Any tips on where per-packet antenna selection could be pushed?

Any tips on where per-packet antenna selection could be pushed?

[Zach Sherin]

Hi all,

I'm working on a device with antenna selection, similar to the ideas
behind Ruckus or Google's Onhub router. I've been looking into a
solution for per-packet antenna selection (based on destination/next
hop). I was hoping this list might be able to suggest where I should
investigate adding that switching code. My switches are currently USB
RF switches, but I'm going to be using some serial protocol for the
final version (we don't have much to switch, and it should be a single
byte per packet).

The last suggestion I received was to emulate Netsed [1] by routing
all packets through a specific socket, running antenna selection, and
then pushing them to their final destinations.

I assumed that the best place to do antenna selection would be within
ath10k itself (my devices all run on ath10k) so that I could introduce
the minimum possible latency with antenna selection. Should I be
looking at a different part of the networking stack?

Does anyone have any suggestions, or perhaps an open-source project
out there already trying to do antenna selection?

Thanks,
Zach


[1] http://silicone.homelinux.org/projects/netsed/

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Re: Any tips on where per-packet antenna selection could be pushed?

[Ben Greear]

On 06/06/2016 10:12 AM, Zach Sherin wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm working on a device with antenna selection, similar to the ideas
> behind Ruckus or Google's Onhub router. I've been looking into a
> solution for per-packet antenna selection (based on destination/next
> hop). I was hoping this list might be able to suggest where I should
> investigate adding that switching code. My switches are currently USB
> RF switches, but I'm going to be using some serial protocol for the
> final version (we don't have much to switch, and it should be a single
> byte per packet).
>
> The last suggestion I received was to emulate Netsed [1] by routing
> all packets through a specific socket, running antenna selection, and
> then pushing them to their final destinations.
>
> I assumed that the best place to do antenna selection would be within
> ath10k itself (my devices all run on ath10k) so that I could introduce
> the minimum possible latency with antenna selection. Should I be
> looking at a different part of the networking stack?
>
> Does anyone have any suggestions, or perhaps an open-source project
> out there already trying to do antenna selection?

Would per-peer antenna selection work?  That is probably more easily
hacked into the firmware (I don't think stock firmware supports this
feature, but I could be wrong.)

Thanks,
Ben

>
> Thanks,
> Zach
>
>
> [1] http://silicone.homelinux.org/projects/netsed/
>
> _______________________________________________
> ath10k mailing list
> ath10k@lists.infradead.org
> http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/ath10k
>


-- 
Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>
Candela Technologies Inc  http://www.candelatech.com


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Re: Any tips on where per-packet antenna selection could be pushed?

[Zach Sherin]

I'm not sure I know exactly what you mean by per-peer. Do you mean
that the antenna switches only when we're delivering to a new
next-hop? I would absolutely be fine with that, by per-packet I do
actually mean selection based on destination/next hop so aggregating
deliveries for a single peer would be even better.

Also, I forgot to mention that this is intended for static mesh
networks, so I'm not worried about moment-to-moment changes in peer
location.

Thanks,
Zach

On Mon, Jun 6, 2016 at 1:21 PM, Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com> wrote:
> On 06/06/2016 10:12 AM, Zach Sherin wrote:
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I'm working on a device with antenna selection, similar to the ideas
>> behind Ruckus or Google's Onhub router. I've been looking into a
>> solution for per-packet antenna selection (based on destination/next
>> hop). I was hoping this list might be able to suggest where I should
>> investigate adding that switching code. My switches are currently USB
>> RF switches, but I'm going to be using some serial protocol for the
>> final version (we don't have much to switch, and it should be a single
>> byte per packet).
>>
>> The last suggestion I received was to emulate Netsed [1] by routing
>> all packets through a specific socket, running antenna selection, and
>> then pushing them to their final destinations.
>>
>> I assumed that the best place to do antenna selection would be within
>> ath10k itself (my devices all run on ath10k) so that I could introduce
>> the minimum possible latency with antenna selection. Should I be
>> looking at a different part of the networking stack?
>>
>> Does anyone have any suggestions, or perhaps an open-source project
>> out there already trying to do antenna selection?
>
>
> Would per-peer antenna selection work?  That is probably more easily
> hacked into the firmware (I don't think stock firmware supports this
> feature, but I could be wrong.)
>
> Thanks,
> Ben
>
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Zach
>>
>>
>> [1] http://silicone.homelinux.org/projects/netsed/
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> ath10k mailing list
>> ath10k@lists.infradead.org
>> http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/ath10k
>>
>
>
> --
> Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>
> Candela Technologies Inc  http://www.candelatech.com
>

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Re: Any tips on where per-packet antenna selection could be pushed?

