Canada's IC certification standard system is called RSS — Radio Standards Specification. Each category of RF equipment corresponds to one RSS standard, and the test items and limits vary across categories. Plenty of online articles lump RSS standards together as "RF testing," quoting a single price regardless of frequency band or product category. You only find out at the lab that the test items are wildly different. This article breaks down the main RSS standards' test items one by one.
RSS-247 is the primary standard for 2.4GHz WiFi and Bluetooth devices. Both 2.4GHz WiFi and Classic Bluetooth / BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) fall under this standard, but the test cases are handled separately.
WiFi test items: Maximum output power — the 2.4GHz limit is 1W EIRP, not the 4W some articles claim. Exceeding the power limit is an automatic fail. Sending a 4W-designed prototype for testing is a wasted trip. Occupied bandwidth — 802.11b/g/n modes are tested separately, with 20MHz and 40MHz channel bandwidths verified individually. Spurious emissions — out-of-band domain and spurious domain emission limits are tested channel by channel. Frequency tolerance — carrier frequency deviation must not exceed the specification range.
Bluetooth test items: Classic Bluetooth tests maximum output power, 20dB bandwidth, and spurious emissions. The core difference between BLE and Classic Bluetooth is not power density — it's that duty cycle, burst transmission patterns, and frequency-hopping spurious all have dedicated limit requirements. RSS-247 has separate provisions for BLE's intermittent communication characteristics. Applying Classic Bluetooth logic to BLE will result in missed test items. For devices with both WiFi and Bluetooth, the two are verified separately — they cannot be combined into a single report.
Antenna requirements: RSS-247 requires antenna gain information to be documented in the technical file. The antenna submitted for testing must be identical to the production antenna. If gain parameters change, retesting is required. Directional and omnidirectional antennas have different EIRP calculation methods — confirm antenna type and gain value before submission.
II. RSS-139 and RSS-248 High-Frequency Band Testing
RSS-139 covers 5GHz WiFi devices: The 5GHz band in Canada is divided into multiple sub-bands, each with different power limits. 5150–5250MHz is limited to 200mW for indoor use, 5250–5350MHz to 250mW, and 5725–5850MHz to 1000mW ERP. Note that Canada's 5.8GHz uses ERP measurement, which differs from the standard EIRP calculation. Designing to EIRP will cause you to exceed the limit. Power limits are not identical to those in China or the EU — sending firmware configured for another market directly to IC testing will cause errors.
5GHz WiFi test items are similar to 2.4GHz, but with an added Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS) test. DFS requires the device to automatically switch channels when radar signals are detected. Testing uses a radar signal simulator to verify DFS response time channel by channel. DFS testing is exclusive to 5GHz — 2.4GHz doesn't need it.
6GHz WiFi falls under RSS-248. 6GHz is divided into two device categories:
·LPI (Low Power Indoor) devices: limited to 200mW, exempt from AFC (Automatic Frequency Coordination)
·SP (Standard Power) devices: limited to 4W EIRP, AFC mandatory
AFC function testing is exclusive to SP devices, verifying whether the device can correctly obtain available channels and power limits from an AFC server. Not all 6GHz products need AFC — LPI devices don't.
If a 6GHz WiFi product's hardware doesn't support the 6GHz band, no additional 6GHz-specific testing is needed. Only test for the actually supported bands — don't get talked into unnecessary add-on testing.
III. RSS-133 Cellular Communication Testing
RSS-133 covers LTE and 5G NR cellular communication devices. The 4G/5G modules integrated into vehicle T-Boxes fall under this standard. Cellular testing volume is much larger than WiFi/Bluetooth, and the cycle is longer too.
Each supported band must be tested for: Maximum output power — each band tested separately with band-specific limits. Frequency error — carrier frequency deviation within specification tolerance. Modulation accuracy — EVM (Error Vector Magnitude) within spec. Spectrum mask — transmitted signal's spectral mask within the specification range. Spurious emissions — out-of-band domain and spurious domain tested band by band.
5G millimeter wave NR falls under RSS-140: Millimeter wave bands use OTA (Over-The-Air) chamber testing — instead of connecting RF cables, the device is tested using antenna radiation. OTA chamber testing equipment is expensive, and the number of labs capable of doing it is limited, with cycles starting at 8 weeks. Confirm the lab has millimeter wave OTA testing capability before submitting — many labs look like they can do it but actually lack the qualification.
