Industry Canada new 5GHz band regulations

8/19/2015

Last year, I have written a blog post entitled "5GHz Band Channel Availability in Canada" explaining what 5GHz channels were available in Canada. This was based on a document from Industry Canada named "RSS-210 - Licence-exempt Radio Apparatus (All Frequency Bands): Category I Equipment" Annex 9 - Local Area Network Devices. If you go visit the Industry Canada's website today, you will see that this annex is no longer applicable and has been replaced in May 2015:

So, in this article, it is time for me to update the information provided in my previous blog post and keep things up to date!

The new document covers the new radio standards specifications for the Wi-Fi equipment operating in all the 5GHz frequency bands:
- UNII1 (5150-5250MHz)
- UNII2 (5250-5350MHz)
- UNII2-Extended (5470-5600MHz and 5650-5725MHz)
- UNII3 (5725-5850MHz)

Here are the updated radio standards specifications:

As you can see, nothing much changed from the last standards. Basically, the channel availability and the output powers were kept unchanged.
So what has changed? According to me, two important regulations were added. They are detailed below.

TCP Implementation (UNII2 & UNII2-Extended)

Transmitter Power Control or TPC is a feature that enables a Wi-Fi device to dynamically switch between several transmission power levels in the transmission process. This is mainly used to reduce interference if another device is transmitting on the same frequency.
For Wi-Fi devices operating the UNII2 and UNII2-Extended, Industry Canada states that "devices with a maximum e.i.r.p. greater than 500mW shall implement TPC in order to have the capability to operate at least 6dB below the maximum permitted e.i.r.p. of 1W". This information can be important to keep in mind while designing a WLAN.

Higher e.i.r.p. allowed for Point-to-Point devices (UNII3 & ISM)

Concerning the UNII3 & ISM bands (5725-5850MHz), the conducted output power shall not exceed 1W. If directional antennas are used with a gain greater than 6dBi, the maximum conducted output power shall be reduced by the amount in dB that the directional gain of the antenna exceeds 6dBi. So basically the maximum e.i.r.p. will never exceed 4W and if the gain of the antenna is greater than 6dBi, the output power will be adjusted accordingly.
However the standards stats that "fixed point-to-point devices operating in this band may employ transmitting antennas with directional gain greater than 6dBi without any corresponding reduction in transmitter conducted power".

Here is an example to explain this regulation:

So, on the left part of the drawing, we are using an antenna gain of 9dBi; which is 3dBi greater than 6dBi. If we were to use the maximum conducted power possible (i.e. 1W), the total e.i.r.p. would be: 30dBm (1W) + 9dBi = 39dBm (8W). 8W is over the maximum allowed (4W). So in order to stay under the regulations, we need to lower the conducted power by the number of the antenna gain dB greater than 6 (in our case 9-6 = 3dB). So the new conducted power would be: 30dBm (1W) - 3dB = 27dBm (500mW).
If we use a conducted power of 500mW we will have the following e.i.r.p.: 27dBm (500mW) + 9dBi = 36dBm (4W). This complies with the regulations!

On the right part of the drawing, we are setting up a point-to-point bridge link with an antenna gain of 13dBi; which is also greater than 6dBi. Even though the e.i.r.p. exceed 4W, we are still allowed to use a maximum conducted power of 1W.

If you are installing Wi-Fi on the 5GHz band in Canada, I would invite you to read the full official document from Industry Canada named "RSS-247 Digital Transmission Systems (DTSs), Frequency Hopping Systems (FHSs) and Licence-Exempt Local Area Network (LE-LAN) Devices". The section #6 details the regulations concerning Wi-Fi devices.

I hope this information will be useful for some of you.

Written by François Vergès

13 Comments

Steve McKim link

8/13/2015 16:09:47

Nice article Francois! If you don't mind, I'm going to copy that spreadsheet for my own use.

With respect to the PtMP scenario you described, I think it is important to note that if the clients are using directional antennas, then their EIRP is allowed to be higher than 4W. However, you may want to avoid this situation as you could deafen your AP's receiver or cause interference to your other sectors on the tower or structure.