[Ben Greear]

On 06/06/2016 10:24 AM, Zach Sherin wrote:
> I'm not sure I know exactly what you mean by per-peer. Do you mean
> that the antenna switches only when we're delivering to a new
> next-hop? I would absolutely be fine with that, by per-packet I do
> actually mean selection based on destination/next hop so aggregating
> deliveries for a single peer would be even better.
>
> Also, I forgot to mention that this is intended for static mesh
> networks, so I'm not worried about moment-to-moment changes in peer
> location.

Maybe some of the official QCA devs will have some ideas on how to do
this with stock firmware.

I am guessing you would have to have some API in the firmware that
could twiddle your antenna right before attempting to transmit a
frame?

Do you have physical output pins on your ath10k NIC to even do this?

Thanks,
Ben


>
> Thanks,
> Zach
>
> On Mon, Jun 6, 2016 at 1:21 PM, Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com> wrote:
>> On 06/06/2016 10:12 AM, Zach Sherin wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> I'm working on a device with antenna selection, similar to the ideas
>>> behind Ruckus or Google's Onhub router. I've been looking into a
>>> solution for per-packet antenna selection (based on destination/next
>>> hop). I was hoping this list might be able to suggest where I should
>>> investigate adding that switching code. My switches are currently USB
>>> RF switches, but I'm going to be using some serial protocol for the
>>> final version (we don't have much to switch, and it should be a single
>>> byte per packet).
>>>
>>> The last suggestion I received was to emulate Netsed [1] by routing
>>> all packets through a specific socket, running antenna selection, and
>>> then pushing them to their final destinations.
>>>
>>> I assumed that the best place to do antenna selection would be within
>>> ath10k itself (my devices all run on ath10k) so that I could introduce
>>> the minimum possible latency with antenna selection. Should I be
>>> looking at a different part of the networking stack?
>>>
>>> Does anyone have any suggestions, or perhaps an open-source project
>>> out there already trying to do antenna selection?
>>
>>
>> Would per-peer antenna selection work?  That is probably more easily
>> hacked into the firmware (I don't think stock firmware supports this
>> feature, but I could be wrong.)
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Ben
>>
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Zach
>>>
>>>
>>> [1] http://silicone.homelinux.org/projects/netsed/
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> ath10k mailing list
>>> ath10k@lists.infradead.org
>>> http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/ath10k
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>
>> Candela Technologies Inc  http://www.candelatech.com
>>
>


-- 
Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>
Candela Technologies Inc  http://www.candelatech.com


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Re: Any tips on where per-packet antenna selection could be pushed?

[Zach Sherin]

I was aiming to run this off a serial interface on the general board,
not on the ath10k NIC. I have a consumer QCA9880 PCI board in an
Archer C7 router. It would be awesome if I could steal a GPIO or
something from the atheros chip to output, but I was assuming I
couldn't. The main reason I was looking at the ath10k driver was to
get as close to when the packets are transmitted as possible, to leave
as little room for error in the switching as possible.

However, it's  possible that I'm hoping for too much there. I'd be
interested to hear your thoughts on it. If I can't pull it off, I'll
move to an approach outside ath10k.

