Earlier this year the Wi-Fi Alliance announced their latest certification for Wi-Fi systems: Wi-Fi Certified EasyMesh. This certification helps create a shared standard for extending Wi-Fi coverage throughout your home with the use multiple routers.
As manufacturers of routers adopt this standard, you will be able to setup a EasyMesh network in your home easily. The network converge will be seamless to you and your devices. Currently, most routers feature a mesh network capabilities, but they only really work with other routers by that same manufacture. This creates a lock-in to that manufacture.
Most people will notice that certain locations in their home will have spotty Wi-Fi from their home router. A mesh network will link multiple routers, that you place around your home, to help distribute your Wi-Fi connection. You do not need to run additional network cables with this setup. This is similar to a Wi-Fi extenders. The added benefit is that, unlike extenders, you do not have to deal with multiple Wi-Fi network names. The mesh will automatically connect your devices to the best signal, without you knowing.
EasyMesh will resolve the issue of locking your devices to one manufacture for your mesh system. The Wi-Fi Alliance has been working hard at creating standards for all of your network gear and help make sure they work how you expect them to. Instead of purchasing a certain brand, you can purchase any brand that is EasyMesh compatible and it will work. Do keep in mind, the routers all need to be EasyMesh certified. If one is not certified, then there is a good chance it will not work.
According to the Wi-Fi Alliance, EasyMesh will always monitor your network, load balancing data speed. It will even automatically link additional mesh routers to the network when you set them up. This is similar to how mesh networks work currently, but only for devices from the same company. EasyMesh will do this for all devices.
Additionally, EasyMesh devices will be future proof. Meaning that today's devices will be compatible with future devices. This is great for people who do not upgrade devices often. From what we found, routers need to support, at minimum, the 802.11n Wi-Fi protocol.
This is the area most people will be concerned about. Now, some manufactures have added Mesh network capabilities through firmware updates, but it's not clear if EasyMesh support can be added the same way. The other question is whether or not EasyMesh devices will cost more due to the functionality. Honestly, we would not be surprised if manufacturers use this as a reason to increase their prices.
Regardless, EasyMesh will make creating a home mesh network super simple solution for most people to setup. Based on the the product finder from the Wi-Fi Alliance page, no devices are certified yet. Certifications do not come easy, which helps ensure quality for the EasyMesh brand. We would expect to start seeing devices that are EasyMesh certified by the end of the year. We should also know more on whether current devices will eventually support EasyMesh too.