Intel 7260 - limited in 5GHz spectrum

Intel 7260 - limited in 5GHz spectrum

[Pushpal Sidhu]

Hi,

I've been working with the Intel 7260 card which advertises itself as
dual band wireless AC card. However, I cannot get it working in AP
mode in the 5GHz range. An $(iw list) shows that the entire 5GHz band
has 'no IR' next to it so as not to allow device radiation (please see
pastebin here: http://pastebin.com/T4BWnBmn).

After searching around the internet a bit, it seems that the card
doesn't allow for this mode (And is thus not really dual band?). I'd
like to know if this is a firmware limitation and if there's a fix in
place, or if not, why is this card limited to the spectrum it can
radiate at?

Thanks,
- Pushpal

Re: Intel 7260 - limited in 5GHz spectrum

[Grumbach, Emmanuel]

Hi,

On 10/30/2015 06:37 PM, Pushpal Sidhu wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I've been working with the Intel 7260 card which advertises itself as
> dual band wireless AC card. However, I cannot get it working in AP
> mode in the 5GHz range. An $(iw list) shows that the entire 5GHz band
> has 'no IR' next to it so as not to allow device radiation (please see
> pastebin here: http://pastebin.com/T4BWnBmn).
> 
> After searching around the internet a bit, it seems that the card
> doesn't allow for this mode (And is thus not really dual band?). I'd
> like to know if this is a firmware limitation and if there's a fix in
> place, or if not, why is this card limited to the spectrum it can
> radiate at?
> 


7260 does not (and will not) support AP mode in 5GHz band. This is of
course not a hardware limitation since it can function as a station in
this band. The limitation is due to regulatory concerns. Later devices
(8260) have the ability to be an AP in 5GHz under certain circumstances.

Re: Intel 7260 - limited in 5GHz spectrum

[Pushpal Sidhu]

On Sat, Oct 31, 2015 at 12:12 PM, Grumbach, Emmanuel
<emmanuel.grumbach@intel.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On 10/30/2015 06:37 PM, Pushpal Sidhu wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I've been working with the Intel 7260 card which advertises itself as
>> dual band wireless AC card. However, I cannot get it working in AP
>> mode in the 5GHz range. An $(iw list) shows that the entire 5GHz band
>> has 'no IR' next to it so as not to allow device radiation (please see
>> pastebin here: http://pastebin.com/T4BWnBmn).
>>
>> After searching around the internet a bit, it seems that the card
>> doesn't allow for this mode (And is thus not really dual band?). I'd
>> like to know if this is a firmware limitation and if there's a fix in
>> place, or if not, why is this card limited to the spectrum it can
>> radiate at?
>>
>
>
> 7260 does not (and will not) support AP mode in 5GHz band. This is of
> course not a hardware limitation since it can function as a station in
> this band. The limitation is due to regulatory concerns. Later devices
> (8260) have the ability to be an AP in 5GHz under certain circumstances.

Ah, thank you for the clarification.

- Pushpal

Re: Intel 7260 - limited in 5GHz spectrum

[Tim Harvey]

On Sat, Oct 31, 2015 at 12:12 PM, Grumbach, Emmanuel
<emmanuel.grumbach@intel.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On 10/30/2015 06:37 PM, Pushpal Sidhu wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I've been working with the Intel 7260 card which advertises itself as
>> dual band wireless AC card. However, I cannot get it working in AP
>> mode in the 5GHz range. An $(iw list) shows that the entire 5GHz band
>> has 'no IR' next to it so as not to allow device radiation (please see
>> pastebin here: http://pastebin.com/T4BWnBmn).
>>
>> After searching around the internet a bit, it seems that the card
>> doesn't allow for this mode (And is thus not really dual band?). I'd
>> like to know if this is a firmware limitation and if there's a fix in
>> place, or if not, why is this card limited to the spectrum it can
>> radiate at?
>>
>
>
> 7260 does not (and will not) support AP mode in 5GHz band. This is of
> course not a hardware limitation since it can function as a station in
> this band. The limitation is due to regulatory concerns. Later devices
> (8260) have the ability to be an AP in 5GHz under certain circumstances.

Emmanuel,

Out of curiosity, can you explain what you mean about 'regulatory
concerns'? There are channels in the 5GHz band that can be used in FCC
with and without DFS. Is it that certification in the 5GHz band is
optional and Intel didn't want to do the certification?

Regards,

Tim

Re: Intel 7260 - limited in 5GHz spectrum

[Johannes Berg]

On Tue, 2015-11-03 at 08:08 -0800, Tim Harvey wrote:
> 
> Out of curiosity, can you explain what you mean about 'regulatory
> concerns'? There are channels in the 5GHz band that can be used in 
> FCC
> with and without DFS. Is it that certification in the 5GHz band is
> optional and Intel didn't want to do the certification?
> 

I believe the reason is that the device is sold in countries other than
the US. Surprise! ;-)

johannes

Re: Intel 7260 - limited in 5GHz spectrum

[Tim Harvey]

On Tue, Nov 3, 2015 at 8:27 AM, Johannes Berg <johannes@sipsolutions.net> wrote:
> On Tue, 2015-11-03 at 08:08 -0800, Tim Harvey wrote:
>>
>> Out of curiosity, can you explain what you mean about 'regulatory
>> concerns'? There are channels in the 5GHz band that can be used in
>> FCC
>> with and without DFS. Is it that certification in the 5GHz band is
>> optional and Intel didn't want to do the certification?
>>
>
> I believe the reason is that the device is sold in countries other than
> the US. Surprise! ;-)
>
> johannes

Johannes,

No surprise that its sold outside the US, but why should that mean it
should exclude 5GHz support? They all have their regulatory domains
and my understanding is that the intersection of the reg domain rules
and card capabilities should dictate if they can operate as an AP per
5GHz channel. So I'm trying to understand why this card is dropping
that capability.

Thanks,

Tim

Re: Intel 7260 - limited in 5GHz spectrum

[Johannes Berg]

On Tue, 2015-11-03 at 09:43 -0800, Tim Harvey wrote:

> No surprise that its sold outside the US, but why should that mean it
> should exclude 5GHz support? They all have their regulatory domains
> and my understanding is that the intersection of the reg domain rules
> and card capabilities should dictate if they can operate as an AP per
> 5GHz channel. So I'm trying to understand why this card is dropping
> that capability.
> 

It does have 5 GHz capability, but not for active operation, since
that's not permitted everywhere in the world. The device doesn't want
to rely on software regulatory enforcement, nor are there multiple
versions of the device for different countries, so this is about the
only option left.

johannes