Las Vegas — MediaTek has successfully completed interoperability testing for Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC) on MediaTek Filogic Wi-Fi 7 and Wi-Fi 6E chips, in collaboration with the leading innovator of private wireless and shared spectrum services Federated Wireless, the former announced. Federated Wireless is conditionally approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to operate an AFC system, which manages access to spectrum by standard-power indoor and outdoor unlicensed devices in the six GHz band.

An AFC system enables standard power operation for indoor and outdoor unlicensed devices, such as 5G CPEs, fiber gateways, and ethernet gateways, to transmit over 850 MHz of spectrum in the 6 GHz frequency band. Doing so provides Wi-Fi products with improved range, faster connectivity speeds, and improved capacity, which is particularly helpful as Wi-Fi 7 technology continues to proliferate.

“Our leadership in Wi-Fi technology would not be complete without ensuring our customers have easy access to AFC solutions,” said MediaTek Connectivity Corporate Vice President Alan Hsu. “We are very happy to partner with Federated Wireless and to have finished an extensive series of integration testing. Our Filogic Wi-Fi 7 and 6E chips, including the CES 2023 Innovation Award-winning Filogic 880, will soon support Standard Power operation in the 6GHz spectrum for companies producing Wi-Fi devices.”

MediaTek and Federated Wireless have successfully completed interoperability testing for Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC) Devices and AFC Systems. This testing included both positive and negative tests which were drawn from the Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA) AFC System certification specification. The positive tests verified the proper calculation and response of spectrum availability at several locations, while the negative tests verified proper error handling. The tests also employed additional security measures beyond those specified by the WFA's Standard Device Interface requirement documentation, ensuring a high level of privacy and data security in all AFC System communications.

“We are proud to partner with MediaTek to perform these critical interoperability tests to ensure that the commercial industry is ready for standard power device operations to begin,” said Federated Wireless Chief Technology Officer Kurt Schaubach. “Federated Wireless prides itself on being a premier collaborator with our partners and customers interested in spectrum sharing solutions.”

The successful completion of interoperability tests has cleared the way for MediaTek customers to use Federated Wireless' AFC system on MediaTek Filogic Wi-Fi 7 and 6E chips. This allows them to launch standard power indoor and outdoor device operations through an AFC system, once fully approved by the FCC.