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802.11d ban - How does this affect TI wifi devices?

Brian Antheunisse
Expert 5305 points
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: WL1837MOD

Hello all,

 

Starting this year, the FCC has banned the 802.11d amendment to the wireless LAN specifications (read about it here) which allows clients to automatically configure themselves to their local regulatory domain. This means that any client module that is FCC certified in 2015 onward must be configured to the country it will be sold in. To my understanding, this is similar to the way DVDs have country codes allowing them only to be played in certain countries.

 

How will this affect customers who are building products with TI wifi parts? If a wifi enabled device configured for outside of the US is brought into the US, will it be unable to connect?

 

For the WL1837MOD in particular, I have heard that it just recently passed FCC testing, does that mean that this particular module made the cut just in time to not fall victim to this new rule? Or will a finished customer product still need to pass FCC testing and customers will still need to account for this? If so, how does a customer go about this country configuration process? Is it just done easily via software?

 

Please excuse the ambiguity of my questions as I am not very familiar with these regulations, but this seems like something many customers will be asking TI.

 

Thanks and regards,

Brian A

  • 0
    TI__Expert 5840 points

    Brian,

    The WiLink SW already enables the user to configure the Country code of the product with the need of the use in 11d (get the country from the AP)

    There for, this new requirement is already implemented in the SW, and should have no impact

    Shahar

  • 0 in reply to Shahar Patury
    TI__Expert 5305 points
    Thanks for the quick response. When the device is configured, is it a one time, permanent thing (as far as an end customer user would be concerned)? Or would an end user just need to configure themselves each time they move in and out of the US?
  • 0 in reply to Brian Antheunisse
    TI__Expert 5840 points

    Brian,

    TI provides both options,

    The manufacture can configure the country code as hard coded one (part of TI configuration file, or even directly from the application layer) and it can configure the country code dynamically by using the "iw reg set <country>" option (or similar one).

    Please note that I saw that (at least) some customers will choose the dynamic option, but, the change of the country came due to external trigger and not the user (Like GPS/GSM/LTE or even external WIFI networks)

    Shahar