Re: virtual wireless interfaces / WDS

On Mon, Apr 14, 2003 at 08:41:34PM -0600, M. Warner Losh wrote:
> : > How does one put all the sta(4) things into a bridge(4)?  These things
> : > come and go on a regular basis.
> : 
> :   Off the top of my head: a daemon listens to the wi(4) parent for the AP
> :   to send the STA an association response or, in an IBSS, for the STA to
> :   send a beacon or any other packet. Then it creates a sta(4), adds it
> :   to the bridge, and attaches it to the wi(4), in that order. Sometimes
> :   the daemon will not create the sta(4) and add it to the bridge before
> :   the STA sends a packet. I think that is ok if the wi(4) belongs to
> :   the bridge, also.
> 
> So you are moving the association into a daemon.  I'm not saying that
> this is necessarily bad.  I'm just trying to understand what you are
> proposing.  I'd prefer that the staN appear and disappear on their own

That works for me. It is actually cleaner. Do you think it is sensible
that if the wi(4) belongs to a bridge, it should add all of its sta to
the bridge?

> :   It occurs to me that a sta(4) can and should be exempted from spanning
> :   tree computations.
> 
> That's likely true.
> 
> How does one get a list of associated stations for a given interface?
> I have a system right now that has two wi interfaces, wi0 and wi1,
> each with a directional antenna.  Let's say I have 2 clients on each
> one.  In your proposal, that would mean I'd have sta0, sta1, sta2 and
> sta3.  ifconfig would, if I understand you, list four sta's,
> sta0..sta3.  How would I know which one belongs to wi0 and which ones
> belong to wi1.

I think it is clear in this imaginary example, where sta0 and sta1 are
STAs associated with AP wi0. The link xxx -> yyy syntax is by analogy to
a ppp connection (inet xxx -> yyy netmask zzz). Pretend wi0 is 11a/b/g. =)

wi0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,NOTRAILERS,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
        nwid ojc
        powersave off
        bssid 00:05:5d:da:ac:a8 chan 2
        address: 00:05:5d:da:ac:a8
        media: IEEE802.11 autoselect hostap (DS2 hostap)
        status: active
sta0: flags=<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
        nwid ojc
        powersave off
        bssid 00:05:5d:da:ac:a8 chan 2
        link 00:05:5d:da:ac:a8 -> 00:30:65:15:46:38
        media: IEEE802.11 autoselect hostap (DS11 hostap)
        status: active
sta1: flags=<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
        nwid ojc
        powersave off
        bssid 00:05:5d:da:ac:a8 chan 2
        link 00:05:5d:da:ac:a8 -> 00:e0:98:a2:ab:f5
        media: IEEE802.11 autoselect hostap (OFDM36 hostap)
        status: active

> I'm assuming that all devices that support AP would use staN
> attachments?

Right.

> Does the sta get an IP address, or does the wi?

Let's say you can assign either or both of the sta or wi an IP, depending
on the application. Any reason that should not be?

> There's talk of a hostap mode for the an driver

I still don't think that's possible w/o a special firmware. =)

Dave

-- 
David Young             OJC Technologies
[email protected]      Urbana, IL * (217) 278-3933
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