Thanks,
Zach
On Mon, Jun 6, 2016 at 1:28 PM, Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com> wrote:
> On 06/06/2016 10:24 AM, Zach Sherin wrote:
>>
>> I'm not sure I know exactly what you mean by per-peer. Do you mean
>> that the antenna switches only when we're delivering to a new
>> next-hop? I would absolutely be fine with that, by per-packet I do
>> actually mean selection based on destination/next hop so aggregating
>> deliveries for a single peer would be even better.
>>
>> Also, I forgot to mention that this is intended for static mesh
>> networks, so I'm not worried about moment-to-moment changes in peer
>> location.
>
>
> Maybe some of the official QCA devs will have some ideas on how to do
> this with stock firmware.
>
> I am guessing you would have to have some API in the firmware that
> could twiddle your antenna right before attempting to transmit a
> frame?
>
> Do you have physical output pins on your ath10k NIC to even do this?
>
> Thanks,
> Ben
>
>
>
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Zach
>>
>> On Mon, Jun 6, 2016 at 1:21 PM, Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> On 06/06/2016 10:12 AM, Zach Sherin wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Hi all,
>>>>
>>>> I'm working on a device with antenna selection, similar to the ideas
>>>> behind Ruckus or Google's Onhub router. I've been looking into a
>>>> solution for per-packet antenna selection (based on destination/next
>>>> hop). I was hoping this list might be able to suggest where I should
>>>> investigate adding that switching code. My switches are currently USB
>>>> RF switches, but I'm going to be using some serial protocol for the
>>>> final version (we don't have much to switch, and it should be a single
>>>> byte per packet).
>>>>
>>>> The last suggestion I received was to emulate Netsed [1] by routing
>>>> all packets through a specific socket, running antenna selection, and
>>>> then pushing them to their final destinations.
>>>>
>>>> I assumed that the best place to do antenna selection would be within
>>>> ath10k itself (my devices all run on ath10k) so that I could introduce
>>>> the minimum possible latency with antenna selection. Should I be
>>>> looking at a different part of the networking stack?
>>>>
>>>> Does anyone have any suggestions, or perhaps an open-source project
>>>> out there already trying to do antenna selection?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Would per-peer antenna selection work?  That is probably more easily
>>> hacked into the firmware (I don't think stock firmware supports this
>>> feature, but I could be wrong.)
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Ben
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Zach
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> [1] http://silicone.homelinux.org/projects/netsed/
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> ath10k mailing list
>>>> ath10k@lists.infradead.org
>>>> http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/ath10k
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>
>>> Candela Technologies Inc  http://www.candelatech.com
>>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>
> Candela Technologies Inc  http://www.candelatech.com
>

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Re: Any tips on where per-packet antenna selection could be pushed?

[Ben Greear]

On 06/06/2016 10:59 AM, Zach Sherin wrote:
> I was aiming to run this off a serial interface on the general board,
> not on the ath10k NIC. I have a consumer QCA9880 PCI board in an
> Archer C7 router. It would be awesome if I could steal a GPIO or
> something from the atheros chip to output, but I was assuming I
> couldn't. The main reason I was looking at the ath10k driver was to
> get as close to when the packets are transmitted as possible, to leave
> as little room for error in the switching as possible.
>
> However, it's  possible that I'm hoping for too much there. I'd be
> interested to hear your thoughts on it. If I can't pull it off, I'll
> move to an approach outside ath10k.

The driver just sends pkts to the firmware, it is the firmware that
knows when a pkt is to be transmitted, so I think you would have to have some
hooks low in the firmware tx logic to do what you want.  And you would need some
hardware output from the NIC.

I am guessing it would require quite a bit of changes to the firmware,
possibly very tricky/hacky ones, and hardware output on your NIC.

Thanks,
Ben

-- 
Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>
Candela Technologies Inc  http://www.candelatech.com


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Re: Any tips on where per-packet antenna selection could be pushed?

[Zach Sherin]

Interesting. Could I ask if there's somewhere I should start digging?
If it's not obvious I'm a driver/kernel newbie, but I'm happy to
learn. Should I start by going through ath10k's documentation/code
until I find the relevant bits?

Thanks,
Zach


On Mon, Jun 6, 2016 at 2:42 PM, Adrian Chadd <adrian.chadd@gmail.com> wrote:
> I bet the ruckus mode shift stuff is in the ath10k hardware and is
> configurable per TX descriptor.
>
> a
>
> On Jun 6, 2016 11:03 AM, "Ben Greear" <greearb@candelatech.com> wrote:
>>
>> On 06/06/2016 10:59 AM, Zach Sherin wrote:
>>>
>>> I was aiming to run this off a serial interface on the general board,
>>> not on the ath10k NIC. I have a consumer QCA9880 PCI board in an
>>> Archer C7 router. It would be awesome if I could steal a GPIO or
>>> something from the atheros chip to output, but I was assuming I
>>> couldn't. The main reason I was looking at the ath10k driver was to
>>> get as close to when the packets are transmitted as possible, to leave
>>> as little room for error in the switching as possible.
>>>
>>> However, it's  possible that I'm hoping for too much there. I'd be
>>> interested to hear your thoughts on it. If I can't pull it off, I'll
>>> move to an approach outside ath10k.
>>
>>
>> The driver just sends pkts to the firmware, it is the firmware that
>> knows when a pkt is to be transmitted, so I think you would have to have
>> some
>> hooks low in the firmware tx logic to do what you want.  And you would
>> need some
>> hardware output from the NIC.
>>
>> I am guessing it would require quite a bit of changes to the firmware,
>> possibly very tricky/hacky ones, and hardware output on your NIC.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Ben
>>
>> --
>> Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>
>> Candela Technologies Inc  http://www.candelatech.com
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> ath10k mailing list
>> ath10k@lists.infradead.org
>> http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/ath10k

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Re: Any tips on where per-packet antenna selection could be pushed?

