RF Regulatory Domains

RF Regulatory Domains

Although every country in the world today has the authority to create and enforce technology regulations specific unto itself, most countries adopt such regulations that are uniform with other (typically larger) countries. Countries (usually adjoining) that share a common set of regulations are referred to in the 802.11 specification as regulatory domains. That said, three major regulatory bodies exercise authority over the vast majority of the world's technology regulations, as follows:

• FCC As mentioned in the preceding section, the first regulatory bodies to police spread spectrum and WLANs were the FCC and IC, which have jurisdiction over the United States and Canadian RF regulations, respectively. Although referred to as the FCC domain in the 802.11 specifications, the FCC and IC are commonly called (as in this book, too) the North American regulatory domain.

• ETSI ETSI is more of an advisory body than a regulatory body (unlike the FCC and TELEC), and makes recommendations for regulations instead of enacting them itself. As the name implies, the ETSI was developed with the European countries in mind; however, many other countries worldwide follow the ETSI recommendations.

• TELEC In Japan, the Telecom Engineering Center (TELEC), part of the Japanese Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, defines the regulations for WLAN and other radio services. These regulations tend to be used only in Japan.