Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC) is an automatic frequency coordination mechanism for Wi-Fi. The United States FCC requires Wi-Fi 6e and Wi-Fi 7 terminals to use AFC technology to regulate the use of 6G frequency bands. Under the working mechanism of the AFC, the standard power wireless access point (Standard Power AP) obtains information including which frequencies are available in the frequency band and the maximum transmission power corresponding to the frequency by accessing the FCC regulatory database, and also automatically provides the information to the connected AFC terminal equipment in the form of a list, so as to control the equipment to actively retreat to the authorized service to avoid interference. Starting June 15, 2024, the FCC requires AFC to submit test results at the same time as a mandatory test item when submitting the certification report, with a 60-day delay period, that is, it will be mandatory from August 15.

The implementation of AFC technology has brought challenges to the capacity building of Wi-Fi regulatory testing. To build a test environment, a router that supports the AFC function and can provide a maximum transmit power of 36dBm is required to log in to the FCC authorized AFC sever to read the authorized frequency band and channel, and then negotiate according to the environmental parameters to communicate with the terminal that supports the AFC function. At present, the CTTL-Terminal Labs (CTTL-T) has the AFC test capability for Wi-Fi 6e and Wi-Fi 7 terminals, and the test architecture is shown in the following figure

CTTL-T has complete testing capabilities for Wi-Fi regulations including Wi-Fi 7, and has obtained certification qualifications in North America, Europe, Japan, India and other countries, and has accumulated debugging and testing experience for multiple projects, and has maintained good cooperative relations with domestic chip manufacturers and router manufacturers, which can help customers successfully obtain relevant certifications in a short period of time.

Contact:

Mrs. Zheng zhengwei1@caict.ac.cn