802.11

WIRELESS LOCAL AREA NETWORKS

The Working Group for WLAN Standards

Upcoming sessions

2026 September IEEE 802W Interim Session September 13–18, 2026 Hilton Waikoloa Village Waikoloa, Hawaii, USA Register to attend (in-person or remote)

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

Current and recent ballots and comment collections

ID Type Stage Project Draft Open Close Status
P802.11bi-R2 SA Ballot Recirculation P802.11bi D6.0 Soon
LBn WG ballot Recirculation P802.11REVmf D3.0 Soon
LBn WG ballot Initial P802.11bn D2.0 Soon
LBn WG ballot Initial P802.11bt D1.0 Soon
For WG ballots, close is at 23:59 ET on the date indicated.

Recent activities

At the July 2026 plenary session:

  • The working group and the 802 LMSC approved the formation of a WLAN Intelligent Networking (WIN) study group (SG). The WIN SG will develop a project authorization request (PAR) and criteria for standards development (CSD) for a project that should form the basis for Wi-Fi 9. 802.11 has moved to more of a release focus with some parallelism in its major projects. This new project starts as the older project (UHR) matures, so that we achieve a regular cadence of releases.
  • TGmf (Maintenance revision): Completed comment resolution on D2.0. A WG recirc ballot on D3.0 will start shortly.
  • TGbi (Enhanced Privacy Protection): Completed comment resolution for SA recirc ballot on D5.0. Another SA recirc ballot on D6.0 will start soon.
  • TGbn (Ultra High Reliability, aka Wi-Fi 8): Completed comment resolution on D1.0 with over 7000 comments resolved. The group will start another WG initial ballot on D2.0 shortly.
  • TGbp (Ambient Power Communications): Continues to improve their draft with an initial working group ballot on D1.0 now expected September 2026.
  • TGbt (Post-Quantum Cryptography): Approved initial draft D1.0 and will start WG initial ballot soon.
  • TGbq (Integrated mmWave): Continues to review technical contributions.
  • AI Offload SG: PAR and CSD approved by the working group. 802 review and approval expected in November. In the mean time, the group will review technical contributions.

A more detailed report is available here.

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.

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.

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.