Serhat Erkucuk
Manager, Senior Staff Engineer

Mrugen Deshmukh
Senior Engineer

Javier Perez-Ramirez
Staff Engineer

Overview

Every few months, engineers from companies across the wireless industry gather at IEEE 802.11 meetings to develop the technical specifications that become Wi-Fi. The January 2026 interim session in Victoria covered three major initiatives at very different stages. Wi-Fi 8 is refining its specification toward a 2028 release. Integrated mmWave is working through early architectural decisions. And Wi-Fi 9 just officially started. This readout covers what happened—and what it means for the road ahead.

Wi-Fi 8: Comment Resolution Continues

The Wi-Fi 8 task group (officially called 802.11bn, with the marketing name Ultra High Reliability) held eleven sessions over the week, working through the extensive comments received on Draft 1.0 during Letter Ballot 291. By the end of the meeting, the group had resolved approximately 740 comments and approved generation of Draft 1.3.

Unlike previous Wi-Fi generations that focused primarily on increasing peak speeds, Wi-Fi 8 targets reliability improvements, including higher throughput in challenging signal conditions, lower worst-case latency, and fewer dropped packets when moving between access points. The core features were locked in during 2025; the current work involves resolving the detailed technical questions that arise when implementing complex specifications.

What Got Resolved

The January sessions tackled comments across both the physical layer (PHY) and the media access control layer (MAC)—the two fundamental layers that define how Wi-Fi radios transmit signals and how devices coordinate access to the shared wireless medium.

On the PHY side, the group focused largely on resolving Letter Ballot comments tied to several headline Wi-Fi 8 (802.11bn/UHR) mechanisms—rather than introducing new features. For Coordinated Spatial Reuse (Co-SR), discussions converged on tightening the spec language around coordinated simultaneous transmissions between neighboring access points, including how to relate per-subcarrier power (power on individual tones) to total transmit power. Clarifying this relationship is important for consistent implementation and for delivering Co-SR’s promised gains without creating unintended interference.

The PHY sessions also worked through comment-driven refinements for Distributed Resource Units (DRUs), Enhanced Long Range (ELR), and UHR-SIG signaling. For DRUs, the group addressed edge cases for 20 MHz-only devices operating in wider channels that may be punctured/partially blocked, aiming to ensure predictable behavior and interoperability. For ELR, commenters prompted clarifications around preamble requirements and timing coordination when using more robust modes (including repetition) to extend coverage for IoT and edge devices. Finally, multiple resolutions targeted UHR-SIG to better distinguish signaling needs across coordination modes—especially the differences between Coordinated Beamforming (antenna pattern alignment) and Co-SR (power management)—so devices can interpret transmission parameters correctly across both scenarios.

On the MAC side, the sessions started with the MAC Ad Hoc before the Interim session. Together with the Ad Hoc, there were 17 MAC sessions in total. The MAC sessions mainly covered different topics including multi-user operation procedures (how an access point coordinates simultaneous transmissions to multiple devices), security mechanisms for multi-AP coordination, roaming improvements (reducing disruption when devices move between access points), non-primary channel access (NPCA) procedures (allowing a device to communicate on a non-primary channel when the primary channel is busy), dynamic subband operation (enabling an AP to utilize its additional bandwidth in a dynamic manner on a per-TXOP basis) and the prioritized channel access system that allows time-sensitive traffic like video calls to preempt less urgent transmissions.

During the resolution of the comments on the above topics, some comments were pointing out to problems that had straightforward resolutions. The resolutions to these comments were agreed unanimously. On the other hand, there were some other comments that did not have an unanimous agreement. Among them included the problem of some stations trying to access the NPCA channel with a disadvantage due to the stations having longer switching delays. While the problem in the comment was recognized unanimously by the researchers, there were different proposals to this problem and an agreement could not be reached. For this problem and similarly for many others on different topics, there will be further discussions to reach a common resolution at the following IEEE telcos or meetings.

Timeline Remains on Track

The standard remains firmly on schedule for May 2028 ratification. Draft 2.0 is targeted for May 2026, following a MAC ad-hoc meeting in San Diego from March 4-6 and the IEEE 802 plenary in Vancouver from March 8-13. A second MAC ad-hoc will take place in Europe in early May, just before the IEEE 802 interim in Antwerp where Draft 2.0 is targeted for Letter Ballot.

Early Wi-Fi 8 products based on draft specifications are expected to appear in late 2026, following the pattern established by previous generations. Chipset vendors are already preparing for commercial launch ahead of final ratification.

Integrated mmWave: The Architecture Debate

The Integrated mmWave group (802.11bq) is developing a way to integrate 60 GHz millimeter-wave spectrum into Wi-Fi. While mmWave frequencies offer enormous bandwidth and multi-gigabit speeds, the signals have a short range and are easily blocked by physical obstacles.

To solve this, the group’s approach pairs mmWave with traditional sub-7 GHz Wi-Fi, using the more reliable, longer-range signal to coordinate when and how devices utilize the high-speed mmWave link. However, a fundamental architectural question regarding how much independence these mmWave links should have has revealed a split in the industry.

Architectural Dispute: Prohibiting vs. Allowing 60 GHz Beacons

In Wi-Fi, access points periodically broadcast beacon frames. These are short announcements that advertise a network’s presence, capabilities, and timing information, allowing phones to discover available connections and stay synchronized.

A major point of contention during the January 2026 interim session in Victoria is whether mmWave access points (IMMW APs) should be prohibited from transmitting beacon frames on the 60 GHz link in the 802.11bq specification.

