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ETSI EN300 328 v2.2.2, What Has Changed?

The Radio Equipment Directive (RED) establishes a regulatory framework for placing radio devices on the European Union market. On February 5th, 2020, the European Commission recognized ETSI EN 300 328 v2.2.2 and set August 6th, 2021 as the cessation date on the current version, v2.1.1.

ETSI EN 300 328 is the standard for the Radio Equipment Directive (RED) for wideband data transmission equipment such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios. The significant changes in the latest ETSI EN 300 328 version include revising Receiver Blocking requirements and a modification in limits for Transmitter Spurious Emissions in the 694MHz to 862MHz range.

Receiver Blocking:

The first version of Receiver Blocking requirements was officially included in ETSI EN 300 328 v2.1.1. Version v2.2.2 revises the requirements from v2.1.1. by:

  1. Providing an alternative criterion when testing to the requirement. In v2.1.1, the criteria when performing the test was monitoring either a packet error rate (PER) or frame error rate (FER). V2.2.2 now makes allowances for defining a minimum performance criterion for equipment that does not support a PER or FER.
  2. An increase of blocking signal power by as high as 19dB in certain blocking signal frequency ranges and a change in blocking signal frequency.

Although the signal blocking power has increased, the connection strength between the EUT and companion device has also increased. The wanted signal power (Pmin) used previously was RX sensitivity + 6dB but now has specific equations to determine the Pmin for the different receiver categories. The net effect is a ‘blocking rejection’ requirement that is less stringent in v2.2.2.

Blocking rejection = Pmin – Blocking Signal

Equipment that has been tested to the v2.1.1 receiver blocking requirement would need to be retested to v2.2.2.
Due to the less stringent blocking rejection requirements, the risk of non-compliance is low.

Transmitter spurious emissions:

In ETSI EN 300 328 v2.2.2, there was a change in the transmitter spurious emissions limit in a small frequency band, 694MHz to 862MHz. In that frequency range, the limit has been lowered from -54dBm to -36dBm.
Retesting is not required for equipment that is already compliant to the legacy limit in that range.

Differences between v2.1.1 and v2.2.2:

For existing Silex customers, there is no action required at this time. We have conducted a detailed review of our modules affected by this change and are engaged in recertification that completes ahead of the transition period end date. Once recertified, customers can continue leveraging Silex regulatory approvals for their end devices.

Our accredited test laboratories are fully equipped to test the new ETSI EN 300 328 v2.2.2 requirements for those who are not customers of Silex. Please contact us on how we can help with all of your wireless compliance testing and certification projects.