Automated Frequency Coordination - AFC
- Dejan Pojbič
General
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently opened up the 6 GHz band for unlicensed operation for Wi-Fi, but to ensure that it doesn’t impact existing 6GHz operations from RF interference, they devised a system to determine whether the transmit power needs to be limited or not. This system to coordinate spectrum is similar to what already exists for White Space (or White-Fi) and CBRS Wireless operation. The basic concept in all these wireless technologies is that a new wireless device (access point) will consult a registered database to confirm its operation will not impact a registered user. For 6 GHz operation, this is called an Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC) provider.
The response from the AFC provider is based on the Access Point (AP) location, and will determine whether the AP has to use Low Power (30 dBm EIRP) or Standard Power mode (36 dBm EIRP).
Northbound API
OpenSync provides unified solution for configuration and management for AFC application. Hence we introduced some new OVSDB tables and added a field in Wifi_Radio_State table.
Table Name | Purpose | Fields |
|---|---|---|
Wifi_Radio_State | This will have uuids for Wifi_Transmit_Power_Constraints and used to represent when we get TPC values (EIRP) from driver. | tpc_uuid referring to Wifi_Transmit_Power_Constraints |
Wifi_AFC | Parameters related to AFC Server. | server_url, oem_id, product_id tpc_uuid referring to Wifi_Transmit_Power_Constraints location_uuid referring to Location |
Location | Parameters related to location values. | object_ellipse, object_linear_polygon, object_radial_polygon, height, vertical_uncertainity. ellipse_lattitude, ellipse_longitude etc. |
Wifi_Transmit_Power_Constraints | Mapping of channels and eirp_values in an op_class | channels, eirp_values, op_class |
GPS_Device | GPS device related options | gps_device_name location_uuid referring to Location |
Wifi_Scan_Location | This is generic table used for identifying the location using Wi-Fi scan. | location_uuid referring to Location |
Location_Manual | This table can have options coming from cloud to enforce the latitude, longitude and height related options. | location_uuid referring to Location |
Requirements
Based on your selection of AFC provider (as example OpenAFC ), you will have to extend the OneWiFi manager (OWM) and implement southbound API together with your SDN provider.