A few months ago, Ofcom, which is UK’s regulatory authority decided to update their regulations to allow Wi-Fi use in the 5.8 GHz band (U-NII-3). It appears that EU/ETSI like UK, is contemplating adding the U-NII-3 band (5.725-5.850 GHz) to the EU domain. Currently EU uses a part of the spectrum (2.4 GHz and 5GHz band), which is becoming increasingly congested and can impair broadband performance. If this happens then this update will open an additional 125 MHz of spectrum in a ‘sub-band’ within the 5 GHz frequency range for Wi-Fi – while ensuring protection for other users, such as satellite services. The extra sub-band increases the number of 80 MHz channels available for Wi-Fi from four to six.

If this happens EU and UK will be in sync. The benefits will include higher connection and fewer delays, because added bandwidth in Wi-Fi reduces the need for users to share channels. Channel sharing in Wi-Fi occurs by different users taking turns to use the available channels, which can introduce delays and slow down services.

The Table below shows the 5GHz spectrum, and what channels and bands are allowed currently in EU and UK. The sections currently highlighted as “No” in red cells will be available if this update is executed.

• 20MHz Channels:

• 40MHz Channels:

• 80MHz Channels:

Will this proposed update IMPACT your existing certifications?

There have been a lot of regulatory updates for EU, also known as RED ((Radio Equipment Directive) in the past couple of years. These updates have resulted in additional cost for our customers to get their products retested to comply with the new updates. There is still another RED update for the 5Ghz channel (EN301 893 v2.1.1) which will be enforced next year in June 2018.

So if ETSI/EU decides to open another band in the 5GHz (UNII-3), it will possibly add more costs to certification and updates to radio firmware for many products. For now, it is a waiting game, and we can only plan for what we know.

At Silex we pride ourselves in providing world class certification support to our customers. we are now working to update our certification to the latest EN301-393 v2.1.1 standard for adaptivity, which will be in effect next June in 2018. We will continue to monitor the RED standard updates so that we can continue to help our customers to comply and maintain their ability to ship product into Europe.

If you have questions or need information on the status of your product certification status please contact Silex at sales@silexamerica.com.

References:

https://portal.etsi.org/webapp/WorkProgram/Report_WorkItem.asp?wki_id=53378