[Ben Greear]

On 06/06/2016 11:48 AM, Zach Sherin wrote:
> Interesting. Could I ask if there's somewhere I should start digging?
> If it's not obvious I'm a driver/kernel newbie, but I'm happy to
> learn. Should I start by going through ath10k's documentation/code
> until I find the relevant bits?

Unfortunately, without firmware source, you have probably no chance
to do this.  And, you also probably have about no chance of getting
firmware source.

Thanks,
Ben

>
> Thanks,
> Zach
>
>
> On Mon, Jun 6, 2016 at 2:42 PM, Adrian Chadd <adrian.chadd@gmail.com> wrote:
>> I bet the ruckus mode shift stuff is in the ath10k hardware and is
>> configurable per TX descriptor.
>>
>> a
>>
>> On Jun 6, 2016 11:03 AM, "Ben Greear" <greearb@candelatech.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> On 06/06/2016 10:59 AM, Zach Sherin wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I was aiming to run this off a serial interface on the general board,
>>>> not on the ath10k NIC. I have a consumer QCA9880 PCI board in an
>>>> Archer C7 router. It would be awesome if I could steal a GPIO or
>>>> something from the atheros chip to output, but I was assuming I
>>>> couldn't. The main reason I was looking at the ath10k driver was to
>>>> get as close to when the packets are transmitted as possible, to leave
>>>> as little room for error in the switching as possible.
>>>>
>>>> However, it's  possible that I'm hoping for too much there. I'd be
>>>> interested to hear your thoughts on it. If I can't pull it off, I'll
>>>> move to an approach outside ath10k.
>>>
>>>
>>> The driver just sends pkts to the firmware, it is the firmware that
>>> knows when a pkt is to be transmitted, so I think you would have to have
>>> some
>>> hooks low in the firmware tx logic to do what you want.  And you would
>>> need some
>>> hardware output from the NIC.
>>>
>>> I am guessing it would require quite a bit of changes to the firmware,
>>> possibly very tricky/hacky ones, and hardware output on your NIC.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Ben
>>>
>>> --
>>> Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>
>>> Candela Technologies Inc  http://www.candelatech.com
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> ath10k mailing list
>>> ath10k@lists.infradead.org
>>> http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/ath10k
>


-- 
Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>
Candela Technologies Inc  http://www.candelatech.com


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Re: Any tips on where per-packet antenna selection could be pushed?

[Zach Sherin]

That's what I thought. Thanks for confirming, and thanks again for
your time and help!

Have a good one,
Zach

On Mon, Jun 6, 2016 at 2:57 PM, Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com> wrote:
> On 06/06/2016 11:48 AM, Zach Sherin wrote:
>>
>> Interesting. Could I ask if there's somewhere I should start digging?
>> If it's not obvious I'm a driver/kernel newbie, but I'm happy to
>> learn. Should I start by going through ath10k's documentation/code
>> until I find the relevant bits?
>
>
> Unfortunately, without firmware source, you have probably no chance
> to do this.  And, you also probably have about no chance of getting
> firmware source.
>
> Thanks,
> Ben
>
>
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Zach
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Jun 6, 2016 at 2:42 PM, Adrian Chadd <adrian.chadd@gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> I bet the ruckus mode shift stuff is in the ath10k hardware and is
>>> configurable per TX descriptor.
>>>
>>> a
>>>
>>> On Jun 6, 2016 11:03 AM, "Ben Greear" <greearb@candelatech.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 06/06/2016 10:59 AM, Zach Sherin wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I was aiming to run this off a serial interface on the general board,
>>>>> not on the ath10k NIC. I have a consumer QCA9880 PCI board in an
>>>>> Archer C7 router. It would be awesome if I could steal a GPIO or
>>>>> something from the atheros chip to output, but I was assuming I
>>>>> couldn't. The main reason I was looking at the ath10k driver was to
>>>>> get as close to when the packets are transmitted as possible, to leave
>>>>> as little room for error in the switching as possible.
>>>>>
>>>>> However, it's  possible that I'm hoping for too much there. I'd be
>>>>> interested to hear your thoughts on it. If I can't pull it off, I'll
>>>>> move to an approach outside ath10k.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> The driver just sends pkts to the firmware, it is the firmware that
>>>> knows when a pkt is to be transmitted, so I think you would have to have
>>>> some
>>>> hooks low in the firmware tx logic to do what you want.  And you would
>>>> need some
>>>> hardware output from the NIC.
>>>>
>>>> I am guessing it would require quite a bit of changes to the firmware,
>>>> possibly very tricky/hacky ones, and hardware output on your NIC.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Ben
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>
>>>> Candela Technologies Inc  http://www.candelatech.com
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> ath10k mailing list
>>>> ath10k@lists.infradead.org
>>>> http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/ath10k
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>
> Candela Technologies Inc  http://www.candelatech.com
>

