Re: Changes from OpenAP


From: Jouni Malinen (jkm_at_ssh.com)
Date: 2002-01-24 05:39:12 UTC



On Wed, Jan 23, 2002 at 06:44:36PM +0200, Jouni Malinen wrote:

> It looks like OpenAP changes do not care much about
> Ad-hoc/Managed mode operations (i.e., they would be broken) etc. I'll
> need to fix these and also make AP-AP mesh code configurable with a
> module parameter etc. so that it is not used unless needed.

Hmm.. After reading the code more carefully, I think there are more problems with this "AP-AP mesh" implementation. Comments were quite a bit misleading in prism2_tx() about the 4-address frame. First, I assumed it to be almost compatible with 802.11 standards, but it really isn't. Frames use only ToDS (not FromDS) and the fourth address is in the end of the data - not in the end of the header. In other words, these AP-AP links would not be compatible with any other equipment/software..

I would not like to add incompatible version of the 4-address frames for wireless distribution system; at least without first confirming that this would really be the only option with Host AP mode. I'll do some testing and postpone merging the "AP-AP mesh" to my driver until this can be resolved. First, I'll just merge obvious bug fixes from OpenAP release.

If someone has any ideas or comments about AP-AP links, they would be welcome. My current driver uses kind of pseudo ad-hoc mode (i.e., no ToDS or FromDS flags (and only 3 addresses) in frames between APs). OpenAP uses four addresses, but in a way that is not compatible with 802.11 standards.

-- 
Jouni Malinen
SSH Communications Security Corp
jouni.malinen_at_ssh.com


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