802.11

WIRELESS LOCAL AREA NETWORKS

The Working Group for WLAN Standards

Upcoming sessions

2026 March IEEE 802 Plenary Session March 8–13, 2026 Hyatt Regency Vancouver Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Register to attend (in-person or remote)

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

Recent ballots and comment collections

ID Type Stage Project Draft Open Close Status
LB293 WG Ballot Recirc P802.11bi D4.0 2026-01-21 2026-02-05 Open: Instructions
LB294 WG Ballot Recirc P802.11REVmf D2.0 Opens soon
Close is at 23:59 ET on the date indicated.

Recent activities

At the 2026 January interim session, 802.11 made progress in the following areas:

  • TGbi (Enhanced Privacy Protection) completed comment resolution on D3.0 and will start a WG recirc ballot D4.0 shortly. This is expected to be the last WG ballot before moving to SA ballot.
  • TGmf (Maintenance revision) completed comment resolution on D1.0 and will start a WG recirc ballot on D2.0 shortly. All the published amendments to IEEE Std 802.11-2024 have now been rolled in.
  • TGbn (Ultra-High Reliability, aka Wi-Fi 8) has resolved around 740 comments from the ballot on D1.0. Comment resolution is expected to complete in May 2026.
  • TGbp (Ambient Power Communications) are preparing a D0.3 from the consensus to date. Initial working group ballot on D1.0 expected in May 2026.
  • TGbq (Integrated mmWave) continues to review technical contributions.
  • TGbr (Enhanced Light Communications) reached consensus on channelization.
  • TGbt (Post-Quantum Cryptography) adopted text for the initial draft in a number of areas (proof or work, support for CSA2.0, OWE). The group's goal is to approve a draft for initial working group ballot at the March 2026 session.
  • The AUTO TIG is wrapping up their report on the automotive use of Wi-Fi and expected to present this report at the March 2026 session.
  • There were numerous presentation on the next generation of Wi-Fi during the Wireless Next Generation (WNG) standing committee (SC) meetings.

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 802.11bf™-2025 was published on September 26, 2025.

IEEE Std 802.11bk™-2025 was published on September 5, 2025.

IEEE Std 802.11be™-2024 was published on July 22, 2025.

IEEE Std 802.11bh™-2024 was published on June 3, 2025.

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.

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.