Automatic Frequency Coordination Updates from Cisco
Hear the latest updates on 6GHz indoors and outdoors and how to deploy it with Automated Frequency Coordination. The release of the 6 GHz band for unlicensed use was a significant milestone for Wi-Fi, tripling available spectrum with 59 new channels and enabling higher speeds and capacities, while relieving congestion on the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands. However, this band is also occupied by thousands of licensed users, necessitating regulations to protect these incumbents from Wi-Fi interference. Global adoption varies, with North America and South Korea embracing the full band, while Europe and Australia use only the lower half. Additionally, regulations differentiate between indoor and outdoor use: indoor use is permitted at Low Power Indoor (LPI) levels (5 dBm/MHz PSD), but outdoor deployment or higher indoor power requires Standard Power (SP) and Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC).
Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC) is a cloud-based service that facilitates the use of the unlicensed 6 GHz band at Standard Power levels for indoor, outdoor, and external antenna deployments. This service coordinates spectrum sharing with incumbent users. Cisco’s AFC service resides in the cloud, where access points (APs) send requests containing their location (latitude, longitude, height) to the service. Cisco’s service then queries an AFC service provider (e.g., Federated Wireless) which, using a regulatory database, determines and returns the allowed channels and power levels to the AP. This response is valid for 24 hours, requiring APs to periodically send new requests to continue operating at Standard Power.
Operating at Standard Power offers significant gains, typically 3 to 6 dB (24 to 28 dBm) compared to LPI, extending coverage outdoors. While AFC ensures protection for licensed users, a potential concern is service availability; if the AFC service is unavailable for more than 24 hours, outdoor 6 GHz radios will cease operation, falling back to 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz, while indoor APs can still operate at LPI. Design considerations for Standard Power deployments include identifying appropriate use cases, checking channel availability beforehand, assessing client device penetration, accurately determining AP location (latitude, longitude, and manually entered height), and configuring through Cisco’s management platforms such as Meraki and Catalyst Center.
Presented by Manmeet Kaur, Product Manager, Cisco Wireless. Recorded live at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live in San Diego, CA on June 10, 2025. Watch the entire presentation at https://techfieldday.com/appearance/cisco-presents-at-tech-field-day-extra-at-cisco-live-us-2025/ or visit https://techfieldday.com/event/clus25/ or https://Cisco.com for more information.
Transcript
I'm happy to be here and I'm gonna talk about a FC today, how we can push our boundaries outdoors and indoors with six gigahertz. This, it's a short session. It'll set the context for what my team is gonna talk next about, uh, our DB 10 91 79, which was released today and how this is a must have feature for, for the same.
Touching briefly on our wifi spectrum, one of the key milestones, uh, happened in the wifi standards. When FCC released six gigahertz band for unlicensed use, we got 59 new channels and our available spectrum increased by almost three times. So we had more channels, uh, more higher bandwidth so we could get the speeds and the capacities.
4 and five gigahertz band. And these speeds, and this reliability enabled other, uh, real time, uh, mission critical applications. But there was a caveat.
This six gigahertz band was also occupied by thousands of licensed users. There was point to point microwave fixed satellite. We have TV broadcast services, and it was very important that these licensed U users, the incumbents are protected from these wi for the, from the wifi users.
So there more regulations came in. So first around the channels, not the, the six gigahertz band was not adopted by all countries. Uh, and then the entire band wasn't adopted, though the North Americas and South Korea and few other countries went with the whole band, uh, Europe.
And, uh, Australia for example, only adopted the first half. China. We don't see any six gigahertz yet.
And India, we started to see some news coming in with them considering the lower band. Now the other restriction came around indoor versus outdoor use. So for indoors, you are allowed to use six gigahertz at A LPI power level, which is a PSD of five, uh, DBM per megahertz, that ensured that you're not interfering with any incumbents.
But when it came to outdoors or to get a higher power indoors, you needed standard power and you needed a FC. So standard power allowed you to transmit at a higher power with 23 db m per megahertz. And, but this, uh, further brought some, uh, limits on the allowed bands.
So I'll talk about what is a FC. So this is a feature which will allow you to use unlicensed six gigahertz band using standard power. It allows indoors, outdoors, and external antennas.
It's basically cloud-based service that coordinates spectrum sharing with incumbents in the six gigahertz band. Uh, for Cisco, the service resides in the cloud, uh, how it works, the access points, every access point send an a FC request, uh, to the service. And this request includes the lat long and height of the access point.
And based on this request, uh, the a FC service sends a request to our a FC service provider, which is Federated Wireless. And they coordinate the spectrum sharing against the regulatory database, and they get a FC response back, which has the allowed channels and power levels. And, uh, this, uh, this response then gets to the ap and the AP has to operate within those limits.
So, uh, and then this response is only valid for 24 hours. So by the time this window is ending, the AP sends another request and then they can operate in standard power. I have A, I have a question if you can go back.
Yeah. Um, if the request is only for valid, valid for 24 hours, I've seen network outages longer than 24 hours, it feels like that's a single point of failure. What happens if federated goes away for more than 24 hours?
My enterprise network has to shut down at six years radios outdoors. 9%, uh, service availability. But the fallback is, um, more than that happening.
The chances are the a FC response that came in is not favorable. 4 for indoors. The AP will fall back on LPI, it'll still, it can still operate at LPI power levels For indoors.
But your outdoors, if you've got a six gigahertz only SSI Yes, then it's gonna go away. Yes, Definitely. And, and clearly.
Okay. Yeah. Alright.
Thank you. Okay. So with in general, uh, we are limited by the 36 DB M power level, but in real world we've seen APS go to from 24 to 28 DBM with Standard Power.
That's three to six DB gains that we have with, uh, standard power. And, um, just wanna mention that there are further checks on the channels. Uh, in US only Uni five and UNI seven are allowed on ca, on Canada Uni six is included as well.
So we have the service available in US and Canada. It should be coming in the next few weeks. We are waiting for fi finalized approvals.
And, um, just I wanna conclude. There are some design considerations that we need to keep in mind when planning for Standard Power. First is the use cases.
We have to understand where we need standard power outdoor. It's a must. Uh, we need to extend our coverage outdoors.
Then before you plan for Standard Power, it, it is helpful to check the availability of channels in that location. Uh, we have tools available with that, with Federated Wireless. You wanna check where, what your client penetration is.
Do you have dual capable, uh, uh, devices? And then you have to plan for location lat long and, uh, height. So lain long has to be automatically determined.
Height on the other hand can be manually entered. And lastly, we have the configuration through our management platforms, uh, which is available through all our Meraki Catalyst, catalyst Center.
