linux.git/net/wireless/core.h, branch v2.6.36

cfg80211: make action channel type optional

2010-06-02T20:13:27+00:00

When sending action frames, we want to verify
that we do that on the correct channel. However,
checking the channel type in addition can get in
the way, since the channel type could change on
the fly during an association, and it's not
useful to have the channel type anyway since it
has no effect on the transmission. Therefore,
make it optional to specify so that if wanted,
it can still be checked, but is not required.

Signed-off-by: Johannes Berg 
Signed-off-by: John W. Linville

cfg80211/mac80211: better channel handling

2010-05-07T18:55:50+00:00

Currently (all tested with hwsim) you can do stupid
things like setting up an AP on a certain channel,
then adding another virtual interface and making
that associate on another channel -- this will make
the beaconing to move channel but obviously without
the necessary IEs data update.

In order to improve this situation, first make the
configuration APIs (cfg80211 and nl80211) aware of
multi-channel operation -- we'll eventually need
that in the future anyway. There's one userland API
change and one API addition. The API change is that
now SET_WIPHY must be called with virtual interface
index rather than only wiphy index in order to take
effect for that interface -- luckily all current
users (hostapd) do that. For monitor interfaces, the
old setting is preserved, but monitors are always
slaved to other devices anyway so no guarantees.

The second userland API change is the introduction
of a per virtual interface SET_CHANNEL command, that
hostapd should use going forward to make it easier
to understand what's going on (it can automatically
detect a kernel with this command).

Other than mac80211, no existing cfg80211 drivers
are affected by this change because they only allow
a single virtual interface.

mac80211, however, now needs to be aware that the
channel settings are per interface now, and needs
to disallow (for now) real multi-channel operation,
which is another important part of this patch.

One of the immediate benefits is that you can now
start hostapd to operate on a hardware that already
has a connection on another virtual interface, as
long as you specify the same channel.

Note that two things are left unhandled (this is an
improvement -- not a complete fix):

 * different HT/no-HT modes

   currently you could start an HT AP and then
   connect to a non-HT network on the same channel
   which would configure the hardware for no HT;
   that can be fixed fairly easily

 * CSA

   An AP we're connected to on a virtual interface
   might indicate switching channels, and in that
   case we would follow it, regardless of how many
   other interfaces are operating; this requires
   more effort to fix but is pretty rare after all

Signed-off-by: Johannes Berg 
Signed-off-by: John W. Linville

cfg80211: Add local-state-change-only auth/deauth/disassoc

2010-04-07T18:37:56+00:00

cfg80211 is quite strict on allowing authentication and association
commands only in certain states. In order to meet these requirements,
user space applications may need to clear authentication or
association state in some cases. Currently, this can be done with
deauth/disassoc command, but that ends up sending out Deauthentication
or Disassociation frame unnecessarily. Add a new nl80211 attribute to
allow this sending of the frame be skipped, but with all other
deauth/disassoc operations being completed.

Similar state change is also needed for IEEE 802.11r FT protocol in
the FT-over-DS case which does not use Authentication frame exchange
in a transition to another BSS. For this to work with cfg80211, an
authentication entry needs to be created for the target BSS without
sending out an Authentication frame. The nl80211 authentication
command can be used for this purpose, too, with the new attribute to
indicate that the command is only for changing local state. This
enables wpa_supplicant to complete FT-over-DS transition successfully.

Signed-off-by: Jouni Malinen 
Signed-off-by: John W. Linville

cfg80211/mac80211: allow registering for and sending action frames

2010-02-15T21:14:15+00:00

This implements a new command to register for action frames
that userspace wants to handle instead of the in-kernel
rejection. It is then responsible for rejecting ones that
it decided not to handle. There is no unregistration, but
the socket can be closed for that.

Frames that are not registered for will not be forwarded
to userspace and will be rejected by the kernel, the
cfg80211 API helps implementing that.

Additionally, this patch adds a new command that allows
doing action frame transmission from userspace. It can be
used either to exchange action frames on the current
operational channel (e.g., with the AP with which we are
currently associated) or to exchange off-channel Public
Action frames with the remain-on-channel command.

