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arXiv:2103.14918cs.NI

IEEE 802.11bf: Toward Ubiquitous Wi-Fi Sensing

Francesco Restuccia

Abstract

Wi-Fi is among the most successful wireless technologies ever invented. As Wi-Fi becomes more and more present in public and private spaces, it becomes natural to leverage its ubiquitousness to implement groundbreaking wireless sensing applications such as human presence detection, activity recognition, and object tracking, just to name a few. This paper reports ongoing efforts by the IEEE 802.11bf Task Group (TGbf), which is defining the appropriate modifications to existing Wi-Fi standards to enhance sensing capabilities through 802.11-compliant waveforms. We summarize objectives and timeline of TGbf, and discuss some of the most interesting proposed technical features discussed so far. We also introduce a roadmap of research challenges pertaining to Wi-Fi sensing and its integration with future Wi-Fi technologies and emerging spectrum bands, hoping to elicit further activities by both the research community and TGbf.

arXiv comments
Journal reference
DOI
Subjects
cs.NINetworking and Internet Architecture

On Hacker News

Linked by 2 identifiable commenters in 9 comments across 7 threads, from May 2021 to Jul 2025. Found in 3 HN submissions from Mar 2021 to Feb 2022. Open submission discussions.

Comments linking this paper, per year.

Discussed in comments7 threads

  1. WhoFi: Deep Person Re-Identification via Wi-Fi Channel Signal Encoding 1 comment

    • "Xfinity using WiFi signals in your house to detect motion" (2025), 500 comments, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44426726 "How Wi-Fi sensing became usable tech" (2024), https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/02/27/1088154/wifi-sen... There is one area that the IEEE is not…

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  2. Person-in-WiFi: Fine-Grained Person Perception Using WiFi [pdf] 2 comments
  3. WiFi Routers Used to Produce 3D Images of Humans 1 comment

    • This specific paper is only one of several hundred papers from a decade of research leading to IEEE standardization, https://dhalperi.github.io/linux-80211n-csitool/#external From a 2021 paper on IEEE 802.11bf Wi-Fi Sensing, https://arxiv.org/pdf/2103.14918.pdf > Indeed, it has…

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  4. mmWave radar, you won't see it coming 1 comment

    • > Because mmWave radar doesn’t process visual light, what it sees is not personally identifiable. With machine learning improvements, identification and more are possible. From a 2021 paper on IEEE 802.11bf Wi-Fi Sensing, https://arxiv.org/pdf/2103.14918.pdf > Indeed, it has…

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  5. The next big Wi-Fi standard is for sensing, not communication (2021) 2 comments

    • (2010) early public firmware for research on Wi-Fi sensing, https://dhalperi.github.io/linux-80211n-csitool/ (2012) military use case, https://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-07/seeing-thr... (2017) industrial use case…

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    • (2021) privacy comments on Wi-Fi 7 standards work for 802.11bf, https://arxiv.org/pdf/2103.14918.pdf > it has been shown that SENS-based classifiers can infer privacy-critical information such as keyboard typing, gesture recognition and activity tracking ... since Wi-Fi signals…

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  6. A single laser fired through a keyhole can expose everything inside a room 1 comment

    • "Seeing through walls" motion detection can be done with Doppler imaging and commodity Wi-Fi today using custom firmware. Hundreds of research papers have been published on this topic. The upcoming IEEE 802.11bf standard is scheduled to add that capability to every router in…

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  7. FragAttacks: new security vulnerabilities that affect wi-fi devices 1 comment

    • Future Wi-Fi devices will be able to see through your home and business walls, for activity monitoring and biometric identification, https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/31/wifi_devices_monitori... > In three years or so, the Wi-Fi specification is scheduled to get an upgrade…

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