802.11

WIRELESS LOCAL AREA NETWORKS

The Working Group for WLAN Standards


Upcoming sessions

2025 July IEEE 802 Plenary Session July 27 - August 1, 2025 Melia Castilla Madrid Madrid, Spain Register to attend (in-person or remote)

The meetings between now and the upcoming session will be held by teleconference.

Working group ballots and comment collections

None at present.

IEEE SA ballots

None at present.

Recent activities

A summary of our work at the May 11-16, 2025 interim session in Warsaw, Poland is as follows:

  • The Post-Quantum Computing (PQC) study group produced and the working group approved a draft P802.11bt project authorization request (PAR). The P802.11bt PAR will be forwarded to the 802 LMSC for review and approval. This project will upgrade 802.11 security to make it quantum-resistant; secure against quantum computer-based attacks.
  • The bulk of the activity this week was in TGbn (Ultra-High Reliability) as they prepare their initial draft. They were not able to complete that work this week, but are expected to do so coming out of the July session.
  • TGbi (Enhanced Privacy) continued resolving comments from its initial WG ballot on D1.0.
  • TGbp (Ambient Power Communications) have started developing their initial draft. They expect to have an early draft D0.1 ready coming out of the July session.
  • TGmf (producing the maintenance revision, REVmf) are producing an initial draft from the published IEEE Std 802.11-2024, IEEE Std 802.11bh-2024 and IEEE Std 802.11be-2024 plus some additional changes. An initial working group ballot was approved for this draft that is expected to complete before the July session.
  • TGbr (Enhanced Light Communications) was formed with the approval of the P802.11br PAR and began their work this week.

A more detailed report is available here.

802.11 members Jerome Henry, Brian Hart, Binita Gupta and Malcolm Smith have written a detailed guide to IEEE Std 802.11be-2024, known in the industry as Wi-Fi 7.

Recent standards approvals

IEEE Std 802.11be™-2024 was approved on September 26, 2024. Publication expected soon.

IEEE Std 802.11bh™-2024 was approved on September 26, 2024. Publication expected soon.

IEEE Std 802.11™-2024 was published on April 28, 2025.

"Click Here" for IEEE 802 Free Standards

The IEEE has made available IEEE 802 standards for free download. Under this program, a standard may be downloaded for free six months after the initial publication of the standard. All relevant IEEE 802.11 Standard, Amendments, and Recommended Practices are listed.

Liaison statements and external communications

Recent liaison statements and communications are available here.

Access to 802.11 draft standards

Draft standards are available from a number of sources:

  • If you are a voting 802.11 member, go to the members' area and log in using the 802.11 members ID and password supplied to you by the 802.11 officers.  Contact Robert Stacey if you have lost this. During an 802.11 session, attendees may access 802.11 draft standards from a local fileserver, regardless of their membership status.
  • If you are an active member of one of the other 802 groups, you may be able to access the 802.11 members' area using the same credentials used to access your own group. If this doesn't work, ask your group's Chair to request access from the 802.11 Chair (Robert Stacey).
  • Draft IEEE standards are, from time to time, made available for purchase using the IEEE store or Techstreet.

IEEE standards development guide

The IEEE-SA has created an easy to use Online Standards Development web site that has a wealth of information that details the whole standards process flow, from creation of the initial PAR, to balloting to final draft, and beyond. It even includes, tutorials, and online forms of the various processes evolved. This site is recommended for all Members and Chairs involved.

Upcoming meetings

A google calendar (embedded below) is maintained for 802.11 meetings.

You can import the calendar as an iCal file, or use the "Add to Google Calendar" at the bottom right of the calendar below.

The 802 calendar, which contains the 802 meetings and also rolls up the working group calendars, is available here.