Qualcomm has been approved as the first Automated Frequency Coordination System Administrator (AFCSA) for commercial operation of Wi-Fi 6 systems in Canada.
QUalcomm said that its AFC system is “immediately available” for operations in Canada. It’s also waiting for approval from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.
As described by the Canadian government, an AFC system automatically determines a list of available frequencies and the associated maximum power levels for use by standard-power Radio Local Area Network devices operating on unlicensed frequencies on a “no protection, no interference” basis at 5.925-6.875 GHz. The AFC system uses data from protected, licensed incumbent systems in the band (licensed fixed service stations and radio astronomy observatories), as well as information from the Wi-Fi device, to manage the device’s access to the spectrum.
Qualcomm said that its AFC system is integral to its end-to-end Qualcomm AFC Solution, which it says will “unlock a higher-performance, longer-range version of 6 GHz operation in Wi-Fi 6E, Wi-Fi 7 and future generations.”
“We are excited by and applaud the approval from Canadian Innovation, Science and Economic Development,” said Ganesh Swaminathan, VP and GM of wireless infrastructure and networking for Qualcomm Technologies. “With our complete AFC solution, we are positioned to deploy scalable, turnkey cloud-to-silicon services to maximize 6 GHz Wi-Fi performance. With this approval, we can now accelerate our customers’ Standard Power access point deployments in Canada and stand ready to expand to other regions.”
