On IEEE 802.11K/R/V amendments: Do they have a real impact?

The IEEE 802.11 standard has contributed to increasing ubiquitous connectivity. Its success is motivated, among other factors, by its inexpensive costs and the easiness of its deployment, turning WiFi into the most widespread wireless access technology. However, most users are not aware of the constant evolution in the IEEE 802.11 family. In this article we focus on some of the IEEE 802.11 amendments included in the latest version of the standard, which address interesting challenges in the context of WLANs, such as minimization of the interruption when changing the point of attachment to the network. However, these amendments have not had much commercial impact, and have gone somehow unnoticed by the majority of users and even part of the research community. We analyze their motivation, the functionality they provide, and their existing practical applications, if any. We also evaluate the possible factors that influence their adoption. If most of the commercial hardware does not implement these amendments, their impact on real WLAN deployment and experimental research will be limited.