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Re: Any tips on where per-packet antenna selection could be pushed?

[Janusz Dziedzic]

On 6 June 2016 at 21:22, Zach Sherin <zach@netblazr.com> wrote:
> That's what I thought. Thanks for confirming, and thanks again for
> your time and help!
>
BTW, check google: ath10k smart antenna
Seems 10.2 support this.

BR
Janusz

> Have a good one,
> Zach
>
> On Mon, Jun 6, 2016 at 2:57 PM, Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com> wrote:
>> On 06/06/2016 11:48 AM, Zach Sherin wrote:
>>>
>>> Interesting. Could I ask if there's somewhere I should start digging?
>>> If it's not obvious I'm a driver/kernel newbie, but I'm happy to
>>> learn. Should I start by going through ath10k's documentation/code
>>> until I find the relevant bits?
>>
>>
>> Unfortunately, without firmware source, you have probably no chance
>> to do this.  And, you also probably have about no chance of getting
>> firmware source.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Ben
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Zach
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Jun 6, 2016 at 2:42 PM, Adrian Chadd <adrian.chadd@gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I bet the ruckus mode shift stuff is in the ath10k hardware and is
>>>> configurable per TX descriptor.
>>>>
>>>> a
>>>>
>>>> On Jun 6, 2016 11:03 AM, "Ben Greear" <greearb@candelatech.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On 06/06/2016 10:59 AM, Zach Sherin wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I was aiming to run this off a serial interface on the general board,
>>>>>> not on the ath10k NIC. I have a consumer QCA9880 PCI board in an
>>>>>> Archer C7 router. It would be awesome if I could steal a GPIO or
>>>>>> something from the atheros chip to output, but I was assuming I
>>>>>> couldn't. The main reason I was looking at the ath10k driver was to
>>>>>> get as close to when the packets are transmitted as possible, to leave
>>>>>> as little room for error in the switching as possible.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> However, it's  possible that I'm hoping for too much there. I'd be
>>>>>> interested to hear your thoughts on it. If I can't pull it off, I'll
>>>>>> move to an approach outside ath10k.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> The driver just sends pkts to the firmware, it is the firmware that
>>>>> knows when a pkt is to be transmitted, so I think you would have to have
>>>>> some
>>>>> hooks low in the firmware tx logic to do what you want.  And you would
>>>>> need some
>>>>> hardware output from the NIC.
>>>>>
>>>>> I am guessing it would require quite a bit of changes to the firmware,
>>>>> possibly very tricky/hacky ones, and hardware output on your NIC.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>> Ben
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>
>>>>> Candela Technologies Inc  http://www.candelatech.com
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> ath10k mailing list
>>>>> ath10k@lists.infradead.org
>>>>> http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/ath10k
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>
>> Candela Technologies Inc  http://www.candelatech.com
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> ath10k mailing list
> ath10k@lists.infradead.org
> http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/ath10k

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Re: Any tips on where per-packet antenna selection could be pushed?

[Adrian Chadd]

On 6 June 2016 at 23:24, Janusz Dziedzic <janusz.dziedzic@tieto.com> wrote:
> On 6 June 2016 at 21:22, Zach Sherin <zach@netblazr.com> wrote:
>> That's what I thought. Thanks for confirming, and thanks again for
>> your time and help!
>>
> BTW, check google: ath10k smart antenna
> Seems 10.2 support this.


ooo cool. wonder how much of the useful bits it implements!



