Contribution analysis on Wi-Fi 4 to 7
1. What is Wi-Fi
Today, Wi-Fi is available at home, office, school, restaurants and stores as a matter of course, and WiFi is a well-known technology for everyone.
Wi-Fi standards are set by IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), and alphabets after"IEEE 802.11" indicate the generation of the Wi-Fi standards. IEEE 802.11n, IEEE 802.11ac, IEEE
802.11ax, and IEEE 802.11be correspond to Wi-Fi 4, Wi-Fi 5, Wi-Fi 6/6E, and Wi-Fi 7, respectively.
"Wi-Fi" is the brand name used by the Wi-Fi Alliance, an industry group that aims to promote Wi-Fi.
In this report, Wi-Fi 6 and 6E are collectively called as Wi-Fi 6.
Note that the Wi-Fi Alliance does not define Wi-Fi 1 to 3, which are generations prior to Wi-Fi 4, andcorrespond to IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11b and IEEE 802.11g, respectively.
IEEE 802.11be called Wi-Fi 7 is the latest Wi-Fi standard in practice, and Wi-Fi 7 technology offers
the following benefits:-Higher data transmission rate and a lower latency than the Wi-Fi 6.

-

Support throughput of up to at least 30Gbps, almost 3x Wi-Fi 6.

-At most 320 MHz bandwidth, 4096-QAM, Multi-RU, Multi-link operation, and so on.

-Wide range of use cases, for example, video stream, video/voice conference, online gaming, realtime collaboration, cloud/edge computing, industrial IoT, Immersive AR/VR, open roaming andWi-Fi sensing.

2. Wi-Fi 7 standardization activities in IEEE
Fig. 1 shows the standardization activities for Wi-Fi 7 in IEEE. In May 2018, IEEE 802.11 set up an
EHT (Extremely High Throughput) Topic Interest Group (TIG). In July 2018, the EHT TIG wastransformed into the EHT Study Group (SG). The EHT SG defined the scope of the new project andidentified the list of candidate features of Wi-Fi 7. In May 2019, the EHT SG transformed into Task
Group be (TGbe) that is developing IEEE 802.11be amendment. We are writing our report in thetiming that Draft 3.0 will be published in November of this year. The final version is expected to be
published by middle 2024.

1
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2018

2019
May

2021

2020
MayJulSep
Draft0.1

EHT
TIG

EHT SGTGbe2022
May
Draft1.0TGbe
Release 1 features

20242023
May

Draft2.0

NovMayDraft3.0

Draft4.0

MayPublication

TGbe
Release 2 features

Fig. 1 Wi-Fi 7 standardization activities in IEEE1

3. Contribution analysis of IEEE 802.11n/ac/ax/beTo understand key players in the Wi-Fi contributions for the Wi-Fi 4, 5, 6 and 7, we analyzed thenumber of contributions in each Wi-Fi standard by using the IEEE official website 2 . If there aremultiple versions in a single contribution, the multiple versions were counted together as onecontribution. The number of contributions submitted to each Wi-Fi standard was calculated bysumming the number of contributions submitted to the following groups (TG, SG, and TIG).
Wi-Fi 4: HT SG, TGn
Wi-Fi 5: VHT SG, TGac
Wi-Fi 6: HEW SG, TGax
Wi-Fi 7: EHT TIG, EHT SG, TGbe
Fig. 2 shows the number of contributions in Wi-Fi 4 to Wi-Fi 7. The contribution submissions to WiFi 7 began in 2018, showing that the highest number of contributions were submitted in 2021 at themoment.

1
2

https://www.ieee802.org/11/Reports/tgbe_update.htm
https://mentor.ieee.org/802.11/documents
2NGB Corporation | ip-gateway@ngb.co.jp | https://www.ngb.co.jp

Number of contributions in Wi-Fi 4 to Wi-Fi 7 standards
800

Wi-Fi 4700

Wi-Fi 5

Wi-Fi 6

Wi-Fi 7

Wi-Fi 4+5+6600
Wi-Fi 4+5500
4003002001000Fig. 2 Number of contributions in Wi-Fi 4, 5, 6 and 7 standards

4. Key players of Wi-Fi 4 to 7Figs. 3 to 6 show the number of contributions of top 20 contributors in “Wi-Fi 4 and 5”, “Wi-Fi 4, 5and 6”, “Wi-Fi 6” and “Wi-Fi 7”, respectively. These figures show how the top technology standard
contributors have changed their contributions level across the different generations. Since
Qualcomm acquired Atheros in 2011 when the Wi-Fi 5 was under discussion, the number of theQualcomm's contributions in Wi-Fi 5, 6 and 7 includes the number of the Atheros's contributions in
Wi-Fi 5, 6 and 7, if any.
According to a Wi-Fi NOW article3, in 2018, Wi-Fi 4 and 5, were main Wi-Fi shipments, and thepenetration rate of Wi-Fi 4 and 5 was close to 100%. Fig. 3 shows the top 20 contributors in Wi-Fi 4and 5. As shown in Fig. 3, Intel (500 contributions / 17.7%), Qualcomm (298 contributions / 10.5%),and Broadcom (264 contributions / 9.3%) are the top three contributors.

