The Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA--www.wi-fi.org) has announced that wireless LAN products based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 802.11a specification, which operates in the five gigahertz radio frequency band, has a new name - WiFi5.
WECA's chairman, David Cohen, says that only products that have passed WECA's interoperability testing are allowed to display the WiFi5 certification logo.
"We are announcing the Wi-Fi5 name at this point in time so that people can start using it in place of 802.11a," says Cohen. "The new logo will be announced after the first round of Wi-Fi5 products have successfully completed testing. This is expected to happen next year."
"It is also important to point out that until products are certified, Wi-Fi5 is only to be used as a descriptive term that does not, by itself, imply interoperability between products," adds Cohen.
WECA is a nonprofit organization formed in 1999 to certify interoperability of Wi-Fi (IEEE802.11b) and Wi-Fi5 (IEEE 802.11a) products and to promote them as the global, wireless LAN standards across all market segments.
