What we need to know about the standard-power AP class.
Last time I wrote a small article about LPI (Low Powered Indoor) and one of the benefits the 6Ghz band brings to us.
So what about the second type of device class type?
SP (Standard Power)
With LPI APs, it doesn’t matter what channels or power you use indoors (of course the software normally determines the channels allowed for your country) but that’s a different game with (SP) Standard Power APs. These can be used outdoors and indoors and are allowed to use higher power on the radio. These APs are constrained to use the AFC (Automatic Frequentie Coordination) which will check which channels are allowed to use from the AP’s location. Once the AP is powered up it will connect to the ACF database together with its GPS location and it will tell which channels and transmit power are allowed to use, to protect other 6Ghz like already deployed telecom point-to-point networks. This database should be fully operational somewhere at the beginning of 2023 in the meantime AFC does not allow the to come up so they stay disabled till then, one of the reasons Standard-Power APs didn’t hit the market so fast is the Low-Power-Indoor (LPI) APs
One more thing about the LPI APs:
FCC writes that LPI devices are limited to indoor locations, must have an integrated antenna, and cannot have or use a weatherized enclosure. These devices are prohibited on oil platforms, cars, trains, boats, and aircraft, except large aircraft while flying above 10,000 feet”
So technically LPI directionals are allowed as long as they are integrated into the AP.
But what I think that is going to happen is that ‘the marketing of all vendors’ will drive the Standard-Power APs for the directional options instead. But (at the moment of writing) I didn’t see a vendor yet bringing out 6Ghz SP AP which you can connect to an external antenna and I also did not see LPI APs directionals coming out.
The problem
If we can only use SP APs indoors to attach the antenna then a problem can occur with sending the GPS locations to the AFC. So I’m looking forward to what the world market will decide.
Because I live in Europe, what does it mean for Europe? Probably the same because the European Conformity CE mark is equal to the FCC testing (per an EMC Directive which is part of the CE standards). Likewise, the medical testing is controlled by the EMEA (European Medicines Agency) but the compliance is rolled into the CE mark too.
#StandardPowerAP #wifi6e #LPI #futurewifi