IEEE 802.11be Extremely High Throughput: The Next Generation of Wi-Fi Technology Beyond 802.11ax

Wi-Fi technology is continuously innovating to cater to the growing customer demands, driven by the digitalisation of everything, both in the home as well as the enterprise and hotspot spaces. In this article, we introduce to the wireless community the next generation Wi-Fi$-$based on IEEE 802.11be Extremely High Throughput (EHT)$-$, present the main objectives and timelines of this new 802.11be amendment, thoroughly describe its main candidate features and enhancements, and cover the important issue of coexistence with other wireless technologies. We also provide simulation results to assess the potential throughput gains brought by 802.11be with respect to 802.11ax.