1. Introduction to Wi-Fi Alliance

The WI-FI Alliance is known as WFA at https://www.wi-fi.org.

Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, the Wi-Fi Alliance is dedicated to promoting Wi-Fi brands to the market, increasing consumer awareness of emerging 802.11 technologies, and conducting interoperability certification testing and trademark licensing for Wi-Fi devices. At present, the organization has more than 800 members, established more than 20 working groups, and has so far more than 65,000 products certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance. Based on the common standards of the IEEE802.11 protocol family and the relevant technical specifications and test specification developed by the alliance, the alliance solves the problems of interconnection and compatibility between different Wi-Fi products, and effectively promotes the comprehensive development of Wi-Fi products and services in both the consumer and the enterprise market.

2. The necessity and significance of WFA certification

——Solve the interconnection problem between Wireless LAN products

——Supplement the formulation of application standards according to market demand and promote them

—— Carry out standard compliance and quality control of Wireless LAN products

——Strict product certification strategy has been formulated to ensure the application of standards

3. WFA Membership Levels and Benefits

Wi-Fi Alliance requires that you must be an Alliance member before you can certify your product, pay an annual membership fee, and your membership must be renewed annually.

Contributor: For companies that want to advance the Wi-Fi industry and develop and use a number of Wi-Fi certified products

Implementer: For companies that want to use a Wi-Fi solution in their products and use a Wi-Fi certified brand

Type of membership	Contributor	Implementer
Regular annual fee	$20,000/year	$5,150/year
Membership Benefits	Development, certification and testing of products. Ability to send developed products to the laboratory for testing. Use the logo and trademark of the Alliance's certified products. Participate in the corresponding standards working group and participate in the development of standards. Have voting rights and be able to see the progress of new projects. Ability to use and download the Alliance's test specifications	It is possible to inherit the existing certified modules Use the affiliate logo Use the consortium's documentation.

IN ADDITION TO THE TWO REGULAR MEMBERSHIP LEVELS ABOVE, WI-FI ALLIANCE

OFFERS TWO SPECIAL MEMBERSHIP LEVELS DESIGNED TO HELP SMALLER COMPANIES EXPERIENCE THE BENEFITS OF WI-FI ALLIANCE MEMBERSHIP, SMALL BUSINESS INTRODUCTION PARTICIPANT AND SMALL BUSINESS INTRODUCTION PERFORMER, AT A LOWER ENTRY FEE.

In addition to the two regular membership levels above, Wi-Fi Alliance offers two special membership levels designed to help smaller companies experience the benefits of Wi-Fi Alliance membership at a lower entry fee: Small Business Introduction Participant and Small Business Introduction Performer. Small Business Introducing Membership is only available to new members with annual revenue of less than $10 million (Small Business Introducing Participant and Small Business Introducing Performer). If the company continues to meet the requirements, this membership level can only be applied for the first two years. The difference between a small business introduction participant and a small business introduction performer is similar to the difference between an affiliate contributor and an affiliate implementer.

4. WFA Logo Instructions

Members can log on to the Wi-Fi official website to check the Wi-Fi logo requirements, and after obtaining the certification, they can download and use the Wi-Fi logo.

Any use of the Wi-Fi Alliance Certification Mark or the Wi-Fi Alliance Member's Trademark is subject to the Certification Mark License Agreement and the Wi-Fi Alliance Member Trademark License Agreement.

5. WFA certification type and process

5.1 Types of Certifications

Wi-Fi Alliance certifications fall into the following three categories:

FLEX TRACK: Tailor-made for complex product designs from the ground up. FlexTrack allows the most flexible Wi-Fi customization capabilities built into the component. Testing must be done at an Authorized Testing Laboratory (ATL).

QUICK TRACK: Customized products based on components that have completed full Wi-Fi functional testing. QuickTrack allows targeted changes to Wi-Fi functionality. Testing can be done at ATL or member testing labs. QuickTrack includes Wi-Fi Certified 6™ and Wi-Fi 6E Operation, Wi-Fi Certified ac, Wi-Fi Certified n, Wi-Fi Agile Multiband™, Wi-Fi Data Elements™, PMF, WPA2, WPA3™™, and Wi-Fi Enhanced Open™

DERIVATION: A derivative for devices that have already been Wi-Fi certified, such as the same chipset for multiple laptop models. Members can apply for derivative product certification without testing.

5.2 Certification Process

The Wi-Fi Alliance process is shown in the following figure:

Figure: Wi-Fi Alliance Authentication Process

6. WFA certification test content

Wi-Fi Alliance certification covers connectivity, security, access methods, application services, network optimization, and radio frequency. The tests that have been launched so far are shown in the following figure:

Figure: Wi-Fi Alliance has launched certification test content

The Wi-Fi Alliance test selects the required test items based on the support of wireless terminals. The following diagram shows the Wi-Fi Alliance certification program test selection logic.

Figure: Wi-Fi Alliance certification project selection logic

7. WFA certification cycle

The following table summarizes the certification cycle information of Wi-Fi Alliance testing in the case of manual testing and automatic testing based on the current general situation of our laboratory.

Test item	Test cycle (working days) - Manually testing	Test cycle (working days) - Automatic testing
802.11a/b/g + WPA / WPA2™	3	2
802.11a/b/g/n +  WPA2™ + WMM	4	2
802.11ac	4	3
PMF	1	1
WMM®	2	1
WMM® Power Save	1	/
Wi-Fi Protected Setup™	2	/
Wi-Fi Protected Setup™ + NFC	2	/
Wi-Fi Direct	3	2
Wi-Fi Direct + NFC	3	2
Miracast	3	2
Passpoint R1	5	3
Passpoint R2	5	3
CWG-RF	10	/
WMM-AC	5	/
TDLS	5	3
Direct Service	5	3
Voice Enterprise	5	3
Aware	6	3