Wi-Fi Organizations and terms

The Wi-Fi Alliance

Wi-Fi does not mean "Wireless Fidelity", although it was coined to take advantage of its similarity to "Hi-Fi." It is a pure marketing term, and the trademark is owned by the Wi-Fi Alliance (https://www.wi-fi.org). The Wi-Fi Alliance is a non-profit industry organization whose primary purpose is to ensure interoperability of Wi-Fi products. There are a number of certifications, but the essence is that a Wi-Fi certified device will work with any other certified device regardless of vendor. Fortinet is a member of the Wi-Fi Alliance and our products are certified.

Recently, the Wi-Fi Alliance simplified the generational names of Wi-Fi standards. Previously, Wi-Fi generations had been labeled only with the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) technical standards, or the letter portion of the amendment—i.e., 802.11n, 802.11ac, 802.11ax. the alliance has renamed these to "Wi-Fi 4, Wi-Fi 5, and Wi-Fi 6," respectively. Wi-Fi 6E will soon add more channels to Wi-Fi 6, and Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) is in development. Generally, every generation of Wi-Fi is required to be backwards compatible with previous generations.

Regulatory agencies like the FCC in the US set the rules for what channels and the allowed transmit power for Wi-Fi. There is no technological reason for the channels used; they are chosen for regulatory reasons. Radio and TV stations and mobile phones license the spectrum (channels) they use from governments, but Wi-Fi occupies unlicensed spectrum. Unlicensed spectrum can be used by anyone and any technology so long as the transmit power is below the legal threshold and other regulations are obeyed.

Country code is a FortiGate setting that aligns the AP radio settings with a country's regulations. By default, FortiGates are set to US. The Country Code can be changed in the CLI.