2 How region shapes a device

2.1 What differs by region

Region changes more than a frequency. Two regulatory differences between North America and Europe account for nearly everything that changes for an application.

Transmit power. North America permits 30 dBm. European limits are lower, which reduces link budget, and the effect differs by link:

• FSK 50kbps is limited to 14 dBm in Europe. Receiver sensitivity is the same in both regions, so the full 16 dB reduction carries into the link budget.
• LoRa uplink is also limited to 14 dBm. The European uplink uses SF9 at 125 kHz, which is more sensitive than North America’s SF11 at 500 kHz and recovers about 3 dB, so the link budget is about 13 dB below North America.
• LoRa downlink is permitted 27 dBm in its dedicated European band, only 3 dB below North America. The SF7 downlink receiver is slightly less sensitive, so the link budget ends up about 6 dB below.

Plan coverage against the European link budget if you deploy in both regions.

Airtime limits. North America places no limit on airtime. Each European band caps how long a device may transmit per hour, and this, rather than the radio, is what limits European capacity. The effect differs by link:

• FSK 50kbps is limited by listen-before-talk, with a cap of 100 seconds of transmission per channel per hour across 15 channels. End-device uplink traffic does not reach that cap, so FSK 50kbps uplink capacity is the same as in North America. The cap does bind on gateway downlink, which falls to a little under half the North American ceiling.
• LoRa uplink is limited by a 1% duty cycle. Under ideal conditions a LoRa end device can send about 110 uplinks an hour in Europe, against about 720 in North America.
• LoRa downlink is limited by a 10% duty cycle. Under ideal conditions a gateway can send about 2,400 LoRa downlinks an hour in Europe, against about 11,700 in North America.

The figures above assume the default LoRa data rate. The higher LoRa data rate is available only in North America; Europe has no equivalent, so an application that relies on it in North America runs at the default data rate in Europe.

An application whose traffic is validated in North America may exceed the European budget, particularly on LoRa, so size traffic against the European limits.

2.2 Regions and countries

A region covers many countries. A device operates on its region’s radio rules and has no knowledge of the individual country it is in. Each region is supported in the following countries:

Table 2.1: Regions and the countries they support.

The Europe region follows the European radio rules for short-range devices, which also apply in some countries outside the European Union, such as Iceland, Norway and the United Kingdom. Certification is still required per country (see §5).

A region is not the same as product availability. A country falling within a supported region does not by itself mean a product may be offered there; availability is decided per product and per country. Your setup flow should derive the region from the country of the device’s location, and should not complete setup if that country falls outside every supported region or the product is not offered there. Confirm availability for each target country before launch.

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