As we recently passed the 1 year anniversary of the IEEE Standards Board’s final approval of IEEE 802.11ax in February 2021 I’ve been thinking about the rate of adoption — how many devices and networks are out there communicating via Wi-Fi’s newest standard? Personally I was very drawn to 802.11ax’s mandatory use of Management Frame Protection (MFP) and the forward secrecy provided by Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (SAE) and jumped at the chance to upgrade my home Access Point (AP) to take advantage of the standard’s new features. Has there been a big push by manufacturers to sell more secure and faster equipment to consumers? Have consumers, many of which have been spending more time at home and more time online, been looking at new tech to support their new lifestyles? I set out to learn more and try to answer these questions.

What can Wi-Fi Alliance data tell us?

IEEE 802.11ax is likely more common recognized as Wi-Fi 6: the marketing term promoted by the Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA) to refer to 6th generation 802.11 technology. If you aren’t familiar with Wi-Fi 6 and would like a quick primer, check out this helpful white paper from Cisco.

The WFA administers Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ programs that validate interoperability between Wi-Fi devices to ensure a project has “met industry-agreed standards for interoperability, security, and a range of application specific protocols.” Because of WFA’s posture as a product certifier they have a great aperture into the world of Wi-Fi equipment which they graciously make available to the public via their Product Finder tool. Using this tool I was able to gain some perspective on how many Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6™ products are in the market.

Note: these numbers just represent products that have obtained certification status from the Wi-Fi Alliance and there are surely gaps in coverage. For example, more recent Apple devices (e.g., iPhone 13 and the 2021 MacBook Pro) don’t show up in search results. All product numbers referenced in this post are from the time of writing.

According to the Product Finder tool, there are 2,280 Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6™ products, which includes 95 Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6E™ products (62 unique models). The product categories of products are Routers (1119 devices), Phones (655 devices), Computers & Accessories (293 devices), Other (106 devices), Tablets, Ereaders & Cameras (54 devices), Televisions & Set Top Boxes (44 devices), Gaming, Media & Music (7 devices), and Smart Home (1 device).

• The 95 Wi-Fi 6E products include phones (25 total models from manufacturers Samsung, Google, and Motorola) such as the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (SM-G998U), Motorola Edge 2021 (XT2141–2), and Google Pixel 6 Pro 128GB (G8V0U) and routers (27 total models from manufacturers Huawei, Linksys, ASUSTeK, Broadcom, Cisco, DAVOLINK, HPE, Mercury Corporation, ON Semiconductor, Qualcomm, Sagemcom Broadband, & Technicolor) such as the Linksys Atlas Max 6E Wi-Fi Mesh System (MX8500), ASUS ROG RAPTURE (GT-AXE11000), and Aruba Multiservice Mobility Controller/AP-635 Access Point.

Wi-Fi 6 product certifications started in 2019 and are on-going. Samsung, Huawei, and ZTE lead the pack in certifications of Wi-Fi 6 equipment.

Now, compare those numbers with the 22,792 Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ ac (aka Wi-Fi 5/IEEE 802.11ac) products, which started seeing certifications made in 2013; product certifications started in 2013 and are on-going as of 2022. Of the 358 companies with Wi-Fi 5 certified products, Samsung, LG Electronics, and Panasonic are the top 3 companies by product counts followed closely by Huawei at #4.

After spending time reviewing the data from 5th & 6th generation certifications, it was clear that the number of certifications in 2020 and 2021 represent a decline from 2019. Indeed, given the current number of certifications a quarter of the way into this year, it seems the decline could continue through 2022.

It it important to note that this data only references the product models that are certified and by no means speaks to individual unit procurement numbers. There might only be a 2,280+ Wi-Fi 6 products certified but maybe those products are exceptionally popular and are widely used. I don’t have data to say either way.

It seems that the global chip shortage could be a reason for the decline in new product certifications, if at least for Wi-Fi 6E. According to an article by Dan Robinson of The Register, Wi-Fi 6E products might not be taking off because of the lack of endpoint options which in turn might be due to the chip shortage, concerns about spectrum utilization regulations being inconsistent globally, and interference from equipment already operating in the 6 GHz spectrum.

These numbers provide some useful macro context but I was curious what the environment around me looked like. I thought that the quickest way to do that was to make a simple Wi-Fi survey kit and check what was collected.

Where’s that Wi-Fi?

My goals were to find a single board computer (SBC) that was relatively inexpensive, small (wallet sized), USB-PD compatible, and of course, able to monitor 802.11ax frames. I ran into some challenges finding hardware with many suitable options being out of stock or too expensive. I ended up going with the DFRobot LattePanda Delta 432 which, at $259 was about the most I’d want to pay for this little project. The computer didn’t have an 802.11ax capable wireless interface but having an M.2 A/E-keyed socket, it was easy enough to add a $26 Intel AX200 module. I had a protective case and a portable battery sitting around so all I needed to do was configure the device to collect Wi-Fi frames. I decided to add a GPS receiver to the kit in the instance that I find something interesting that I might later want to ch