Skip to quick sheet

Arsenal / Wireless intel

Wi-Fi Standards Quick Sheet

From 11 Mbps to multi-gigabit: every 802.11 letter on one page.

Bands, top speeds, channel widths and headline features for 802.11a through Wi-Fi 7, the 2.4 vs 5 vs 6 GHz trade-offs, and wireless security from WEP to WPA3. Finish with a quiz that grades as you go.

01 / The standards

802.11 at a glance

StandardBandsMax theoretical rate1Channel widthsKey features

Wi-Fi Alliance generation names (Wi-Fi 4, 5, 6, 6E, 7) map to the IEEE amendments. Older standards (a/b/g) never received official generation numbers.

02 / Frequency bands

2.4 vs 5 vs 6 GHz

2.4 GHz

Longest range

  • Best wall and floor penetration; lower frequency travels farther.
  • Only three non-overlapping 20 MHz channels in North America: 1, 6, 11.3
  • Crowded: microwaves, Bluetooth, cordless phones and neighbors share it.
  • Used by 802.11b, g, n, ax and be.

5 GHz

Balanced

  • Many more channels: about two dozen 20 MHz channels in the US, so wider 40/80/160 MHz channels are practical.
  • Shorter range than 2.4 GHz; walls absorb more.
  • Some channels are DFS: the AP must move off if it detects radar.
  • Used by 802.11a, n, ac, ax and be.

6 GHz

Most capacity

  • Up to 1,200 MHz of clean spectrum in the US (5.925 to 7.125 GHz): 59 channels at 20 MHz, 7 at 160 MHz.6
  • Shortest range of the three.
  • No legacy devices, so no slow clients dragging the cell down.
  • WPA3 or Enhanced Open (OWE) required; WPA2 is not allowed.5
  • Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 only.

03 / Channel overlap

Why 1, 6 and 11?

2.4 GHz channel centers sit only 5 MHz apart, but each signal is about 22 MHz wide. Pick a channel to see which neighbors it bleeds into.

2.4 GHz channels 1 to 11 drawn as overlapping arcs

04 / Wireless security

WEP → WPA → WPA2 → WPA3

ProtocolEncryptionAuthenticationStatus
WEPRC4 stream cipher, 24-bit IV, 40- or 104-bit keyShared key (open or shared-key auth)Broken Repeating IVs let attackers recover the key in minutes.
WPATKIP (still RC4, per-packet keys, 48-bit IV, Michael MIC)Personal (PSK) or Enterprise (802.1X)Deprecated Interim fix that ran on WEP-era hardware.
WPA2AES-CCMP (128-bit AES in counter mode with CBC-MAC)Personal (PSK) or Enterprise (802.1X/EAP)Still common Captured PSK handshakes can be brute-forced offline.
WPA3AES-CCMP 128 (Personal); optional 192-bit mode with GCMP-256 (Enterprise)Personal uses SAE; Enterprise uses 802.1XCurrent SAE resists offline dictionary attacks and adds forward secrecy; PMF is mandatory.

TKIP vs AES-CCMP

  • TKIP wraps the old RC4 cipher with per-packet key mixing and a weak integrity check (Michael). It was a firmware patch, not a redesign.
  • CCMP uses AES, a block cipher, with CBC-MAC for integrity. It needed new hardware and is the WPA2 requirement.
  • If you see “WPA2-TKIP,” the network is using a legacy mixed mode. Pick AES/CCMP.

SAE and friends

  • SAE (Simultaneous Authentication of Equals, “Dragonfly”) replaces the WPA2 pre-shared key exchange. Guessing the password requires talking to the AP for every guess.
  • Forward secrecy: capturing traffic today and learning the password later does not decrypt the old traffic.
  • Enhanced Open (OWE) encrypts open guest networks without a password.
  • PMF (802.11w) protects management frames, blocking simple deauthentication attacks.

05 / Check yourself

Wi-Fi quiz

Each question grades the moment you pick an answer. The explanation follows.

Footnotes and sources

  1. Max rates are theoretical PHY rates with the widest channel, the highest modulation and the most spatial streams the standard allows: 802.11n 4 streams at 40 MHz; 802.11ac 8 streams at 160 MHz; 802.11ax 8 streams at 160 MHz. Real throughput is far lower, and real devices use fewer streams (Intel lists 2.4 Gbps for a typical 2×2, 160 MHz Wi-Fi 6 client).
  2. Wi-Fi 7's 46 Gbps figure assumes 16 spatial streams at 320 MHz with 4096-QAM; some vendors quote about 23 Gbps for 8 streams. The 46 Gbps value is the one commonly taught and cited.
  3. 1, 6 and 11 is the North American (FCC) answer for 2.4 GHz. Where channels 12 and 13 are allowed, 20 MHz OFDM networks can use 1, 5, 9 and 13. Channel 14 exists only in Japan for 802.11b.
  4. 802.11ac is 5 GHz only. A dual-band “AC” router runs 802.11n on its 2.4 GHz radio. 802.11ac also supports 80+80 MHz; 802.11ax supports 80+80 MHz too.
  5. Wi-Fi Alliance rules for 6 GHz allow only WPA3 (Personal with SAE, or Enterprise) and Enhanced Open (OWE), with Protected Management Frames required. WPA2, WPA/TKIP, WEP and plain open networks are not permitted on 6 GHz.
  6. US (FCC) values. Other regions open less of the band; the EU, for example, allows 5.945 to 6.425 GHz (500 MHz). 320 MHz channels are a Wi-Fi 7 feature and exist only in 6 GHz.

Sources checked October 2026: IEEE 802.11 amendment summaries; Intel “Different Wi-Fi Protocols and Data Rates” support article; Cisco WPA3 Deployment Guide and Wi-Fi 6E configuration notes; Juniper and HPE Aruba Wi-Fi 6E design guides; Wi-Fi Alliance Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 program overviews; Professor Messer Network+ 802.11 standards summary (common CompTIA teaching values).