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Programs

Since 2000, the Wi-Fi Alliance has worked with our members to complete more than 6,000 product certifications. Through comprehensive testing, the Wi-Fi Alliance certification program ensures that wireless local area networking (WLAN) products from multiple manufacturers work together.

Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ leads to improved user-experience, higher customer satisfaction rates, fewer support calls and product returns, reduced costs, and the interoperability at Wi-Fi ZONES™. As a result, the Wi-Fi Alliance Certification programs have been a catalyst for the rapid adoption of Wi-Fi products in homes, offices and public access locations around the world.

Our certification programs cover the following categories:

Mandatory programs

  • Wi-Fi products based on IEEE radio standards - 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g in single, dual mode (802.11b and 802.11g) or multi-band (2.4GHz and 5GHz) products. Now also required by CTIA for Wi-Fi enabled handsets seeking CTIA certification.

  • WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access®)and WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 2): Wi-Fi wireless network security -  offer government-grade security mechanisms for personal and enterprise.

  • EAP (Extensible Authentication Protocol) - An authentication mechanism used to validate the identity of network devices (for enterprise devices).

Optional programs

  • Wi-Fi CERTIFIED n: The latest-generation of Wi-Fi operation - supports the IEEE 802.11n ratified standard

  • Wi-Fi Protected Setup™: Facilitates easy set-up of security features using a Personal Identification Number (PIN) or other defined methods within the Wi-Fi device

  • WMM® (Wi-Fi Multimedia™): Support for multimedia content over Wi-Fi networks enabling Wi-Fi networks to prioritize traffic generated by different applications using Quality of Service (QoS) mechanisms

  • WMM Power Save: Power savings for multimedia content over Wi-Fi networks - helps conserve battery life while using voice and multimedia applications by managing the time the device spends in sleep mode. (In recent testing, showed 37 - 73% power savings versus legacy power save mechanisms.)

  • Voice - Personal: Voice over Wi-Fi - extends beyond interoperability testing to test the performance of products and help ensure that they deliver good voice quality over the Wi-Fi link.

  • CWG-RF: For converged devices with both Wi-Fi and cellular technology - provides detailed information about the performance of the Wi-Fi radio in a converged handset, as well as how the cellular and Wi-Fi radios interact with one another. Now mandatory for Wi-Fi enabled handsets seeking CTIA certification.

Wi-Fi CERTIFIED tests are conducted by 13 independent laboratories in eight countries. Learn more about our Authorized Test Laboratories.

A brief WFA Certification Overview presentation describes our certification methodologies.

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