Abstract
Wi-Fi 9 is expected to go beyond mere communication and provide new services such as sensing or computation. At this juncture, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is taking a leading role in the definition of the 802.11bx amendment, named WLAN Intelligent Networking (WIN). In this tutorial, we survey the recent progress made toward Wi-Fi 9 within IEEE 802.11 standardization, tracing the drivers and technological advances that motivate an AI-ready Wi-Fi 9. We then examine AI's role along three complementary dimensions, i.e., AI as a protocol (AI is applied to Wi-Fi's PHY/MAC operation), AI as a platform (Wi-Fi infrastructure is repurposed to provide AI computation), and AI as traffic (AI flows call for new traffic-handling policies), and discuss candidate features and open challenges along each. As a concrete illustration of the AI as traffic paradigm, we present a case study on AI traffic differentiation, where we explore a potential extension of the current Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA) to support new AI traffic flows.
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- Green open access
Cite this article
APA 7
Wilhelmi, F., Kosek-Szott, K., Szott, S., & Bellalta, B. (2026). IEEE 802.11bx - WLAN Intelligent Networking (WIN): Toward an AI-Ready Wi-Fi 9. https://omanscience.com/en/articles/ieee-802-11bx-wlan-intelligent-networking-win-toward-an-ai-ready-wi-fi-9
MLA 9
Wilhelmi, Francesc, et al. "IEEE 802.11bx - WLAN Intelligent Networking (WIN): Toward an AI-Ready Wi-Fi 9." https://omanscience.com/en/articles/ieee-802-11bx-wlan-intelligent-networking-win-toward-an-ai-ready-wi-fi-9.
Chicago (author–date)
Wilhelmi, Francesc, Katarzyna Kosek-Szott, Szymon Szott, and Boris Bellalta. 2026. "IEEE 802.11bx - WLAN Intelligent Networking (WIN): Toward an AI-Ready Wi-Fi 9." https://omanscience.com/en/articles/ieee-802-11bx-wlan-intelligent-networking-win-toward-an-ai-ready-wi-fi-9.
Harvard
Wilhelmi, F., Kosek-Szott, K., Szott, S. and Bellalta, B. (2026) 'IEEE 802.11bx - WLAN Intelligent Networking (WIN): Toward an AI-Ready Wi-Fi 9', Available at: https://omanscience.com/en/articles/ieee-802-11bx-wlan-intelligent-networking-win-toward-an-ai-ready-wi-fi-9.
Vancouver
Wilhelmi F, Kosek-Szott K, Szott S, Bellalta B. IEEE 802.11bx - WLAN Intelligent Networking (WIN): Toward an AI-Ready Wi-Fi 9. https://omanscience.com/en/articles/ieee-802-11bx-wlan-intelligent-networking-win-toward-an-ai-ready-wi-fi-9
IEEE
F. Wilhelmi, K. Kosek-Szott, S. Szott, and B. Bellalta, "IEEE 802.11bx - WLAN Intelligent Networking (WIN): Toward an AI-Ready Wi-Fi 9," https://omanscience.com/en/articles/ieee-802-11bx-wlan-intelligent-networking-win-toward-an-ai-ready-wi-fi-9.