Standards

Networking Standards The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an association of professional electronic and electrical engineers responsible for many of the standards created in networking today. Founded in 1963, the organization has grown tremendously and has expanded into 160 countries.

The IEEE set out two sets of standards for networking: 802.3 for wired Ethernet networks and 802.11 for wireless networks. Over time, the standards have been changed and updated as technology has evolved. See the following two tables to view these changes.

IEEE Standards for Wired Ethernet Networks

802.3i 1990
  • 10BASE-T: 10 Mbps over UTP
802.3j 1993
  • Added fiber-optic cable options
802.3u 1995

  • Added 100 Mbps speed, also known as Fast Ethernet

  • Added auto-negotiation of speed (10 Mbps or 100 Mbps)

802.3x 1997
  • Full-duplex (bi-directional communication at the same time—a node could both send and receive traffic instead of one or the other, similar to the difference between a phone and a walkie-talkie)
802.3z 1998
  • 1000BASE-X: 1 Gbps over fiber-optic cables
802.3ab 1999
  • 1000BASE-T: 1 Gbps over UTP
802.3ae 2002
  • 10GBASE-X: 10 Gbps over fiber-optic cables
802.3af 2003
  • Power over Ethernet (PoE), the ability to power a low-power device, 15 watts or less, without plugging it into an electrical outlet, reducing cabling
802.3ak 2004
  • Added support for twinaxial cables, a type of coax with two wires in the cable instead of one; used in short connections (typically just a few meters, such as within a rack) as an inexpensive alternative to fiber-optic cabling
802.3an 2006
  • 10GBASE-T: 10 Gbps over UTP
802.3bm 2015
  • 40 and 100 Gbps over fiber-optic cables
802.3by 2016
  • 25 Gbps over fiber-optic and twinaxial cables
802.3bs 2017
  • 200 Gbps and 400 Gbps over fiber-optic cables
802.3bt 2018
  • Update to power over Ethernet (PoE) to support up to 100W devices   

IEEE Standards for Wireless Networks

802.11 1997
  • Provides 1 or 2 Mbps transmission in the 2.4 GHz band
  • Uses frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) (the signal hops between random frequencies to reach the destination)
  • Can also use direct-sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) (data is divided into smaller pieces before being sent with a higher bitrate)
802.11a 1999
  • Provides up to 54 Mbps in the 5 GHz band
802.11b 2000
  • Provides 11 Mbps in the 2.4 GHz band
  • Uses only direct-sequence spread spectrum (DSSS)
802.11g 2003
  • Used for transmission over short distances
  • Speeds up to 54 Mbps in the 2.4 GHz bands
802.11n 2007
  • Adds multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) (uses multiple signals on different frequencies to increase the range and bandwidth of wireless networks and forms directed beams toward each client, reducing the interference from other wireless devices nearby)
  • 4–5 times faster than 802.11g
802.11ac 2013
  • Delivers data rates of 433 Mbps per signal or 1.3 Gbps in a three-signal design
802.11ah 2017
  • The first Wi-Fi specification to operate in frequency bands below 1 GHz (900 MHz)
  • Nearly twice the range of other Wi-Fi technologies
  • Can penetrate walls and other barriers better than previous Wi-Fi standards
  • Much lower bandwidth (< 9 Mbps)
  • Designed for Internet of Things (IoT) devices and similar use cases with limited bandwidth needs over larger distances
802.11ax 2019
  • Update to 802.11ac
  • Rebranded to Wi-Fi 6
  • Adds support for 6 GHz frequency range
  • Support for approximately 1–10 Gbps

One quick note about the frequency used in wireless networking: as a general rule, the higher the frequency, the higher the bandwidth, but the shorter the distance it can travel. In addition, as 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands are generally unregulated (any device can use the range of frequencies), other devices may interfere with the signal, slowing down the effective communication rate. This is especially true of the 2.4 GHz range where many devices (microwaves, telephones, baby monitors, etc.) operate.

Also, the bandwidth numbers listed are the theoretical maximum values; they can negotiate to lower values based on the quality of the signal. There is also overhead not taken into account in those theoretical speeds; typically, around half of that value or so will be seen in the real world under good conditions.