François Vergès

8/14/2015 01:36:42

Hi Steve,

No problem, the info is there to be shared!
Thank you for adding the little note on the PtMP scenario. Much appreciated.

Cheers'

François

Some Guy

1/26/2016 18:40:39

Thanks for this post; glad I found it. It can be hard to find up-to-date Canada-specific info in an easily-accessible form such as this.

Simon

2/5/2016 22:36:48

Hello, I am noting that channels 120, 124 and 128 are not allowed in Canada, but they are in the USA. How do Access Point manufacturers manage this when selling product that could be sold in the USA or Canada? Do they simply eliminate operating on 120, 124 and 128 for their USA product also?

Thanks

Simon

François

3/6/2016 13:33:30

Hi Simon,

Yes they configure the available channels in the Country Code settings. So if you select the country code to be CA for Canada, the AP will only used channel available in Canada.

I hope I have answered your question!

François

Dan

10/26/2016 09:05:44

Hi Simon,

To add a little bit more detail, often manufacturers manufacture a model that can used globally, but they will hard set the regulatory domain for certification in each country (where required). Meaning that all APs shipping to Canada have been (or should be!) certified by Industry Canada, our regulatory body, FCC for the US, and so on.

Hope this helps!

Dan

Alain Daigle link

2/21/2017 15:31:26

Super François
Je cherchais cette information et je suis tombé sur ton blog !!! Félicitations et merci pour cette information utile !!!! Alain

Wendy Reuter link

3/27/2017 16:30:23

Hello Francois,
Would the proposed spectrum changes enable transit systems to deploy wifi technologies seamlessly across stations and vehicles, in ways that wouldn't be possible without the spectrum changes?

François Vergès link

3/27/2017 21:36:29

Hi Wendy,

The new specifications do not really change much from the previous ones. No change has been made on the spectrum, only on the transmit power rules. So you should be able to deploy Wi-Fi across stations and vehicles but it would be the same as what it would have been before. Are you talking about new spectrum available on 5GHz in the future? If you want to bring this conversation offline, feel free to send me an email.

Thank you!

Best Regards,

François (fverges@semfionetworks.com)

Chris

5/11/2017 15:20:57

Great article and table! Many thanks.

Couple of comments:

1) There is a Channel 32 (cf 5160MHz) - probably worth adding to your table for completeness.

2) On-going discussions regarding harmonizing Canadian U-NII 1 with the FCC. Increasing max conducted output power and EIRP as well as allowing use outdoors. Hopefully, Canada will align with the USA and simply device implementations!

5/13/2017 19:53:14

Hi Chris,

Thank you for your comment.

I have never seen channel 32 in Wi-Fi equipment in Canada. Have you ever used it?
Indeed, it would be nice if IC align with the FCC on U-NII 1.
As far as I know, unlike the FCC, there is no plan to allow more spectrum in the 5GHz in Canada.

Nice to exchange with other Canadian Wi-Fi peers.

Cheers.

François

Pat Drummond

4/3/2018 12:12:06

Wikipedia has a chart for 5 GHz for about 17 global regions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels

I am curious why these channels in the Canada column do not match your chart:
54, 58, 62, 102, 106, 110, 134, 138, 142, 151, 155
Channel 32 is not listed.

9/13/2018 13:35:02

Pat, Francois' matrix column 2 is the Center Frequency of the base 20MHz channel. The extra channels you noted (54, 58, etc) are the center of a wider channel. I am not an expert in IC/FCC/ETSI, but I have noted that there are an additional set of requirements that apply to Wide channel sets that straddle between different UNII groups. For example, the FCC requires the wide channel (e.g. 160MHz centered on chn 50) to adhere to the most restrictive rule for any constituent channel. in the chn 50 example, that would mean the entire 160MHz would have to support DFS. At least, that's how I've read the rules. I'm willing and able to be wrong.