available
bandwidths have not changed and the number of subcarriers increases by a factor of four, the
subcarrier spacing is reduced by the same factor. This introduces OFDM symbols that are four times
longer: in 802.11ac, an OFDM symbol takes 3.2 microseconds to transmit. In 802.11ax, it takes 12.8
microseconds (both without guard intervals).
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Technical improvements
The 802.11ax amendment brings several key improvements over  802.11ac. 802.11ax addresses
frequency bands between 1 GHz and 6 GHz.[11] Therefore, unlike 802.11ac, 802.11ax also operates in
the unlicensed 2.4 GHz band. To meet the goal of supporting dense 802.11 deployments, the following
features have been approved.

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Feature 802.11ac 802.11ax
Centrally controlled medium
access with dynamic
assignment of 26, 52, 106,
242(?), 484(?), or 996(?)
tones per station. Each tone
consists of a single
OFDMA Not available
subcarrier of 78.125 kHz
bandwidth. Therefore,
bandwidth occupied by a
single OFDMA transmission
is between 2.03125 MHz
and ca. 80 MHz bandwidth.
Multi-user Available Available in Downlink
MIMO (MU-MIMO) in Downlink direction and Uplink direction
Allows performing UL
Trigger-based OFDMA transmissions by
Not available
Random Access stations which are not
allocated RUs directly.
Spatial frequency Not available Coloring enables devices to
reuse differentiate transmissions
in their own network from
transmissions in
neighboring networks.
Adaptive power and
sensitivity thresholds allows
dynamically adjusting
transmit power and signal
detection threshold to
increase spatial reuse.
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Comment
OFDMA segregates the spectrum in time-
frequency resource units (RUs). A central
coordinating entity (the AP in 802.11ax)
assigns RUs for reception or transmission
to associated stations. Through the central
scheduling of the RUs contention
overhead can be avoided, which increases
efficiency in scenarios of dense
deployments.
With downlink MU-MIMO an AP may
transmit concurrently to multiple stations
and with uplink MU-MIMO an AP may
simultaneously receive from multiple
stations. Whereas OFDMA separates
receivers to different RUs, with MU-MIMO
the devices are separated to different
spatial streams. In 802.11ax, MU-MIMO
and OFDMA technologies can be used
simultaneously. To enable uplink MU
transmissions, the AP transmits a new
control frame (Trigger) which contains
scheduling information (RUs allocations for
stations, modulation and coding scheme
(MCS) that shall be used for each station).
Furthermore, Trigger also provides
synchronization for an uplink transmission,
since the transmission starts SIFS after
the end of Trigger.
In Trigger frame, the AP specifies
scheduling information about subsequent
UL MU transmission. However, several
RUs can be assigned for random access.
Stations which are not assigned RUs
directly can perform transmissions within
RUs assigned for random access. To
reduce collision probability (i.e. situation
when two or more stations select the
same RU for transmission), the 802.11ax
amendment specifies special OFDMA
back-off procedure. Random access is
favorable for transmitting buffer status
reports when the AP has no information
about pending UL traffic at a station.
Without spatial reuse capabilities devices
refuse transmitting concurrently to
transmissions ongoing in other,
neighboring networks. With coloring, a
wireless transmission is marked at its very
beginning helping surrounding devices to
decide if a simultaneous use of the
wireless medium is permissible or not. A
station is allowed to consider the wireless
medium as idle and start a new
transmission even if the detected signal
level from a neighboring network exceeds
legacy signal detection threshold, provided
that the transmit power for the new
transmission is appropriately decreased.
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In dense deployment scenarios, NAV value

set by a frame originated from one network
may be easily reset by a frame originated
from another network, which leads to
misbehavior and collisions. To avoid this,
NAV Single NAV Two NAVs each 802.11ax station will maintain two
separate NAVs — one NAV is modified by
frames originated from a network the
station is associated with, the other NAV is
modified by frames originated from
overlapped networks.
TWT is a concept developed in 802.11ah.
It allows devices to wake up at other
periods than the beacon transmission
TWT reduces power
Target Wake Time period. Furthermore, the AP may group
Not available consumption and medium
(TWT) device to different TWT period thereby
access contention.
reducing the number of devices
contending simultaneously for the wireless
medium.
With static fragmentation all fragments of a
data packet are of equal size except for
the last fragment. With dynamic
fragmentation a device may fill available
Fragmentation Static fragmentation Dynamic fragmentation
RUs of other opportunities to transmit up
to the available maximum duration. Thus,
dynamic fragmentation helps reduce
overhead.
Extended guard interval durations allow for
Guard better protection against signal delay
0.4 µs or 0.8 µs 0.8 µs, 1.6 µs or 3.2 µs
interval duration spread as it occurs in outdoor
environments.
Since the subcarrier spacing is reduced by
a factor of four, the OFDM symbol duration
Symbol duration 3.2 µs 12.8 µs is increased by a factor of four as well.
Extended symbol durations allow for
increased efficiency.[12]

Notes
a. Throughput-per-area, as defined by IEEE, is the ratio of the total network throughput to the
network area.[6]

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