ath9k - cannot reconnect few meters from the antenna

ath9k - cannot reconnect few meters from the antenna

[Tomasz]

Hi All
I've spend a lot of time on this issue and I cannot fix it, thus I am asking for
help
It looks like that:

I am running wireless access point based on:
Ubuntu 10.04  vmlinuz-2.6.32-27-generic
compat-wireless-2010-12-26
hostapd 0.7.3 (wpa/wpa2)
Dnsmasq version 2.52
Zotac Ion board
Minipcie card: ieee80211 phy0: Atheros AR9285 Rev:2
ath9k driver
Single antenna (but the behaviour with two antenna is similar)

Everything works perfectly fine when I am within the few meters from the antenna.
So the clients are connecting and I get 25 mbps data rates.
But if more then 10 meters from the antenna strange things are happening.
- If I am connected to the network and will walk away everything works perfect.
- But if i disconnect (disassociate) when I am away I cannot connect back. -
this also means I cannot connect when turning the notebook on :)
- if I go closer to antenna I am able to connect and while walking away the
connection seems perfectly stable ...

My first idea is the congestion control issue ... But maybe some will have the
better idea.


Regards
Tomasz



-- 
Tomek

Re: ath9k - cannot reconnect few meters from the antenna

[Rajkumar Manoharan]

On Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 04:16:37AM +0530, Tomasz wrote:
> Hi All
> I've spend a lot of time on this issue and I cannot fix it, thus I am asking for
> help
> It looks like that:
> 
> I am running wireless access point based on:
> Ubuntu 10.04  vmlinuz-2.6.32-27-generic
> compat-wireless-2010-12-26
> hostapd 0.7.3 (wpa/wpa2)
> Dnsmasq version 2.52
> Zotac Ion board
> Minipcie card: ieee80211 phy0: Atheros AR9285 Rev:2
> ath9k driver
> Single antenna (but the behaviour with two antenna is similar)
> 
> Everything works perfectly fine when I am within the few meters from the antenna.
> So the clients are connecting and I get 25 mbps data rates.
> But if more then 10 meters from the antenna strange things are happening.
> - If I am connected to the network and will walk away everything works perfect.
> - But if i disconnect (disassociate) when I am away I cannot connect back. -
> this also means I cannot connect when turning the notebook on :)
> - if I go closer to antenna I am able to connect and while walking away the
> connection seems perfectly stable ...
Hi Tomasz,

Do you have any interference with the oper channel? Please enable debug option
CONFIG_ATH_DEBUG=y in config.mk and modprobe ath9k debug=0x701 and
post dmesg/kern.log 

--
Rajkumar

Re: ath9k - cannot reconnect few meters from the antenna

[Tomek]

Hi
Thank you for the support.

I did as you told me - there are a lot of following messages:
ath: ffff880001c03d70

I think the problem may be power save mode. There is something like
this in the logs - it seems that the card after going into some kind
of sleep (no clients active). The problem does not occur if there is a
wireless client associated all the time.
This is what is happening if the wireless network card tries to reconnect:
Jan 16 19:53:42 tomasz-htpc kernel: [1245668.441903] ieee80211 phy0:
Allocated STA 00:1e:64:7d:b3:ee
Jan 16 19:53:42 tomasz-htpc kernel: [1245668.442019] ieee80211 phy0:
Inserted STA 00:1e:64:7d:b3:ee
Jan 16 19:54:34 tomasz-htpc kernel: [1245721.374459] wlan0: STA
00:1e:64:7d:b3:ee aid 1 enters power save mode
Jan 16 19:54:35 tomasz-htpc kernel: [1245721.560981] wlan0: STA
00:1e:64:7d:b3:ee aid 1 exits power save mode
Jan 16 19:54:35 tomasz-htpc kernel: [1245721.561000] wlan0: STA
00:1e:64:7d:b3:ee aid 1 sending 1 filtered/0 PS frames since STA not
sleeping anymore
Jan 16 19:54:35 tomasz-htpc kernel: [1245722.012452] wlan0: STA
00:1e:64:7d:b3:ee aid 1 enters power save mode
Jan 16 19:54:35 tomasz-htpc kernel: [1245722.045244] wlan0: STA
00:1e:64:7d:b3:ee aid 1 exits power save mode
Jan 16 19:54:35 tomasz-htpc kernel: [1245722.045263] wlan0: STA
00:1e:64:7d:b3:ee aid 1 sending 0 filtered/0 PS frames since STA not
sleeping anymore
Jan 16 19:54:36 tomasz-htpc kernel: [1245723.070050] ieee80211 phy0:
Removed STA 00:1e:64:7d:b3:ee
Jan 16 19:54:36 tomasz-htpc kernel: [1245723.070139] ieee80211 phy0:
Destroyed STA 00:1e:64:7d:b3:ee
Jan 16 19:54:37 tomasz-htpc kernel: [1245723.660913] wlan0: dropped
frame to 00:1e:64:7d:b3:ee (unauthorized port)
Jan 16 19:54:38 tomasz-htpc kernel: [1245724.797561] wlan0: dropped
frame to 00:1e:64:7d:b3:ee (unauthorized port)
Jan 16 19:54:38 tomasz-htpc kernel: [1245724.801741] wlan0: dropped
frame to 00:1e:64:7d:b3:ee (unauthorized port)
Jan 16 19:54:38 tomasz-htpc kernel: [1245725.208031] wlan0: dropped
frame to 00:1e:64:7d:b3:ee (unauthorized port)
Jan 16 19:54:38 tomasz-htpc kernel: [1245725.209209] wlan0: dropped
frame to 00:1e:64:7d:b3:ee (unauthorized port)
Jan 16 19:54:39 tomasz-htpc kernel: [1245725.808240] wlan0: dropped
frame to 00:1e:64:7d:b3:ee (unauthorized port)
Jan 16 19:54:39 tomasz-htpc kernel: [1245726.007755] wlan0: dropped
frame to 00:1e:64:7d:b3:ee (unauthorized port)
Jan 16 19:54:39 tomasz-htpc kernel: [1245726.007799] wlan0: dropped
frame to 00:1e:64:7d:b3:ee (unauthorized port)
Jan 16 19:54:39 tomasz-htpc kernel: [1245726.028789] wlan0: dropped
frame to 00:1e:64:7d:b3:ee (unauthorized port)
Jan 16 19:54:39 tomasz-htpc kernel: [1245726.208536] wlan0: dropped
frame to 00:1e:64:7d:b3:ee (unauthorized port)
Jan 16 19:54:44 tomasz-htpc kernel: [1245730.601089] __ratelimit: 10
callbacks suppressed

