ISED Publishes Certification Requirements for Products Using TAS Protocol

On April 22, 2020, ISED published Certification Requirements for Products Employing Time-averaged Specific Absorption Rate (TAS) Protocol. These products, which manage power levels to control specific absorption rate over a period of time, require ISED’s pre-approval. Thus, they must meet the following criteria in order to be included in the Radio Equipment List (REL).

• If your product is a new and emerging technology for which no standardized test procedures exist, you must consult ISED to determine the necessary testing methodologies to demonstrate compliance with appropriate RF exposure limits.

• ISED will evaluate documentation for products employing TAS protocol. Pre-approval is required for any TAS protocol; modules integrating ISED-approved TAS protocol; and final products integrating ISED-approved TAS protocol. (Pre-approval is not required when the final product is a host integrating a certified module incorporating an ISED-approved TAS protocol.)

• A time-averaging period of 360 seconds should be used to demonstrate compliance to SAR limits specified in RSS-102 and Canada’s Safety Code 6.

• Arithmetic mean should be used when averaging SAR to demonstrate compliance with Canada RF exposure limits. (Averaging methods using any type of weighting factor will not be accepted.)

• All testing should be performed in an ISED-recognized testing lab. The following should be assessed by such a lab:

  • TAS protocol validation

  • SAR evaluations

  • Time-averaging transmitter factor assessment

  • Dynamic antenna tuning

  • Output power

  • Proximity of other sensors used for power reduction

  • Methods used to determine applicable exposure conditions and operational modes.

• Category I radio apparatus must comply with applicable technical standards, such as Section 4 (3) of the Radiocommunications Act and Section 2.6.1 of RSS-Gen, Issue 5.

ISED is currently working to determine how time-averaging can be implemented to manage compliance with other RF exposure requirements.