If a cellular module already has FCC certification, IC fully accepts FCC data for basic RF parameters — power, EVM, spurious emissions, and frequency deviation are treated as identical. The only items that genuinely cannot be reused and must be retested are 5GHz DFS radar avoidance logic and 6GHz AFC mechanisms.
IV. RSS-140 and RSS-119 Millimeter Wave and Radar Testing
RSS-140 specifically covers 5G NR FR2 millimeter wave communication, spanning 24GHz to 52GHz. Conducted testing uses RF cables connecting the device's RF port to test equipment. OTA testing uses antenna radiation — the device is placed on a turntable in an anechoic chamber, and the test antenna receives the radiated signal.
5G FR2 millimeter wave communication uses TRP (Total Radiated Power) as the key metric, which has a different emphasis compared to EIRP — it's not an equal-weight test. Millimeter wave beams are narrow, and a 1-degree antenna alignment deviation can shift power measurements by several dB. Testing uses a programmable turntable to scan angle by angle — a single band takes hours. Multi-band products require each band to be tested separately, doubling the cycle.
77GHz and 79GHz automotive millimeter wave radar does NOT fall under RSS-140 — it falls under RSS-119. These are two completely different standards with different limits and different test methods. Radar focuses on EIRP (Equivalent Isotropically Radiated Power) and spectral mask. Many vendors submit radar under RSS-140, using the wrong standard and wasting an entire test cycle.
V. RSS-216 Wireless Charging Testing
RSS-216 covers wireless charging devices. Qi inductive charging operating below 13.56MHz falls under this standard and is classified as a regulated device.
Exemption conditions: It's not about "not having communication functions" — the hard criteria are that all three conditions must be met: purely inductive charging, no digital modulation whatsoever, and no data interaction. The vast majority of charging pads on the market with proprietary fast-charging protocols have data interaction and cannot use the exemption. Don't assume a minimalist charging pad can skip RF testing — if a data communication protocol is discovered, you'll be required to do the full test suite, and costs double.
Wireless charging modules with data communication — for example, a vehicle wireless charging bracket with WiFi or Bluetooth pairing — require mandatory IC RF certification. RF test items include operating frequency verification, magnetic field strength measurement, and spurious emission testing. Frequency deviation must not exceed the tolerance range specified in RSS-216. Magnetic field strength is measured both at the device surface and at specified distances — if exceeded, shielding measures must be added.
VI. ICES-003 Digital Device EMC Testing
ICES-003 governs EMC for digital devices. This is not an RF certification standard — it's an EMC standard, but it's tied to the IC certification system. A vehicle head unit's digital circuit clock frequency exceeding 9kHz falls under ICES-003.
ICES-003 test items: Conducted emissions — 150kHz to 30MHz frequency range, measuring conducted interference on power lines. Radiated emissions — 30MHz to 1GHz frequency range, measuring spatial radiated interference. The head unit's switching power supply, LCD driver circuit, and processor clock can all trigger EMC exceedances.
ICES-003 is divided into Class A and Class B: Class A is for industrial environment equipment with relaxed limits. Class B is for residential environment equipment with strict limits. Vehicle equipment is generally tested to Class B because when a vehicle is parked in a residential area, its electronic devices may interfere with household electronics.
ICES-003 report and RSS RF report are two independent reports: Vehicle head units submitted for IC certification must undergo both RF testing and EMC testing simultaneously, with both reports submitted together for ISED filing. Having only the RF report without the EMC report means the filing won't go through.
In 2026, ISED tightened CoP (Conformity of Production) scrutiny on multi-RF coexistence interference testing. This is an enforcement tightening, not a new regulation. For scenarios where the head unit runs WiFi, Bluetooth, and cellular simultaneously, CoP audits will focus on checking coexistence interference verification records. Have the three RF scheduling logic properly designed in the prototype before submission — don't wait until the lab to discover concurrent disconnections.
For IC certification standards and RSS test items, contact blueasia Technology Testing & Certification consultant at 13534225140 (Benson).
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