802.11 status and futures
From: Sam Leffler (sam_at_errno.com)
Date: 09/04/05
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Date: Sat, 03 Sep 2005 16:06:34 -0700 To: arch@freebsd.org
We're getting closer to 6.0 and the next STABLE branch. This will
define another ABI freeze which will have significant impact on my
importing 802.11 work so I figure it's time to review where we are and
describe what's going on in terms of future development.
6.0 will be the first release that has WPA support included in the base
system. While the support has been working (for some definition of
"working") for >18 months it's only been available to CURRENT users so
this is a major milestone. The ath driver is well-tested in this
regard; a few other drivers have minimal WPA support (e.g. no h/w crypto
is yet supported).
I have fixes pending in other depots to address miscellaneous bugs and
resolve compliance issues (the linux version of the code has passed many
standard compliance suites and some of the changes from that code base
have not been back-merged). These changes will be rolled into HEAD as
time permits and all will be MFC'd to RELENG_6 if possible.
As soon as it's ok to have HEAD diverge I want to bring in an entirely
new framework for doing scanning. This supports things like background
scanning (scanning for ap's while associated), roaming, and enables
station mode power save operation. These changes affect all drivers so
committing them won't happen until I get help in updating and testing
other drivers. Also these changes cannot be MFC'd because they would
break existing API's.
Past the scanning-related changes I have an entirely new architecture
for the 802.11 layer that I described at BSDCan 2005. Slides are
available at:
http://www.freebsd.org/~sam/BSDCan2005.pdf
These changes enable things like support for multiple ssid and bssid on
a single device (e.g. so you can have a virtual ap using WPA operating
in parallel with an ap that uses open authentication), WDS repeater
operation, and mesh networks (this was designed with 802.11s in mind).
The virtual ap (or vap) code has been in development for nearly a year
and is about to be released for linux (and has gone through extensive
testing). Getting this code in the tree will again require help from
folks to update and test drivers. And again this cannot be MFC'd
because of API changes.
While not directly related to the above work I will soon commit an
update to the Atheros hal that will add support for some of their most
recent parts that people are encountering in retail products. This will
be MFC'd to REELNG_6; I haven't decided yet whether to backport it to
other branches (by the time I can consider RELENG_5 it may be irrelevant).
The above may change depending on my time and work commitments.
Sam
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- Previous message: Poul-Henning Kamp: "Re: kern/85503: panic: wrong dirclust using msdosfs in RELENG_6"
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