MikroTik Frequency Modes

In this lesson, I will speak about the different frequency modes that we have on MikroTik wireless. There are 3 different modes which are:

  • Regulatory domain
  • Manual Tx-power
  • Superchannel

You can see them inside the Wireless settings over here:

Each one of the modes has a function to the allowed frequencies to be used and the allowed TX power that this AP can use.

Let’s take one by one and explain more about each of the modes.

P.S: in this LAB you will see in the illustrations the mode = Station, but in fact the mode should be AP bridge.

Regulatory-domain

When you have a Wireless AP, you can choose the frequency mode to be “regulatory-domain”. When you choose it this way, then you have also to select your country because each country has a regulation as per the frequencies to be used and the power. In another term, when you choose the regulatory-domain and select your country, then your router will provide you only the frequencies and power allowed in that country. This way, you have restriction to the frequencies and power that you can use based on the law of your country, you got me?

I will go to the router and choose regulator-domain and select The Netherlands as the country, then see the frequency range that I will get:

Here I have chosen the regulatory-domain as frequency mode. Let’s see the frequencies that are allowed to be used in The Netherlands:

So I see that I can use from Channel 1 to Channel 13 in The Netherlands on the 2.4 GHz. Those are called the “Standard Frequency Channels” because we will see later that the RouterOS support a bigger range of frequencies when using the Superchannel mode.

If you ask how I know that it is supporting from Channel 1 to Channel 13, then the answer is because of the frequencies. You see it can use from the frequency 2412 MHz which is channel 1 to frequency 2472 MHz which is channel 13. You can see that based on the following graph:

The Standard frequency channels are the frequencies that are supported by end devices such as smart phones, tablets, PCs and so on. Those channel were shown in the middle when we were doing Spectral Scan & Spectral History in some previous lessons.

 

Manual-Txpower

In the 2nd frequency mode, I will speak about the Manual-Txpower. This mode also restrict the router on the standard frequency range, but give you the ability to change the Tx power to the value that you want.

Some countries do not allow that you over-regulate the power as you want. For example, in The Netherlands it is not allowed that I go with the power on the MikroTik AP more than what is allowed by the law. In some other countries, that’s can be allowed.

For the explanation purpose, I will have to put no-country-set so I can use the Manual Tx-power because if I keep the country The Netherlands and I choose the Manual Tx-Power as the frequency mode, then I shall get an error. Let me show you that:

You see clearly that I couldn’t change to Manual Tx-Power for The Netherlands, so I will change the country to “no-country-set” and see if I can choose the Manual Tx-Power as the frequency mode:

This worked perfectly 🙂 – As I said, now I have restriction on frequencies that I can use but for the power I can change it. I am curious to know what frequency range I am allowed to use now, let’s have a look:

I see that I can use the range from Channel 1 to Channel 11.

Superchannel

The last Frequency mode that I want to speak about is the Superchannel. When using this mode, everything will be open as for the frequency range and the Tx power. So you can use even frequencies which are not from the standard one. This option can be ideal in places where you wish to do outdoor Point-to-Point links. However, be careful that you check 1st if this is allowed by your country regulation or not before you use those frequencies.

Let’s see what will happen to the frequency range once I set up the frequency mode to Superchannel:

Here I have set it to Superchannel. Let’s see the range of frequencies that will be allowed on this router now:

I couldn’t put the list of frequencies in 1 picture, so you see 2 pictures above stating that the 1st available frequency on the Superchannel mode is 2312 MHz and the last possible frequency is 2732 MHz. That’s a huge range of frequencies that are available (of course the standard wireless frequencies are also included in this range).

Again, do not use those frequencies unless you know that it is allowed by the regulation of your country or you have a license allowing you to use them.

That’s all what I wanted to show you in this lesson, I hope you enjoyed it and see you in the upcoming one 🙂

 

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