One SKU, Anywhere in the World: How Our Adaptive World Mode (AWM) Simplifies Global Deployments

Design Once, Deploy Anywhere

Ezurio’s decades of experience in wireless design and certification have enabled our customers to deploy their wireless designs all over the world, and to secure compliance for every regulatory region under the sun. Out of that global effort, a common truth emerges: being a worldwide provider of wireless products is a lot of work. This work is part of the key value that we provide to our customers in the form of pre-certified modules and antennas that are compliant to global regulatory requirements. Our customers leverage that global regulatory expertise into their own products and save months of extra work in the certifications process.

For manufacturers, it doesn’t stop with securing that compliance. The work continues when it’s time to roll out products to the markets in which they’re sold. As part of the manufacturing process, OEMs must ensure that their radio is configured for compliance in their destination countries. That means setting parameters in the factory so that products only operate in the frequency channels and power limits that are permissible in the destination region. 

This adds a layer of complexity to the manufacturing, operations and shipping process, and it also adds liability. Non-compliant radios subject manufacturers to risks of fines, returned product, delays, slipping schedules, and lost revenue. These are some of the risks we’ve outlined in our white paper, From Fines to Failures: The Hidden Costs of Regulatory Non- Compliance.

Setting country-specific wireless behavior at the point of manufacture has clear advantages: It allows OEMs to make the fullest use of available spectrum in the destination country, since knowing the destination means the OEM can comfortably open up all available channels at the maximum allowable power without running that risk of noncompliance. However, this requires the logistical work of programming units specifically for all their destinations, which can be dozens of SKUs for customers to individually program and organize. This is complex and requires extensive time and effort by the manufacturer. 

This is the problem Ezurio cuts through with our Adaptive World Mode (AWM) feature. AWM solves this problem intelligently and programmatically. Using AWM on supported Ezurio radios allows the module to use beacons and signals locally to determine the location of the radio and to adapt its own channel and power scheme to the one required for that given location. Rather than put the onus on the manufacturer, AWM allows the radio to make the right configuration on the fly, and to check in periodically to make sure it’s still operating in compliance with local regulations. 

How Does it Work? 

Adaptive World Mode utilizes the IEEE 802.11d standard to identify where in the world the radio is. Introduced in 2001, 802.11d is an amendment to the 802.11 standard that allows OEMs to support country identification within their design. This country identification is part of an exchange between the client device and the infrastructure, such as a wireless router or access point. 

Routers and access points that support 802.11d and are configured correctly broadcast a country code as part of their routine operation. This country code may be one of 249  countries, territories, and regions around the world, and an Ezurio radio in Adaptive World Mode utilizes this code as a factor in determining the country of operation. If the radio is unable to determine this, it will default to a mode which is a minimally configured scheme of channels and power limits that will not violate regulatory rules anywhere that the device can be deployed, known here as “worldwide mode.” 

As of 2015, the FCC has ruled that this mechanism alone is not sufficient for setting country-specific radio parameters within the FCC region. So Ezurio uses an additional FCC-compliant algorithm to make further determinations based on nearby signals from other wireless devices. It does this by gathering information on up to 5 co-located access points, and makes an assessment whether the majority of them are flagging a current region. 

This mechanism makes a cautious determination of the region the radio is located in, and if it has confidence it will adjust the channel and power set to that region. If not, it defaults to worldwide mode, which is that channel set which is minimal and will not violate rules anywhere in the world. 

Key Advantages

As previously discussed, one of the major advantages of setting the country code in manufacturing is that the manufacturer can configure for a known regulatory environment. This means that regardless of whether the device is able to self-assess its location, it’s possible to enable the full range of allowed channels and transmit power characteristics. Nothing is left on the table and that means the best possible performance. 

The single greatest advantage to AWM is in simplifying logistics for programming and shipping wireless devices. A single product SKU, a single software package and configuration, can be deployed to all of those 249 distinct locations without special differentiation, without separate distribution, and ultimately without worry. This saves OEMs the time, effort, and cost of globalizing a product. 

Importantly, this scales. OEMs don’t need to know every destination country on day one. If an OEM secures approval to ship into a new country, they can add the power tables and definitions to their software package and render that product compliant in that country with a software update. Rather than having to program a new batch of hardware, the existing hardware is ready to go anywhere in the world with a simple software push. 

Many manufacturers take the complicated management of multiple SKUs as a given requirement of doing business globally. It is not. Ezurio is the only module vendor with FCC authorization to offer this solution: Our demonstrated excellence of methodology is the reason Ezurio is able to provide this offering. It’s one of the many ways our unique expertise directly benefits our customers.  

What Radios Support AWM? 

AWM has been supported by Ezurio for many years as part of our 60 Series Wi-Fi + Bluetooth Modules. It’s enabled by our special access to radio firmware and our specialized development of that firmware for many better-than-stock radio features and performance enhancements. 

Beginning with our 60-2230C and 60-SIPT modules and soon coming to our Sona branded NXP, Infineon, and TI radios, Ezurio plans to make AWM a core feature across more of our wireless products. This is possible due to our partnerships with NXP, Infineon, and Texas Instruments. AWM has proven to be a key enabler with Ezurio’s customers as a way to simplify their manufacturing and SKU differentiation process and providing an extra check to be sure their products never run afoul of regulatory requirements in the many countries in which their devices operate. 

Trust Ezurio – Your Connectivity Expert

Adaptive World Mode is just one of the many offerings that set Ezurio apart from other wireless device providers. Our decades of design expertise touch everything that we do, creating differentiation in hardware and software design, security architecture, pre-certification of our modules, industry-unique patented antenna design, world-class integration support, thorough and extensive documentation, out-of-the-box application examples, and much more. 

We help manufacturers drop their design cycles from years to months, doing the homework for our customers ahead of time and being with them every step of the way from design to manufacture and years into the product lifecycle. We are a true partner with one mission: to bring our customers’ designs to life and to support them well into the future. 

For more on our Wi-Fi offerings, please visit our website: 

www.ezurio.com/wi-fi