Cisco's Wi-Fi Direct Client Policy and iwlwifi (8260)

[Dariusz Gadomski <dariusz.gadomski@canonical.com>]

Hi,

There is a “Wi-Fi Direct Client Policy” setting in some Cisco AP hardware [1].
I am unaware how that works exactly behind the scenes (except for some hints at
[2]), but I have noticed that with that setting set to “Deny” I am observing
issues when trying to connect from a machine with an Intel 8260 on a 4.10.0
kernel - all connection attempts lead to failure.

I have managed to obtain some captured packets from that attempt as well as
from a successful attempt (a machine with Broadcom bcm43224). What I have
noticed is that AP puts the P2P IE in the beacon frames and when 8260 sends a
probe request it also puts a P2P IE element in it. No response from the AP is
ever transmitted.

In case of the Broadcom-based device the probe request does not contain P2P IE
and it is able to correct normally. My understanding of this issue is that the
AP makes the decision to temporarily blacklist the client after receiving a P2P
IE from it.

I have made an additional test by commenting out the P2P interface types from
iwlwifi/mvn/mac80211.c - using such kernel allowed the 8260 device to connect
successfully.

I’m wondering if there’s a way of changing this behavior to enable the 8260 to
connect to a network ‘secured’ in this way?  I would also appreciate some
information about which behavior is correct (bcm43224 vs 8260) and is it
specified anywhere in the Wi-Fi P2P specs (or anywhere else ftm)?

Thanks, Dariusz

[1] https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/7-4/configuration/guides/consolidated/b_cg74_CONSOLIDATED/b_cg74_CONSOLIDATED_chapter_010111110.html
[2] https://supportforums.cisco.com/discussion/11851216/wi-fi-direct-client-policy