Signed-off-by: Jouni Malinen 
Signed-off-by: Johannes Berg 
Signed-off-by: John W. Linville

cfg80211: rcu-ify rdev and wdev

2010-01-19T21:43:09+00:00

Future code will need to look up rdev and wdev
within atomic sections, but currently we need
to lock a mutex for such lookups. Change the
list handling for both to be RCU-safe so that
we can look them up in rcu sections instead in
the future.

Signed-off-by: Johannes Berg 
Signed-off-by: John W. Linville

cfg80211: Store IEs from both Beacon and Probe Response frames

2010-01-12T18:51:28+00:00

Store information elements from Beacon and Probe Response frames in
separate buffers to allow both sets to be made available through
nl80211. This allows user space applications to get access to IEs from
Beacon frames even if we have received Probe Response frames from the
BSS. Previously, the IEs from Probe Response frames would have
overridden the IEs from Beacon frames.

This feature is of somewhat limited use since most protocols include
the same (or extended) information in Probe Response frames. However,
there are couple of exceptions where the IEs from Beacon frames could
be of some use: TIM IE is only included in Beacon frames (and it would
be needed to figure out the DTIM period used in the BSS) and at least
some implementations of Wireless Provisioning Services seem to include
the full IE only in Beacon frames).

The new BSS attribute for scan results is added to allow both the IE
sets to be delivered. This is done in a way that maintains the
previously used behavior for applications that are not aware of the
new NL80211_BSS_BEACON_IES attribute.

Signed-off-by: Jouni Malinen 
Acked-by: Johannes Berg 
Signed-off-by: John W. Linville

cfg80211: add remain-on-channel command

2009-12-28T21:55:02+00:00

Add new commands for requesting the driver to remain awake
on a specified channel for the specified amount of time
(and another command to cancel such an operation). This
can be used to implement userspace-controlled off-channel
operations, like Public Action frame exchange on another
channel than the operation channel.

The off-channel operation should behave similarly to scan,
i.e. the local station (if associated) moves into power
save mode to request the AP to buffer frames for it and
then moves to the other channel to allow the off-channel
operation to be completed. The duration parameter can be
used to request enough time to receive a response from
the target station.

Signed-off-by: Jouni Malinen 
Signed-off-by: Johannes Berg 
Signed-off-by: John W. Linville

wireless: report reasonable bitrate for MCS rates through wext

2009-12-21T16:27:31+00:00

Previously, cfg80211 had reported "0" for MCS (i.e. 802.11n) bitrates
through the wireless extensions interface.  However, nl80211 was
converting MCS rates into a reasonable bitrate number.  This patch moves
the nl80211 code to cfg80211 where it is now shared between both the
nl80211 interface and the wireless extensions interface.

Signed-off-by: John W. Linville

wireless : use a dedicated workqueue for cfg80211.

2009-11-28T20:05:00+00:00

This patch moves the works cleanup, scan and events to a cfg80211
dedicated workqueue.

Platform driver like eeepc-laptop ought to use works to rfkill (as
new rfkill does lock in rfkill_unregister and the platform driver is
called from rfkill_switch_all which also lock the same mutex).
This raise a new issue in itself that the work scheduled by the platform
driver to the global worqueue calls wiphy_unregister which flush_work
scan and event works (which thus flush works on the global workqueue inside
a work on the global workqueue) and also put on hold the  wdev_cleanup_work
 (which prevents the dev_put on netdev thus indefinite Usage count error on
wifi device).

Signed-off-by: Johannes Berg 
Signed-off-by: Alban Browaeys 
Signed-off-by: John W. Linville

cfg80211: re-join IBSS when privacy changes

2009-11-18T22:09:25+00:00

When going from/to a WEP protected IBSS, we need to
leave this one and join a new one to take care of
the changed capability.

Cc: Hong Zhang 
Signed-off-by: Johannes Berg 
Signed-off-by: John W. Linville