And again and again - but if I go closer to AP it works, even if I walk away.
Regards
Tomasz

2011/1/14 Rajkumar Manoharan <rmanoharan@atheros.com>
>
> On Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 04:16:37AM +0530, Tomasz wrote:
> > Hi All
> > I've spend a lot of time on this issue and I cannot fix it, thus I am asking for
> > help
> > It looks like that:
> >
> > I am running wireless access point based on:
> > Ubuntu 10.04  vmlinuz-2.6.32-27-generic
> > compat-wireless-2010-12-26
> > hostapd 0.7.3 (wpa/wpa2)
> > Dnsmasq version 2.52
> > Zotac Ion board
> > Minipcie card: ieee80211 phy0: Atheros AR9285 Rev:2
> > ath9k driver
> > Single antenna (but the behaviour with two antenna is similar)
> >
> > Everything works perfectly fine when I am within the few meters from the antenna.
> > So the clients are connecting and I get 25 mbps data rates.
> > But if more then 10 meters from the antenna strange things are happening.
> > - If I am connected to the network and will walk away everything works perfect.
> > - But if i disconnect (disassociate) when I am away I cannot connect back. -
> > this also means I cannot connect when turning the notebook on :)
> > - if I go closer to antenna I am able to connect and while walking away the
> > connection seems perfectly stable ...
> Hi Tomasz,
>
> Do you have any interference with the oper channel? Please enable debug option
> CONFIG_ATH_DEBUG=y in config.mk and modprobe ath9k debug=0x701 and
> post dmesg/kern.log
>
> --
> Rajkumar

Re: ath9k - cannot reconnect few meters from the antenna

[Tomek]

Ok,
I think I know what is happening.
If there are no stations connected the AP wireless card goes in some
kind of low power mode - I think low transmission power
If I am trying to connect if I am close enough the client associates
but the power indicator shows the signal is weak. I After a few
second(5-6 seconds) I can see that the transmission power is increased
and then I could go further from AP and connection stays stable, if I
go away before the transmission power grows the wireless connection
goes down
If I am too far It seems that the windows client terminates connection
before the AP raises the transmission power.
Any idea - anything that could help me ?
Regards
Tomasz

2011/1/14 Rajkumar Manoharan <rmanoharan@atheros.com>:
> On Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 04:16:37AM +0530, Tomasz wrote:
>> Hi All
>> I've spend a lot of time on this issue and I cannot fix it, thus I am asking for
>> help
>> It looks like that:
>>
>> I am running wireless access point based on:
>> Ubuntu 10.04  vmlinuz-2.6.32-27-generic
>> compat-wireless-2010-12-26
>> hostapd 0.7.3 (wpa/wpa2)
>> Dnsmasq version 2.52
>> Zotac Ion board
>> Minipcie card: ieee80211 phy0: Atheros AR9285 Rev:2
>> ath9k driver
>> Single antenna (but the behaviour with two antenna is similar)
>>
>> Everything works perfectly fine when I am within the few meters from the antenna.
>> So the clients are connecting and I get 25 mbps data rates.
>> But if more then 10 meters from the antenna strange things are happening.
>> - If I am connected to the network and will walk away everything works perfect.
>> - But if i disconnect (disassociate) when I am away I cannot connect back. -
>> this also means I cannot connect when turning the notebook on :)
>> - if I go closer to antenna I am able to connect and while walking away the
>> connection seems perfectly stable ...
> Hi Tomasz,
>
> Do you have any interference with the oper channel? Please enable debug option
> CONFIG_ATH_DEBUG=y in config.mk and modprobe ath9k debug=0x701 and
> post dmesg/kern.log
>
> --
> Rajkumar
>