Breaking free

The year 2005 started on

a good note for WLAN users in India. Not only did the government exempt the

indoor use of low power wireless equipment in the frequency band 5 GHz from

licensing requirement, it also did away with the need of license for outdoor use

of the 2.4 GHz band.

Indoor or Outdoor: No License for 2.4 GHz



The government has de-licensed the 2.4 GHz spectrum

(specifically, the 2.40-2.48 GHz band) and allowed the indoor, or in campus, as

well as outdoor use of 802.11b and g within the band. A notification issued said

that "no licence shall be required by any person to establish, maintain,

work, possess or deal in any wireless equipment, on non-interference,

non-protection and shared (non-exclusive) basis, in the frequency band 2.4 GHz

to 2.4835 GHz". However, users must adhere to certain specifications (see

table 1).

De-licensing of 2.4GHz band for outdoor usage is significant

in the context of new advancements in Wi-Fi technology, especially the dual mode

handsets. Many vendors are working on mobile handsets that would work on both

802.11-based networks and GSM/GPRS networks. What these handsets would basically

do is allow users to offload cellular voice and data traffic onto their office

WLANs or hot spots.

Deploying 802.11a Indoors: No License Required



In January 2005, the government exempted the "Indoor use

of low power wireless equipment in the frequency band 5 GHz" from licensing

requirements. The notification issued by the Ministry of Communications and

Information Technology (Wireless Planning and Coordination Wing) stated that no

licence shall be required by any person to establish, maintain, work, possess or

deal in any wireless equipment for the purpose of low power Wireless Access

System, including Radio Local Area Networks, in the frequency band 5.150 to

5.350 GHz and 5.725 to 5.875 GHz.

This means that organizations can deploy 802.11a based WLAN

systems that support a throughput up to 54 Mbps. Given the availability of

200MHz of available spectrum within the lower part of the 5GHz U-NII band, 12

such systems can operate simultaneously within a 50-meter circle with minimal

degradation, for an aggregate speed of 648Mbps. In other words, 802.11a systems

support more users and have a significant advantage in terms of network

scalability.

 

 

Ravi Shekhar Pandey