• The Argument for Prohibiting Beacons: This approach views mmWave as a pure “speed boost” that is entirely dependent on regular Wi-Fi. By handling discovery and timing through the sub-7 GHz link, devices only activate the mmWave link for data transfer. This would reduce hardware complexity, lower power consumption, and accelerate time-to-market.
• The Argument for Allowing Beacons: This approach favors more capable mmWave links that can announce their own presence. This would allow devices to discover and connect to mmWave networks more independently, potentially enabling advanced use cases that a dependent architecture cannot support.

Currently, there is no agreement to prohibit mmWave beacons. The door remains open for mmWave links to have their own standalone beacon capability.

Why the Architecture Matters

The debate over beacons reflects a broader disagreement about the future of 802.11bq. The choice affects several critical factors:

• Device Complexity: Standalone capability requires more sophisticated hardware.
• Power Consumption: Frequent beaconing can drain battery life.
• Market Viability: This debate carries echoes of WiGig (802.11ad/ay), a previous 60 GHz effort that struggled with mainstream adoption because standalone operation proved too difficult without a traditional Wi-Fi fallback.

Technical Milestones Reached

Despite the ongoing debate over beacons, the task group has reached a consensus on several foundational technical parameters:

Feature	Specification	Purpose
Guard Intervals	50 ns and 100 ns	Prevents interference from signal reflections; optimized for mmWave propagation.
Packet Formats	Data & Channel Sounding	Optimized for high-speed transfer and antenna configuration measurements.
Scheduling	Via sub-7 GHz link	Establishes that the traditional Wi-Fi band will manage mmWave traffic timing.

Traditional Wi-Fi uses guard intervals between 800 and 3200 nanoseconds; the significantly shorter intervals chosen for 802.11bq reflect the unique characteristics of high-frequency spectrum.

Looking Ahead

The 802.11bq task group is moving into a more intensive phase of development. Contributions are shifting from high-level concepts to detailed PHY (Physical Layer) and MAC (Media Access Control) specifications.

The beacon question is expected to be a central topic at upcoming plenary meetings. The resolution will ultimately determine if Integrated mmWave becomes a simple acceleration feature or a more robust, independent wireless tier.

Wi-Fi 9: The Starting Gun

Perhaps the most forward-looking development of the week happened during the Wireless Next Generation (WNG) Standing Committee sessions, where discussions about Wi-Fi 9 officially began. The WNG Standing Committee is where IEEE 802.11 explores potential future directions before committing to formal standardization.

The WNG held three sessions where next generation Wi-Fi use cases were introduced and discussed by several companies.

The timeline follows the established pattern for major Wi-Fi generations. A Study Group—expected to form by mid-2026—would formally investigate requirements and feasibility. If successful, it would lead to a Task Group that develops the actual specification. Formal standardization could begin in 2027, potentially leading to Wi-Fi 9 products in the early 2030s.

AI as a Topic of Interest

One theme that came up in the Wi-Fi 9 discussions was artificial intelligence (AI), where it may be one of the enablers of Wi-Fi 9.

The interest in AI reflects specific technical opportunities. Today’s Wi-Fi devices make decisions based on relatively simple rules and measurements, such as which channel looks least congested, which access point has the strongest signal, and when to roam to a different network. AI and machine learning could make these decisions smarter—predicting interference before it happens, optimizing transmission parameters based on learned patterns, making roaming decisions that account for where a user is likely to move next.

The AIML Standing Committee has been monitoring AI and machine learning concepts for potential standardization, reviewing contributions on AI-assisted roaming and multi-link operation since May 2024. Whether these capabilities belong in the standard itself (ensuring interoperability) or in proprietary implementations above it (allowing differentiation) remains an open question—one the Study Group will need to address.

For now, Wi-Fi 9 exists as a set of use cases and early discussions. But the official triggering of these conversations marks a milestone as the industry is already looking beyond Wi-Fi 8.

Signals to Watch Going Forward

The MAC ad-hoc meets in San Diego from March 4-6, followed immediately by the full IEEE 802 plenary in Vancouver from March 8-13. These sessions will determine whether the Integrated mmWave beacon debate resurfaces or moves toward resolution. For Wi-Fi 8, the focus remains on comment resolution, with Draft 2.0 targeted for May 2026.

Timeline	Wi-Fi 8 (802.11bn)	Integrated mmWave / Wi-Fi 9
2026	D2.0 (May), D3.0 (Jan 2027)	Architecture debates; Wi-Fi 9 Study Group forms
2027	Sponsor Ballot (D4.0)	Wi-Fi 9 standardization begins
2028	Final ratification (May)	Integrated mmWave targeting completion
2030s	Mature deployments	Wi-Fi 9 products emerge

The Bottom Line for Practitioners

Wi-Fi 8 is on track. Draft 1.3 approved, approximately 740 comments resolved, May 2028 ratification target holding. The standard is in the refinement phase, working through the detailed technical questions that arise when specifying complex features like multi-AP coordination and enhanced long range operation.

Integrated mmWave hit a fundamental disagreement. Integrated mmWave has reached a fundamental architectural disagreement as the industry remains divided over whether the technology should function purely as an acceleration mode coordinated by traditional Wi-Fi or as a system with more standalone capability. Because a proposal to prohibit mmWave beacons did not pass, the option to include them remains open, leaving the level of independence for 60 GHz links as a central point of contention. This ongoing debate over the autonomy of Integrated mmWave will continue to shape product planning and IP strategy through 2026.

Wi-Fi 9 is real. The Wireless Next Generation committee held substantive discussions, with a Study Group likely forming by mid-year. AI was discussed as a potential area of interest, with possible applications ranging from channel optimization to predictive roaming.