The mac80211 subsystem for kernel developers
    
      
        Johannes
        Berg
        
          johannes@sipsolutions.net
        
      
    
    
      2007-2009
      Johannes Berg
    
    
      
        This documentation is free software; you can redistribute
        it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
        License version 2 as published by the Free Software Foundation.
      
      
        This documentation is distributed in the hope that it will be
        useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
        warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
        See the GNU General Public License for more details.
      
      
        You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
        License along with this documentation; if not, write to the Free
        Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston,
        MA 02111-1307 USA
      
      
        For more details see the file COPYING in the source
        distribution of Linux.
      
    
    
!Pinclude/net/mac80211.h Introduction
!Pinclude/net/mac80211.h Warning
    
  
  
  
    The basic mac80211 driver interface
    
      
        You should read and understand the information contained
        within this part of the book while implementing a driver.
        In some chapters, advanced usage is noted, that may be
        skipped at first.
      
      
        This part of the book only covers station and monitor mode
        functionality, additional information required to implement
        the other modes is covered in the second part of the book.
      
    
    
      Basic hardware handling
      TBD
      
        This chapter shall contain information on getting a hw
        struct allocated and registered with mac80211.
      
      
        Since it is required to allocate rates/modes before registering
        a hw struct, this chapter shall also contain information on setting
        up the rate/mode structs.
      
      
        Additionally, some discussion about the callbacks and
        the general programming model should be in here, including
        the definition of ieee80211_ops which will be referred to
        a lot.
      
      
        Finally, a discussion of hardware capabilities should be done
        with references to other parts of the book.
      
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_hw
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_hw_flags
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h SET_IEEE80211_DEV
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h SET_IEEE80211_PERM_ADDR
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_ops
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_alloc_hw
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_register_hw
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_get_tx_led_name
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_get_rx_led_name
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_get_assoc_led_name
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_get_radio_led_name
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_unregister_hw
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_free_hw
    
    
      PHY configuration
      TBD
      
        This chapter should describe PHY handling including
        start/stop callbacks and the various structures used.
      
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_conf
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_conf_flags
    
    
      Virtual interfaces
      TBD
      
        This chapter should describe virtual interface basics
        that are relevant to the driver (VLANs, MGMT etc are not.)
        It should explain the use of the add_iface/remove_iface
        callbacks as well as the interface configuration callbacks.
      
      Things related to AP mode should be discussed there.
      
        Things related to supporting multiple interfaces should be
        in the appropriate chapter, a BIG FAT note should be here about
        this though and the recommendation to allow only a single
        interface in STA mode at first!
      
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_if_init_conf
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_if_conf
    
    
      Receive and transmit processing
      
        what should be here
        TBD
        
          This should describe the receive and transmit
          paths in mac80211/the drivers as well as
          transmit status handling.
        
      
      
        Frame format
!Pinclude/net/mac80211.h Frame format
      
      
        Packet alignment
!Pnet/mac80211/rx.c Packet alignment
      
      
        Calling into mac80211 from interrupts
!Pinclude/net/mac80211.h Calling mac80211 from interrupts
      
      
        functions/definitions
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_rx_status
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h mac80211_rx_flags
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_tx_info
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_rx
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_rx_irqsafe
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_tx_status
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_tx_status_irqsafe
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_rts_get
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_rts_duration
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_ctstoself_get
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_ctstoself_duration
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_generic_frame_duration
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_get_hdrlen_from_skb
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_hdrlen
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_wake_queue
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_stop_queue
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_wake_queues
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_stop_queues
      
    
    
      Frame filtering
!Pinclude/net/mac80211.h Frame filtering
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_filter_flags
    
  
  
    Advanced driver interface
    
      
       Information contained within this part of the book is
       of interest only for advanced interaction of mac80211
       with drivers to exploit more hardware capabilities and
       improve performance.
      
    
    
      Hardware crypto acceleration
!Pinclude/net/mac80211.h Hardware crypto acceleration
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h set_key_cmd
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_key_conf
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_key_alg
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_key_flags
    
    
      Powersave support
!Pinclude/net/mac80211.h Powersave support
    
    
      Beacon filter support
!Pinclude/net/mac80211.h Beacon filter support
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_beacon_loss
    
    
      Multiple queues and QoS support
      TBD
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_tx_queue_params
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_tx_queue_stats
    
    
      Access point mode support
      TBD
      Some parts of the if_conf should be discussed here instead
      
        Insert notes about VLAN interfaces with hw crypto here or
        in the hw crypto chapter.
      
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_get_buffered_bc
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_beacon_get
    
    
      Supporting multiple virtual interfaces
      TBD
      
        Note: WDS with identical MAC address should almost always be OK
      
      
        Insert notes about having multiple virtual interfaces with
        different MAC addresses here, note which configurations are
        supported by mac80211, add notes about supporting hw crypto
        with it.
      
    
    
      Hardware scan offload
      TBD
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_scan_completed
    
  
  
    Rate control interface
    
      TBD
      
       This part of the book describes the rate control algorithm
       interface and how it relates to mac80211 and drivers.
      
    
    
      dummy chapter
      TBD
    
  
  
    Internals
    
      TBD
      
       This part of the book describes mac80211 internals.
      
    
    
      Key handling
      
        Key handling basics
!Pnet/mac80211/key.c Key handling basics
      
      
        MORE TBD
        TBD
      
    
    
      Receive processing
      TBD
    
    
      Transmit processing
      TBD
    
    
      Station info handling
      
        Programming information
!Fnet/mac80211/sta_info.h sta_info
!Fnet/mac80211/sta_info.h ieee80211_sta_info_flags
      
      
        STA information lifetime rules
!Pnet/mac80211/sta_info.c STA information lifetime rules
      
    
    
      Synchronisation
      TBD
      Locking, lots of RCU