80211 questions

80211 questions

[Bar, Eitan]

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Hi,

I'm working on adding WE (wireless extensions) support to a WLAN driver, and have recently bumped into references of nl80211, cfg80211 and d80211.

My questions:
- Can someone please shortly describe each term? 
- Other than reading the source code and searching in news-groups, is there any serious source of information regarding any of the above?

Thanks!
 Eitan

p.s: while I'm at it -> any good documentation on WE itself other than wireless.20.h ?

Re: 80211 questions

[Johannes Berg]

Hi,

> I'm working on adding WE (wireless extensions) support to a WLAN
> driver, and have recently bumped into references of nl80211, cfg80211
> and d80211.
> 
> My questions:
> - Can someone please shortly describe each term? 

d80211: wireless stack slated to replace the current ieee80211 subsystem
in the kernel, includes very advanced functionality and can drives
softmac chipsets like bcm43xx.

cfg80211: my proposal for the in-kernel wireless configuration interface
replacing WE

nl80211: tightly tied to cfg80211, this exports the cfg80211 interface
over netlink to userspace

There's also a compat interface so drivers can use cfg80211 but
userspace can continue to use WE.

> - Other than reading the source code and searching in news-groups, is
> there any serious source of information regarding any of the above?

not really, sorry. What specifically do you need? Also, what driver are
you adding support for? Could it make sense to make said driver use
d80211, or is it for a fullmac chipset?

> p.s: while I'm at it -> any good documentation on WE itself other than
> wireless.20.h ?

None as far as I know. Jean recommends reading the userspace tools
source code (which from my POV shows just /how/ broken WE is).

johannes

RE: 80211 questions

[Bar, Eitan]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Johannes Berg [mailto:johannes@sipsolutions.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2006 3:30 PM
> To: Bar, Eitan
> Cc: netdev@vger.kernel.org
> Subject: Re: 80211 questions
> 
> Hi,
> 
> > I'm working on adding WE (wireless extensions) support to a WLAN
> > driver, and have recently bumped into references of nl80211,
cfg80211
> > and d80211.
> >
> > My questions:
> > - Can someone please shortly describe each term?
> 
> d80211: wireless stack slated to replace the current ieee80211
subsystem
> in the kernel, includes very advanced functionality and can drives
> softmac chipsets like bcm43xx.
> 
> cfg80211: my proposal for the in-kernel wireless configuration
interface
> replacing WE
> 
> nl80211: tightly tied to cfg80211, this exports the cfg80211 interface
> over netlink to userspace
> 
> There's also a compat interface so drivers can use cfg80211 but
> userspace can continue to use WE.
> 

 [Eitan Bar] Thanks :)


> > - Other than reading the source code and searching in news-groups,
is
> > there any serious source of information regarding any of the above?
> 
> not really, sorry. What specifically do you need? Also, what driver
are
> you adding support for? Could it make sense to make said driver use
> d80211, or is it for a fullmac chipset?
> 

[Eitan Bar] I was actually looking for any kind of design document, or
anything related to the concept behind it.
I'm adding WE support for a Texas Instruments driver for future
chipsets. The driver is, at the moment, entirely proprietary (including
user-mode API).

> > p.s: while I'm at it -> any good documentation on WE itself other
than
> > wireless.20.h ?
> 
> None as far as I know. Jean recommends reading the userspace tools
> source code (which from my POV shows just /how/ broken WE is).

[Eitan Bar] I see. Can you please point out if there's any driver
currently supporting cfg80211 or nl80211 for reference? (which one are
you using for testing?)

> 
> johannes

RE: 80211 questions

[Johannes Berg]

On Wed, 2006-10-18 at 15:45 +0200, Bar, Eitan wrote:

> [Eitan Bar] I was actually looking for any kind of design document, or
> anything related to the concept behind it.

As for cfg80211/nl80211 it was mostly discussed here on netdev and I
haven't written up anything.

> I'm adding WE support for a Texas Instruments driver for future
> chipsets. The driver is, at the moment, entirely proprietary (including
> user-mode API).

Heh, ok. I'm just wondering whether it would make sense for you to
provide a d80211 driver for that chipset instead. If you could tell me
(even in private if you wish) some details about what your hardware does
in firmware and what it does in the driver, I could help you make that
decision.

> [Eitan Bar] I see. Can you please point out if there's any driver
> currently supporting cfg80211 or nl80211 for reference? (which one are
> you using for testing?)

I have provided some code (very little actually) to make d80211 use
cfg80211 (and you can't do much with nl80211 yet), but no driver
implements it yet directly.

johannes

Re: 80211 questions

[Dan Williams]

On Wed, 2006-10-18 at 15:09 +0200, Bar, Eitan wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm working on adding WE (wireless extensions) support to a WLAN driver, and have recently bumped into references of nl80211, cfg80211 and d80211.
> 
> My questions:
> - Can someone please shortly describe each term? 
> - Other than reading the source code and searching in news-groups, is there any serious source of information regarding any of the above?

If you have _any_ questions, please ask if you cannot find an answer.  I
and others will be quite happy to help you figure it out.

Dan

> Thanks!
>  Eitan
> 
> p.s: while I'm at it -> any good documentation on WE itself other than wireless.20.h ?
> -
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