Connectivity Q&A: What's Next For Wi-Fi 6 & 6E In The European Union

By Igor Lalicevic

How does the Wi-Fi Alliance affect and manage the Wi-Fi standard in the EU?

The Wi-Fi Alliance is a consortium of semiconductor companies, operators, end customers, and other organizations in the Wi-Fi ecosystem. Its goal is to collaborate, facilitate and promote open wireless communications using Wi-Fi standards-based networking technologies.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) writes the standards that dictate Wi-Fi technical specifications. From these specifications, the Wi-Fi Alliance develops testing plans, services, and certification programs. This ensures Wi-Fi products meet specification guidelines that are compatible with each other and deliver the expected performance and capability.

The Alliance is the international advocate for the global Wi-Fi communications we now use in our homes, companies, across cities, and in private and public venues, like cafés, stadiums, etc.

Even though Wi-Fi is used for local area networking of global devices and worldwide internet access, there are different regional requirements in adopted Wi-Fi frequency, permitted Wi-Fi channels and maximum allowed transmission power (EIRP) per country. EIRP is the maximum amount of power that an antenna array can radiate given the antenna's gain and the RF subsystem's transmitter power.

It is crucial to understand the difference between standards and regulations.

• Products must comply with technical conditions to operate in a specific band, which is defined by regulations.
• To guarantee that products placed on the European market comply with regulations, we use standards.

In Europe, ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) is the official recognized body responsible for the standardization of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

The European Standard ETSI documents specify maximum WLAN transmission power levels in Europe. The European regulation outlined in these ETSI documents defines frequency allocation and the amount of 6 GHz spectrum that has been designated for Wi-Fi 6E products.

For example, on Jan 17, 2020, the United Kingdom (UK) regulator Ofcom released a proposal for improving spectrum access to Wi-Fi. Ofcom proposed opening 480 MHz (5945 – 6425 MHz) for Wi-Fi spectrum at 6 GHz for unlicensed use in Europe. For reference, this 6 GHz spectrum in the US is 5925 – 7125 MHz.

Each European Commission directive, like the one from Ofcom, contains a deadline by which EU countries must incorporate the provision into each EU countries' national legislation and inform the Commission to that effect. This date is called the implementation date, and in the case of the lower 6 GHz band proposal of Ofcom, the date was December 1, 2021.

The Wi-Fi Alliance's role is to help create programs and universal trust in the EU. Additionally, the Alliance identifies and promotes new use cases for Wi-Fi.