Nanostation 5 - DFS & TPC - V 3.2?

[Geoff Jones]

A trawl of websites selling Nano5s reveals sellers listing DFS and TPC as included features alongside CE Certification. The forum has several posts on whether or not DFS and TPC features are included and one post suggests that the features will be available in firmware V3.2. Ubiquiti support downloads pages shows version 3.0 as available, no sign of V3.2.

This leads us to think that DFS and TPC are not included in firmware currently shipping in Europe on latest Nano5s (end July 2008). Without DFS and TPC use of Nano5s would be illegal in many parts of Europe which require both features to be available and active.

Forum posts suggest that Ubiquiti does underssand the ETSI requirement and is working hard to resolve it in firmware V3.2.

Could the inclusion of DFS and TPC in firmware V3.2 be confirmed, along with an anticipated issue date please?

The floodgates of Nano 5 sales into Europe will likely open as soon as DFS & TPC are available....

Meanwhile congratulations to Ubiquiti on breaking the price ceilings on 802.11 kit with these excellent solutions :)

[UBNT-keba]

As I know v3.1.1 support DFS

[Geoff Jones]

That's excellent news, thank you.

Any suggestions where we can find 3.1.1 as it doesn't seem to be on the Ubiqiti support pages?

And TPC...? (equally essential for ETSI certification....)

Thanks for your amazingly rapid response :D

Geoff

[UBNT-keba]

Hi all

Sometimes people are talking about TPC without without deep investigation.
So before starting discusion I'd like to ask everyone.

Probaly it will sound strange but can somebody drop some direct links to official docs about TPC requirements in Europe.

I have some (also including FCC) but not sure these are correct.
Thanks

[Geoff Jones]

Regulations differ slightly in each EC Country but there is harmonised EU legislation so they allow follow pretty much the same requirements and DFS + TPC are fundamental requirements.

The UK Regulator is Ofcom which listed two requirements for 5.8 GHz use in the UK: networks must support dynamic frequency selection (DFS) technology to minimise interference with military radar, because the Ministry of Defence already uses the band, and transmit power control (TPC), to ensure that each network transmits at the lowest possible power level. There's an additional requirement: "DFS and TPC is assumed to be implemented as specified in ETSI harmonised European standard EN 302 502."

The DFS + TPC requirement is given in IR2007, see http://www.ofcom.org.uk/radiocomms/ifi/licensing/classes/rlans/5.8_fwa_index/ which mentions Directive 1998/34/EC available at http://www.etsi.org/website/document/aboutetsi/ec_mandates/m404_en.pdf and listing EMC requirements.

EN 302 502 is available for download for a small fee at http://www.beuth.de/cmd;jsessionid=52C3D4AF8ADD2DA7ECC207CBCE1E214F.1?level=tpl-Langanzeige&smoid=107822798&languageid=en

In May 2007 Ofcom allowed an increase in EIRP to 4 watts - see http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/powerlimits/power/

DFS and TPC were implemented in Lancom devices in January 2005 as I recall. Curently software from many European originators implements the standard including IkarusOS, and dd-WRT, and StarOS (Non-EU) now includes it. There are low-cost 5.8 outdoor AP/Bridge CPEs freely available in the UK that implement the standard but it would be improper to name them here. As far as I know, the only manufacturers that don't support the standard are Ubiquiti and a certain Latvian company.

Here in Europe WISPs have been trying for 4 years to find a way to get reliable outdoor 5.8 Gigs gear under $100 and Nanostation 5s are a superb answer to their many prayers: to find that DFS and TPC are not yet implemented in Nanostation5s is a serious bar to their take-up en masse throughout Europe.

DFS and TPC are not an option for discussion, they're a legal requirement in Europe!

Hope this helps ascertain what is required. It may be that the SDK will enable someone like IkarusOS to develop alternative software as an alternative option but Ubiquiti should include the features, and the notch out, to make sales in Europe where everyone is moving rapidly to 5.8 GHz due to overcrowding on 2.4 GHz.

[jmbo]

Hi all,

for the moment the solution in europe is to use this os http://www.oswave.com/index.php, but it's 24,95€ per device .....

