You’ve more than likely seen Wi-Fi Alliance seals emblazoned on a number of devices, but what are they, and what do they mean? These seals represent Wi-Fi certifications, set by the Wi-Fi Alliance®, a worldwide network of companies with the common objective of driving the best user experience for Wi-Fi, regardless of brand. 

Wi-Fi certifications prove that products have undergone rigorous reviews and testing to meet industry-agreed standards, including product interoperability and security. Founded at the turn of the century, the Wi-Fi Alliance’s certification programs have since become an internationally recognised mark of approval. 

The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6™ certification program is based on the IEEE 802.11ax standard, which expands on Wi-Fi’s core strengths allowing for the delivery of greater capacity, efficiency, coverage and performance. Products carrying the certification are guaranteed to support new Wi-Fi 6 technologies like orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) and multi-user, multiple input, multiple output (MU-MIMO), and the latest generation of Wi-Fi security, WPA3™. Not to mention 160-megahertz channels to increase bandwidth, Target Wake Time, 1024 quadrature amplitude modulation (1024 QAM), and transmit beamforming.

In addition, the Wi-Fi 6 certification allows for interoperability and backward compatibility with Wi-Fi devices, including both Wi-Fi 6 and previous generations. This is especially relevant as the number of connected devices is projected to increase to 43 billion by 2023, according to Gartner. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6™ would allow the growing number of devices to work together better, resulting in a better user experience and a wider variety of devices to connect to the wireless network.

The key advantage of the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6™ certification program is to guarantee certified devices support all the latest Wi-Fi 6 technologies as specified in the 802.11ax standard. These include:

• Guarantees the increased speed and advanced Wi-Fi 6 capabilities including OFDMA and MU-MIMO for high network efficiency and capacity 
• Provides enhanced security capabilities with WPA3™ 
• Support the preservation devices’ battery life using Target Wake Time
• Enables faster information transfer and fewer errors with Transmit beamforming 
• Enhanced throughput with 1024 quadrature amplitude modulation (1024 QAM) 
• Guarantees interoperability and backward compatibility of Wi-Fi devices, both Wi-Fi 6 and previous generations, thus ensuring a better user experience and fewer support calls

At D-Link, we design and build products to meet the highest of industry standards. We’re proud that all of our enterprise Wi-Fi 6 access points, including Nuclias Cloud, Nuclias Connect and Unified Wireless, are either Wi-Fi Alliance Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6™ or in the process of being certified. To find out more information about our Wi-Fi 6 access points, visit this page: https://eu.dlink.com/uk/en/for-business/wireless