Today, June 20th, is World WiFi Day, celebrating the wireless technology through which devices like computers, mobile devices, and other equipment can interact with the internet.
To understand the advent of WiFi, we have to go back to 1942, when Hedy Lamarr, an inventor and Hollywood star, developed a secret communication system along with composer George Antheil. This system modulated signals in a spread spectrum, based on frequency-hopping technology, which is considered a precursor to wireless systems.
WiFi as we know it wasn’t created until September 1999 when the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA) was formed by six companies, now known as the WiFi Alliance, with the aim of promoting a generic way of establishing data connections between devices using radio frequency.
In 2007, dual-band routers were created, containing two types of wireless radios that could simultaneously support connections on 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz links. By 2013, the number of hotspots worldwide had exceeded 5 million, and by 2017, WiFi devices had reached 20 million.
In 2019, WiFi 6 was launched, allowing for faster connectivity and links between technologies with speeds almost 300% higher than WiFi 5. WiFi 6 helps mitigate overload problems with the number of connected devices. WiFi 6 routers can also communicate with more devices simultaneously, enabling them to send data to multiple devices in the same transmission.
Currently, WiFi performance continues to improve and has solidified as one of the most common wireless communication technologies in our daily lives. It has also allowed consumer electronics and computing devices to interconnect and exchange information.
For example, NexTReT created the Witch Monitor solution, which monitors WiFi experience and evaluates the quality of the network service offered to end users in real time through independent devices.
If you want to learn more about this solution that ensures the WiFi services offered are of optimal quality, feel free to visit the Witch Monitor website or ask us for more information.