Re: [PATCH v2] cfg80211: Allow differnt beacon interval if driver supports

[Johannes Berg <johannes@sipsolutions.net>]

On Mon, 2016-07-18 at 21:13 +0200, Arend Van Spriel wrote:
> 
> On 18-7-2016 20:56, Johannes Berg wrote:
> > On Mon, 2016-07-18 at 19:23 +0530, Purushottam Kushwaha wrote:
> > > Driver may allow support for different beacon interval on virtual
> > > interfaces.
> > > Allow if such support is advertised by driver. This adds new
> > > ext_feature as NL80211_EXT_FEATURE_DIFF_BEACON_INTERVAL.
> > 
> > We have NL80211_IFACE_COMB_STA_AP_BI_MATCH in interface
> > combinations,
> > perhaps it would make sense to also put this flag there?
> 
> Hi Johannes,
> 
> Was looking at the same thing. The description of that flag was a bit
> unclear to me.
> 
> """
>  * @beacon_int_infra_match: In this combination, the beacon intervals
>  *      between infrastructure and AP types must match. This is
> required
>  *      only in special cases.
> """
> 
> It is not explicitly stated but it implies the STA vif is connected,
> right.

Yes.

Forget this flag. I don't think any driver sets it - it was a hack for
iwldvm. I also don't think any userspace cares about it, and it likely
never really worked. What if the STA vif reconnects anyway?

I was merely pointing this out wrt. the grouping and where to put
something new.

> Probably going off-topic here, but I am also wondering about the
> use-case of the above patch. I have been looking at M-BSS. Toward
> user-space these are AP interfaces, but like described in
> hostapd.conf
> example a number of AP configuration items are required to be equal.
> Now
> we also have chipsets with two 802.11 cores and on each an AP could
> be
> setup with independent beacon interval. So to make the distinction
> would
> it make sense to introduce MBSS_AP iftype? Or does AP_VLAN cover the
> MBSS use-case?
> 

I don't think AP_VLAN does, but isn't a mesh portal simply a mesh point
interface and an AP interface?

johannes