Why Wi-Fi is called so ?

May be you are accessing this page from your Wi-Fi  enabled device . But why your wireless connection is known by a fancy name – WiFi ? 

Background story

back in 1980 , February an IEEE  committee was formed to define the standards of networking .  That committee named  them self as 802 -sub committee  reminding us the year and month   of their formation .

The 802 sub committee defined  the standards for Wired Ethernet as  802.3 and later on modified it with 802.2 specs.

in the late 80’s and early 90’s the standards for wirless Ethernet standards were evolved and  known as 802.11 standards . So that means your typical wireless network must be called a 802.11 network.

But  why the Wi-Fi  ? 

The term wi-fi is not a technical term . It is expanded as as wireless fidelity , just like we use the term hi-fi to denote the high  fidelity music systems .

actually wi-fi is a  certification process for wireless inter-operability  conducted by a consortium named  wi-fi alliance for your 802.11 compatible devices .

It  means not all your 802.11 wirless equipment are wi-fi certified and hence can not be  officially called  a wi-fi device . This kind of a certification process came in to the field because the IEEE does not test any of these wireless products to find  if they meet IEEE specifications.  I personally think that IEEE has a real lousy approch towards their wireless standards in general and did not even care about the security aspects of the same.

Even though the wi-fi alliance claim themselves  to be non-profit consortium , they charge a hell of an amount for the certification process  so not every organization will apply for the wi-fi certified status for their products .

But now the term wi-fi become an alias name for the wirless networking so do not worry about calling your non- wifi certified  networking product as a wi-fi device