What is a regulatory domain?

A regulatory domain can be described as a set of rules and policies providing the end user with configurations of country code, calibration channel, and output power settings for a wireless device set up in a specific area. It is worth noting that devices can only work in one regulatory domain at a time.

There are 4 main regulatory domains in the world:

1. FCC - Federal Communications Commission The FCC is an independent US government agency which have jurisdiction over international and interstate communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable. Areas covered by the FCC regulatory domain include, North America (including Canada), Central America, South America, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, and parts of the Russian Federation.
2. ETSI - European Telecommunications Standards Institute ETSI is an advisory body mainly supporting European regulations and legislation. However, many other non-European geographical areas follow their recommendations such as the Middle East, Africa, China, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
   
   
3. TELEC - Telecom Engineering Center Only used in Japan, TELEC, part of the Japanese Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, defines the regulations for WLAN and other radio services.
   
   
4. KCC - Korea Communications Commission This regulatory domain is only used in Korea.

Each of these regulatory domains has different parameters to follow for Wi-Fi channels, frequencies, bands, bandwidths, etc.
It is important to know that devices used in one country and bought in another can break the compliance of the regulation in place in that region.

If you need to check your Cisco APs’ compliance for your country, you can use this useful tool: http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/assets/prod/wireless/wireless-compliance-tool/index.html

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