JMB

[WHT]

FCC Part 15

Section 15.37 Transition provisions for compliance with the rules.

(l) U-NII equipment operating in the 5.25-5.35 GHz band for which applications for certification
are filed on or after July 20, 2006 shall comply with the DFS and TPC requirements specified in Section
15.407 of this part. U-NII equipment operating in the 5.25-5.35 GHz band that are imported or marketed
on or after July 20, 2007 shall comply with the DFS and TPC requirements in Section 15.407 of this part.


Section 15.407 General technical requirements.

(h) Transmit Power Control (TPC) and Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS).

(1) Transmit power control (TPC). U-NII devices operating in the 5.25-5.35 GHz band
and the 5.47-5.725 GHz band shall employ a TPC mechanism. The U-NII device is required to have the
capability to operate at least 6 dB below the mean EIRP value of 30 dBm. A TPC mechanism is not
required for systems with an e.i.r.p. of less than 500 mW.

(2) Radar Detection Function of Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS). U-NII devices
operating in the 5.25-5.35 GHz and 5.47-5.725 GHz bands shall employ a DFS radar detection
mechanism to detect the presence of radar systems and to avoid co-channel operation with radar systems.
The minimum DFS detection threshold for devices with a maximum e.i.r.p. of 200 mW to 1 W is -64
dBm. For devices that operate with less than 200 mW e.i.r.p. the minimum detection threshold is -62
dBm. The detection threshold is the received power averaged over 1 microsecond referenced to a 0 dBi
antenna. The DFS process shall be required to provide a uniform spreading of the loading over all the
available channels.

(i) Operational Modes. The DFS requirement applies to the following
operational modes:

(A) The requirement for channel availability check time applies in the master operational mode.

(B) The requirement for channel move time applies in both the master
and slave operational modes.

(ii) Channel Availability Check Time. A U-NII device shall check if there is a
radar system already operating on the channel before it can initiate a transmission on a channel and when
it has to move to a new channel. The U-NII device may start using the channel if no radar signal with a
power level greater than the interference threshold values listed above is detected within 60 seconds.

(iii) Channel Move Time. After a radar’s presence is detected, all transmissions
shall cease on the operating channel within 10 seconds. Transmissions during this period shall consist of
normal traffic for a maximum of 200 ms after detection of the radar signal. In addition, intermittent
management and control signals can be sent during the remaining time to facilitate vacating the operating
channel.

(iv) Non-occupancy Period. A channel that has been flagged as containing a
radar system, either by a channel availability check or in-service monitoring, is subject to a non-
occupancy period of at least 30 minutes. The non-occupancy period starts at the time when the radar
system is detected.

[sam_uk]

Could someone give me a definitive answer as to whether the Routerstation firmware supports TPC and DFS?

Thanks

Sam

[CaptainProton]

TPC is not supported!

DFS is supported in a certain way, but I do not know in what way it complies with eu regulation.

[FreenetAntennas]

From my reading of both the FCC (15.407) and EU (ETSI EN 301 893 V1.4.1) docs, TPC is nothing more than the ability to change the TX Output power to 6 dB below the max permitted - and all UBNT devices support this in airOS.

http://wiki.ubnt.com/wiki/images/b/b9/Airos5_wireless_output.png

There is nothing that says this TX power must be magically software controlled.

Unless proven wrong, I contend that we DO have TPC.

:ubnt_banana:

[nivlek]

From my reading of both the FCC (15.407) and EU (ETSI EN 301 893 V1.4.1) docs, TPC is nothing more than the ability to change the TX Output power to 6 dB below the max permitted - and all UBNT devices support this in airOS.

http://wiki.ubnt.com/wiki/images/b/b9/Airos5_wireless_output.png

There is nothing that says this TX power must be magically software controlled.

Unless proven wrong, I contend that we DO have TPC.

:ubnt_banana:
The German Agency has over 50 questions before allocating a frequency.

They ask if the equipment conforms to requirements, and also may ask for a registration number. They can also request further information.

The question is has Ubiquiti or its Agent in Germany done that. If not I don't think a request will be accepted by the German Network Agency.

nivlek