3Wi-Fi 6 enters steep growth phase far outpacing 5G, says IDC - Wi-Fi NOW Global(wifinowglobal.com), link: https://wifinowglobal.com/news-and-blog/wi-fi-6-enters-phase-of-steepgrowth-far-outpacing-5g-says-idc/
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According to the Wi-Fi NOW article, it was expected that in 2021, Wi-Fi 4, 5 and 6 were main Wi-Fi
shipments, and the penetration rate of Wi-Fi 4, 5 and 6 was closed to 100%, and Wi-Fi 6 shipments
were growing from 2019 to 2021. Fig. 4 shows the top 20 contributors in Wi-Fi 4, 5 and 6. As shownin Fig. 4, Intel (787 contributions / 13.8%), Qualcomm (758 contributions / 13.3%), and Huawei(519 contributions / 9.1%) are the top three contributors.
According to the Wi-Fi NOW article, in 2022, it was expected that Wi-Fi 6 becomes dominant Wi-Fi
shipments in 2022 and 2023, and Wi-Fi 7 shipments appear in 2023.
Fig. 5 shows the top 20 contributors in Wi-Fi 6 which is the most prevalent Wi-Fi standard today. Asshown in Fig. 5, Qualcomm (460 contributions / 16.0%), Huawei (344 contributions / 12.0%), andIntel (287 contributions / 10.0%) are the top three contributors.
Fig. 6 shows the top 20 contributors in Wi-Fi 7 which is the upcoming Wi-Fi standard, Huawei (482contributions / 22.9%), Qualcomm (320 contributions / 15.2%), and Intel (200 contributions / 9.5%)
are the top three contributors.

0100

200300400500Intel
Qualcomm
Broadcom
Marvell/NXP
Huawei
Cisco Systems
Samsung
ETRI
Conexant
Nokia
LG Electronics
NTTSTMicroelectronics
Sony
Motorola
CSRToshiba
Mitsubishi ElectricMediaTek
Nortel Networks

Fig.3 Number of contributions in Wi-Fi 4 and 5 standards: Top 20 contributors

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Share
17.7%
10.5%
9.3%
7.2%
6.2%
4.6%
3.5%
3.0%
2.7%
2.4%
1.9%
1.8%
1.7%
1.7%
1.6%
1.4%
1.1%
1.1%
1.0%
1.0%

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800 Share
13.8%

Intel
Qualcomm
HuaweiMarvell/NXP
Broadcom
MediaTek
NewracomNTT
LG Electronics
Cisco Systems
SamsungETRI
ZTEApple
Nokia
SonyConexant
InterDigital
Toshiba
Ericsson

13.3%
9.1%
7.2%
7.2%
3.7%
3.1%
3.0%
3.0%
2.7%
2.6%
2.0%
1.8%
1.7%
1.6%
1.4%
1.3%
1.1%
1.1%
0.9%

Fig.4 Number of contributions in Wi-Fi 4, 5 and 6 standards: Top 20 contributors

0100

200

300

400

Qualcomm
HuaweiIntel
Marvell/NXP
MediaTek
Newracom
BroadcomNTT
LG Electronics
ZTE
Apple
EricssonSamsung
WILUS
Quantenna
InterDigitalSony
Toshiba
ETRI
Yonsei Univ.

Fig.5 Number of contributions in Wi-Fi 6 standard: Top 20 contributors

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Share
16.0%
12.0%
10.0%
7.3%
6.3%
6.2%
5.1%
4.3%
4.2%
2.8%
2.7%
1.8%
1.8%
1.5%
1.4%
1.4%
1.1%
1.1%
1.1%
1.0%

0100

200

300

400

Huawei
Qualcomm
Intel
LG Electronics
Marvell/NXP
Samsung
MediaTek
Broadcom
Ericsson
ZTE
InterDigital
Panasonic
Apple
Meta
Quantenna
Sony
Cisco Systems
OPPO
Nokia
MaxLinear

Share
22.9%
15.2%
9.5%
9.4%
4.8%
4.6%
4.4%
3.5%
2.8%
2.1%
1.9%
1.8%
1.7%
1.6%
1.5%
1.2%
1.1%
1.0%
0.9%
0.8%

Fig.6 Number of contributions in Wi-Fi 7 standard: Top 20 contributors

5. TakeawaysWhat we have learned from this analysis is as follows:
1. Intel, Qualcomm and Huawei are the top three contributors in Wi-Fi 4, 5 and 6, which would be
main Wi-Fi shipments in 2021.
2. Qualcomm, Huawei and Intel are the top three contributors in Wi-Fi 6, which would be dominant
Wi-Fi shipments in 2022 and 2023.
3. Huawei, Qualcomm and Intel are the top three contributors in Wi-Fi 7, which is the upcoming
generation.
We have seen a tendency that the number of contributions correlates with the number of standard
essential patents, based on our experience. In the near future, we may conduct an essentiality analysis
for Wi-Fi 7.
Yuji Orita, General Manager
Toshihiro Nakane, Manager
IP Research Institute
NGB Corporation
October 31, 2022
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