Regulating wireless devices [LWN.net]

Regulating wireless devices

Posted Aug 21, 2008 20:25 UTC (Thu) by nicolas@jungers (✭ supporter ✭, #7579)
In reply to: Regulating wireless devices by sflintham
Parent article: Regulating wireless devices

In Belgium the lowest part of the "a" domain (4 bands around 5.2 GHz) is restricted for indoor use at 200 mW and allowed for outdoor use at 25 mW. Values are from memory but the principle is still clear in my mind. A typical household external wall is an obstacle of around -10 db, sometimes more.

For info, an attenuation of 9 db lowers the signal from 200 mW to 25 mW.

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Regulating wireless devices

Posted Aug 21, 2008 22:30 UTC (Thu) by sflintham (subscriber, #47422) [Link]

I am kind of replying to both previous comments here, so I appreciate I am not making fair
statements, but I'm just curious rather than trying to tell anyone they're wrong.

So in Belgium, people routinely make sure to tell their Pocket PDAs and similar gadgets they
are outside? And when they go back inside?

Or does no wireless device configured to know it's in Belgium ever use the lowest part of the
"a" domain at the higher power, just to be safe?

Or is this just a case of stupid legal distinctions which no one respects in practice?

Or - perhaps the most plausible guess - do portable devices never use that part of the domain
at the higher powered level, while mains powered and hence legally-presumably indoor devices
do?

Regulating wireless devices

Posted Aug 23, 2008 12:43 UTC (Sat) by cortana (subscriber, #24596) [Link]

This is interesting. The manual for the wireless access point I purchased yesterday says the following:

> INTENDED USE. This device is a 2.4 GHz wireless LAN transceiver,
> intended for indoor home and office use in all EU and EFTA member states.
>
> ...
>
> POTENTIAL RESTRICTIVE USE. This device is a 2.4 GHz wireless LAN
> transceiver, intended for indoor home and office use in all EU and EFTA
> member states, except in France, Belgium and Italy where restrictive use
> applies.
>
> In Italy the end-user should apply for a license at the national
> spectrum authorities in order to obtain an authorization to use the
> device for setting up outdoor radio links.
>
> In Belgium there is a restriction in outdoor use. The frequency range in
> which outdoor operation in Belgium is permitted is 2460-2483.5 MHz,
>
> This device may not be used for setting up outdoor radio links in
> France. For more information see http://www.anfr.fr/ and/or
> http://www.art-telecom.fr

So it appears it's up to the end user to configure the device correctly in Belgium... but no hint as to the permitted channels is given, the user is expected to work them out from the frequency himself!

Regulating wireless devices

Posted Aug 27, 2008 12:02 UTC (Wed) by jlokier (guest, #52227) [Link]

I wouldn't be surprised if the PDAs are told by their wi-fi base station that they are connected to an "indoor" device.

From a perspective of managing the radio spectrum, the restrictions themselves seem quite sensible to me. Everyone transmitting at the higher power outdoors would just raise the noise floor in densely populated areas while everyone's competing rather than cooperating. (And it would raise the interference between neighbours in houses too - already a problem with wi-fi in some areas, where you might detect 30 base stations from a single room.)

Far better to regulate in such a way that people have to respond by installing a finer mesh of base stations and developing more cooperative protocols (eventually...).