The Complete History of Wi-Fi

In modern times, Wi-Fi has become one of the most important aspects of technology in our daily life. Through our home’s Wi-Fi connection, we are able to talk to our friends or loved ones if faraway places, we can easily search articles or posts that will help us get good grades on our homework, and we are also able to watch movies or TV series episodes without the need to get cable TV. Some home appliances can even be connected to the Wi-Fi as well, like refrigerators and even washing machines, and they would often have wireless features that allow the appliances to perform tasks without the need for you to press a button.

The Wi-Fi has changed how we do things in life, but not a lot of people know exactly when and where Wi-Fi first appeared. In order for us to truly appreciate the benefits that the Wi-Fi has brought to use, we must know its humble beginnings and quick rise in popularity, from being just a small network on an island to one of the biggest families of networking technologies in the world. Understanding the history of Wi-Fi will help understand the history of the G mobile generation.

ALOHAnet and the Ethernet

It is believed that the idea of connecting multiple devices in one network on a wider scale came to be in June 1971, when the University of Hawaii launched the ALOHAnet, serving as the first public demonstration of the UHF (ultra-high frequency) wireless packet network.

The ALOHAnet system would later be cited as the basis for the creation of the Ethernet, which is a family of computer networking technologies created at Xerox PARC between 1973 and 1974. Inspired by the capabilities of the ALOHAnet, Robert Metcalfe tried to create his version of the system after studying and demonstrating its intricacies in his Ph.D. dissertation.

Metcalfe named his network as the Ethernet, which is derived from the term “luminiferous aether.” Xeros then filed a patent for the Ethernet in 1975, where they cited not only Metcalfe, but also Butler Lampson, David Boggs, and Chuck Thacker as the inventors. The Ethernet ran for only 2.94 Mbit/s at launch, but engineers and Xeros employees Ron Crane, Roy Ogus, Bob Garner, and Yogen Dalal upgrade its speed to 10 Mbit/s in 1980.

Vic Hayes and the IEEE 802.11

In 1997, following the success of the Ethernet, the committee known as IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) developed the Wi-Fi under the 802.11 family of standards. Like the Ethernet, it operated at a slow speed of 2 Mbit/s, but it was later improved to 11 Mbit/s in 1999 when the IEEE launched the 802.11b, an amendment to the first 802.11.

The fast speed of the 802.11b was made possible by Vic Hayes, the then-chairman of the IEEE 802.11, and is regarded as the “father of Wi-Fi.” Along with the 802.11b, Hayes and the IEEE also released the 802.11a, which is a faster connection that has a frequency of 5GHz, as opposed to the 802.11b’s 2.4GHz. However, since most devices during that time were only able to handle 2.4GHz of frequency, the 802.11b became much more popular than the 11a.

The year 1999 also saw the formation of the Wi-Fi trademark and the Wi-Fi Alliance, a non-profit organization that aims to promote Wi-Fi technology and set standards for companies who are planning to implement Wi-Fi connectivity in their system or devices. Companies that use Wi-Fi technology are encouraged to label their products with the Wi-Fi trademark if they have been certified to work with the technology.

Faster Internet Speeds

With about a million devices connecting to the Wi-Fi in the early 2000s, the IEEE committee was prompted to create an even faster connection than the 802.11a. Enter the 802.11g, a network standard released in 2003 that is supposed to keep up with high-speed home and business routers.

When popular online video games like World of Warcraft started demanding higher internet speeds to prevent lags and disconnections from happening, the IEEE launched the 802.11n, a protocol that uses a 2.4GHz frequency but is relatively faster than the 802.11g thanks to the utilization of MIMO (multi-input and multi-output that multiplies the capacity of the protocol. 

In order for the MIMO to work in the 802.11n, multiple antennas are needed to transmit and receive signals quicker without the need to increase the connection’s transmitting power and bandwidth.

The Internet of Things

With the Internet of Things, a system of interrelated devices able to connect to wireless networks, beginning to get bigger and bigger in the 2010s, the 2.4GHz protocols are starting to become overcrowded. 

Washing machines, air conditioners, vacuum cleaners, and other home appliances were able to connect to the Wi-Fi, but only through the 2.4GHz frequency. Unfortunately, most cellphones and desktop or laptop computers were connected to the same frequency, thus resulting in slower speeds because of too many devices connected to the network at once.

To remedy this problem, several tech companies created special routers that can connect to two types of frequencies, which are called the 2.4GHz and the 5GHz. For smartphones and computers, they would have to connect to the 5GHz for faster internet speeds, while other devices that use Wi-Fi would be connected to the 2.4 GHz frequency. Unfortunately, if your smart device is far away from the router, it is only able to connect to 2.4GHz since that frequency has a longer range.

Wi-Fi in the Future

The Wi-Fi continues to evolve as more and more electronics and devices are connecting to the network. The most recent protocol that IEEE released is the 802.11ax that launched in September 2019. The 802.11ax can connect to 6GHz, which is currently the fastest frequency available for home use.

The IEEE is also experimenting with frequencies that can go for up to 60GHz through the 802.11ad, a short-ranged protocol that engineers are still trying to enhance in 2020.