Re: [PATCH] ath9k: Differentiate between max combined and per chain power

[Kalle Valo <kvalo@codeaurora.org>]

Sven Eckelmann <sven@narfation.org> wrote:

> The ath9k driver uses as maximum allowed txpower the constant
> MAX_RATE_POWER. It is used to set a maximum txpower limit for the PHY
> (which is combined txpower) and also the maximum txpower for per chain
> rates. Its value 63 is derived from the maximum number the registers can
> store for the per chain txpower.
> 
> The max txpower a user can set because of this is 31 dBm (floor(63 / 2)).
> This also means that a device with multiple tx chains is even limited
> further:
> 
> * 1 chain:  31 dBm per chain
> * 2 chains: 28 dBm per chain
> * 3 chains: 26 dBm per chain
> 
> This combined txpower limit of 31 dBm becomes even more problematic when
> some extra antenna gain is set in the EEPROM. A high power device is then
> no longer able to reach its potential limits.
> 
> Instead the code dealing with the combined txpower must use a higher limit
> than 63 and only the code dealing with the per chain txpower have to use
> the limit of 63. Since the antenna gain can be quite large and 8 bit
> variables are often used in ath9k for txpower, a large, divisible by two
> number like 254 is a good choice for this new limit.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Sven Eckelmann <sven@narfation.org>
> Signed-off-by: Kalle Valo <kvalo@codeaurora.org>

Patch applied to ath-next branch of ath.git, thanks.

b037b107565f ath9k: Differentiate between max combined and per chain power

-- 
https://patchwork.kernel.org/patch/10861389/

https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/developers/documentation/submittingpatches