-adrian

>
> BR
> Janusz
>
>> Have a good one,
>> Zach
>>
>> On Mon, Jun 6, 2016 at 2:57 PM, Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com> wrote:
>>> On 06/06/2016 11:48 AM, Zach Sherin wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Interesting. Could I ask if there's somewhere I should start digging?
>>>> If it's not obvious I'm a driver/kernel newbie, but I'm happy to
>>>> learn. Should I start by going through ath10k's documentation/code
>>>> until I find the relevant bits?
>>>
>>>
>>> Unfortunately, without firmware source, you have probably no chance
>>> to do this.  And, you also probably have about no chance of getting
>>> firmware source.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Ben
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Zach
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, Jun 6, 2016 at 2:42 PM, Adrian Chadd <adrian.chadd@gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> I bet the ruckus mode shift stuff is in the ath10k hardware and is
>>>>> configurable per TX descriptor.
>>>>>
>>>>> a
>>>>>
>>>>> On Jun 6, 2016 11:03 AM, "Ben Greear" <greearb@candelatech.com> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On 06/06/2016 10:59 AM, Zach Sherin wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I was aiming to run this off a serial interface on the general board,
>>>>>>> not on the ath10k NIC. I have a consumer QCA9880 PCI board in an
>>>>>>> Archer C7 router. It would be awesome if I could steal a GPIO or
>>>>>>> something from the atheros chip to output, but I was assuming I
>>>>>>> couldn't. The main reason I was looking at the ath10k driver was to
>>>>>>> get as close to when the packets are transmitted as possible, to leave
>>>>>>> as little room for error in the switching as possible.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> However, it's  possible that I'm hoping for too much there. I'd be
>>>>>>> interested to hear your thoughts on it. If I can't pull it off, I'll
>>>>>>> move to an approach outside ath10k.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The driver just sends pkts to the firmware, it is the firmware that
>>>>>> knows when a pkt is to be transmitted, so I think you would have to have
>>>>>> some
>>>>>> hooks low in the firmware tx logic to do what you want.  And you would
>>>>>> need some
>>>>>> hardware output from the NIC.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I am guessing it would require quite a bit of changes to the firmware,
>>>>>> possibly very tricky/hacky ones, and hardware output on your NIC.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>> Ben
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>
>>>>>> Candela Technologies Inc  http://www.candelatech.com
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> ath10k mailing list
>>>>>> ath10k@lists.infradead.org
>>>>>> http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/ath10k
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>
>>> Candela Technologies Inc  http://www.candelatech.com
>>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> ath10k@lists.infradead.org
>> http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/ath10k

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Re: Any tips on where per-packet antenna selection could be pushed?

[Michal Kazior]

On 7 June 2016 at 09:40, Adrian Chadd <adrian.chadd@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 6 June 2016 at 23:24, Janusz Dziedzic <janusz.dziedzic@tieto.com> wrote:
>> On 6 June 2016 at 21:22, Zach Sherin <zach@netblazr.com> wrote:
>>> That's what I thought. Thanks for confirming, and thanks again for
>>> your time and help!
>>>
>> BTW, check google: ath10k smart antenna
>> Seems 10.2 support this.
>
>
> ooo cool. wonder how much of the useful bits it implements!

Keep in mind smart antenna requires HW support (you can check this via
wmi_services in debugfs on ath10k - there's SW and HW bits are
advertised there). Not all qca988x chips support it - only some of the
revisions. I don't know if ones found in Archer C7 support it (maybe
some do?).

There's some code on codeaurora you can use as a reference:

 https://us.codeaurora.org/cgit/quic/qsdk/oss/system/feeds/wlan-open/tree/mac80211/patches/a00-0015-ath10k-smart-antenna-API-support.patch?h=coconut

 https://us.codeaurora.org/cgit/quic/qsdk/oss/system/feeds/wlan-open/tree/mac80211/patches/a00-0016-ath10k-smart-antenna-debugfs.patch?h=coconut

 https://us.codeaurora.org/cgit/quic/qsdk/oss/system/feeds/wlan-open/tree/mac80211/patches/a00-0021-ath10k-Smart-antenna-Algorithm.patch?h=coconut


Michał

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Re: Any tips on where per-packet antenna selection could be pushed?

[Adrian Chadd]

Do we know which hardware platforms use it? (Ie, which already have
some antennas with the right switching hardware?)



-adrian

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Re: Any tips on where per-packet antenna selection could be pushed?

[Michal Kazior]

On 7 June 2016 at 18:30, Adrian Chadd <adrian.chadd@gmail.com> wrote:
> Do we know which hardware platforms use it? (Ie, which already have
> some antennas with the right switching hardware?)

Unfortunately I do not.


Michał

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