The IEEE 802.11 standard (ISO / IEC 8802-11) is an international standard describing the characteristics of a wireless LAN (WLAN).

The name Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity contraction, sometimes wrongly marked WiFi) corresponds to the name originally given to the certification by the Wi-Fi Alliance, formerly WECA (Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance), the body responsible for maintaining the interoperability between devices complying with the 802.11 standard.

By abuse of language (and for marketing reasons) the name of the standard is identical today with the name of the certification.

Thus a wireless network is actually a network that meets the 802.11 standard.

With Wi-Fi it is possible to create local networks without son broadband if only to connect the station is not too remote from the access point.

In practice, the Wi-Fi can connect laptops, desktops, PDAs (PDA) or any device with a broadband connection (11 Mbps or higher) on a radius of several tens of meters inside (usually between twenty and fifty yards) to several hundred meters in open environment.

The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ logo is today's best assurance of device interoperability.

There are numerous variations of the logo in conjunction with the color-coded Standard Indicator Icons.