Wireless Standards and Organizations
Who does what
IEEE writes the 802.11 standards. The Wi-Fi Alliance certifies interoperability and security (Wi-Fi CERTIFIED, WPA2, WPA3, WMM, Passpoint). Regulators - FCC in the US, ETSI in Europe, plus TELEC, ACMA and MIC - set permitted frequencies, power limits and DFS rules. The IETF owns CAPWAP (RFC 5415) and RADIUS; IEEE owns 802.1X and 802.3.
Amendments to know
802.11a/b/g are legacy PHYs; 802.11n introduced HT, MIMO and 40 MHz; 802.11ac introduced VHT, wider channels and denser modulation in 5 GHz; 802.11ax is HE with OFDMA, MU-MIMO and target wake time, operating in both bands. Security: 802.11i (RSN/WPA2), 802.11w (management frame protection), 802.11e (QoS/WMM). Roaming and network selection: 802.11k (neighbor reports), 802.11v (BSS transition management), 802.11r (fast BSS transition). Also 802.11h (DFS/TPC), 802.11d (country IE), 802.11s (mesh) and 802.11u (interworking/Hotspot 2.0).
Traps
Crediting the Wi-Fi Alliance with writing standards or the IEEE with certifying products; mixing up 802.11r with 802.11k/v; assuming 802.11ax is 6 GHz-only (that is 6E); and believing WPA3 is an IEEE standard rather than a certification built on SAE.
Rule of thumb
Map each feature to exactly one body and one amendment: certification or interoperability questions point to the Wi-Fi Alliance; channel and power limits point to the regulator.