We use it every day at home, at work, public transport, shops, libraries, etc. We are so used to using it that we hardly notice it … until it fails.
Wifi is part of our lives, just like electricity or running water. But we often forget that it was just over 20 years ago that this technology came into our lives to stay.
Can you imagine a day without Wifi?
It would probably start off on the wrong foot, because your smart alarm clock wouldn’t go off; Alexa, Siri, or the Google Assistant wouldn’t say good morning to you; the lights of your home automation would be dark; and your smart thermostat would not turn on the heat, to warm the house.
While you have breakfast, you could not listen to your favorite podcast or program your washing machine or any other connected appliance to be able to get your housework done. And, when it comes to going to work or studying, things would not improve either.
In addition to not being able to check the weather or traffic forecast, once you enter the subway or a tunnel, You could not listen to streaming music, read online press or check your social networks.
And, when you arrive at your work or study center, the tangle of network cables connecting all the computers, to make up for the lack of wireless connectivity, would make it really difficult to take a step without tripping.
Back home, forget about watching your favorite series on Netflix, playing the PlayStation or the computer or relaxing listening to music on your speaker without cables. Not to mention placing an order on Amazon sitting comfortably on the couch with the tablet, or having a video call with your family or friends.
Yes, life without Wifi would be very boring. It is true that data connections such as 4G or 5G can supply many of its functions.
But, considering that According to Cisco, Wi-Fi traffic is three times higher than that of mobile data, if we had to rely solely on mobile Internet, surfing the Net would be much slower due to the saturation of mobile networks.
And, on the other hand, it would be practically impossible to have a quality connection within buildings.
However it was not always so. There was a time when you needed cables to navigate. But long before, someone had already thought that radio waves could be used for more things.
IEEE 802.11 or Wifi protocol for friends
The idea of using radio waves to transmit data packets dates back to World War II, when actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr patented a secret radio wave communications technology, designed to prevent the interception of submarines.
However, being too advanced for its time, the proposal was rejected by the armies of the allied powers.
It was not until the 70s when the development of electronics allowed the creation of a system to be able to transmit digital information packages at a distance, using radio waves.
Developed by the University of Hawaii, this protocol called ALOHAnet it was first used in 1971 to wirelessly link computer networks on university campuses on the islands of the Hawaiian archipelago.
Technology continued to evolve and, in the early 1990s, the companies NCR Corporation and AT&T Corporation invented the WaveLAN technology, the most direct precursor to Wi-Fi, for use in ATMs.
A few years later, in 1997, the IEEE 802.11 telecommunications protocol would be born, which allowed data to be transmitted between devices at a speed of … just 2 Mbps!
Tech makers saw potential in the invention, but they soon ran into a problem: The IEEE 802.11 name was too dry for consumers.
So they hired a company specializing in branding to give it a more attractive name. The winning proposal was ‘Wifi’, an abbreviation of the trademark Wireless Fidelity, which in English means ‘fidelity without cables or wireless’.
The new technology was introduced to the world by the newly constituted Wi-Fi Alliance in 1999. In this way, Wifi was born as we know it today.
That same year, Apple was the first major computer manufacturer to incorporate Wi-Fi technology into its products, under the name AirPort.
In one of his most memorable keynotes, Steve Jobs himself praised the virtues of the Wi-Fi connection at the MacWorld event that year.
To do this, he taught how to surf the Internet without cables from an iBook … while passing a hula-hoop around the laptop, thus demonstrating that he was using a wireless connection, without tricks.
Faster, further and also safer
It soon became clear that the speed of the IEEE 802.11 standard was too slow for everything we wanted to do wirelessly.
So that New generations of Wi-Fi began to follow each other faster and with greater reach: IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11c… In turn, each new generation incorporated new security measures, to protect transmissions.
In the early 2000s, Wi-Fi access points began to be present in public places such as airports, stations, convention centers, etc. Wifi was also beginning to penetrate homes and offices with the arrival of the first wireless routers.
For example, the pioneer FRITZ! Box Fon WLAN, introduced by the German company AVM in 2004. At last it was possible to navigate anywhere without having to rely on cables!
As its use became widespread, there were growing concerns regarding the security of Wi-Fi networks. The first IEEE 802.11 standard already included the WEP encryption protocol, which allowed you to use a key to encrypt information transmitted over the wireless network.
However, at the beginning the most common thing was to leave the networks unprotected to facilitate the connection, and why not all devices were compliant with the WEP standard (which was also relatively easy to hack).
Over the years, it was found that open or poorly protected networks were vulnerable to all kinds of risks: from neighbors who connected without permission to cybercriminals who stole data by entering other people’s wireless networks.
For this reason, in 2003, the WPA standard (acronym in English for ‘protected Wifi access’) was introduced, a security protocol that requires authentication and encryption to connect to the network (later it was changed to WPA2 and now the latest version, WPA3).
Other improvements introduced in recent years in Wi-Fi technology are the two frequency bands (2.4 and 5 GHz), which make it possible to improve the range of wireless networks; beamforming, which points the signal emitted by the antennas to where the connected devices are located, in order to achieve a higher speed; the Wifi Mesh system to create networks combining several wireless access points, in order to have coverage in any corner of the house or office; or MU-MIMO technology, which allows multiple devices to connect to the router at the same time, without slowing down.
Wifi everywhere, even in space!
Today, there are more than 16 billion Wi-Fi certified devices worldwide, according to the Wi-Fi Alliance.
From computers, phones and tablets with Wi-Fi, we have also started to connect game consoles, televisions, speakers, music players, electrical appliances, home automation systems, etc.
And the number will not stop growing in the coming years thanks to the Internet of Things (IoT), which promises raise the number of devices connected to the Internet above 30,000 million, from sensors for data collection to vehicles, machinery, drones, etc.
The connection infrastructure has not stopped developing either. There are millions of public Wi-Fi hotspots around the world.
In many places, they represent the only way that the population can connect to the Internet, in order to access services such as education or health. There are even projects to bring Wi-Fi technology into space.
For example, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) it is testing its use to automate autonomous docking between spacecraft and modules in orbit, facilitating future missions to the Moon and Mars.
But, undoubtedly, future applications of this connection technology will go through the improvements incorporated by the next generations of the IEEE 802.11 wireless standard.
Currently, Wifi 6 is being implemented, the sixth generation of this protocol, which in addition to greater security, also offers more speed and less interference.
For instance, The FRITZ! Box 6660 Cable incorporates Wifi 6 with astonishing speeds of up to … 2,400 + 600 Mbps! At the same time, work is already underway on Wifi 7, a new twist on wireless networks that promises many interesting new features.
To get started, up to 30 Gbps theoretical maximum speed (thirty times more than 5G) and a new 6 GHz band that will allow you to connect even more devices to the same access point.
More than 20 years have passed since we began to discover the feeling of freedom that comes with connecting to the Internet without having to rely on a cable.
Currently, Wi-Fi technology is part of our lives, to a point where it would be hard to imagine a day without the comforts it offers us. And everything seems to indicate that, despite having two decades of existence behind it, there is Wifi for a while.