Re: wireless: recap of current issues (configuration)

From: Stuffed Crust
Date: Mon Jan 16 2006 - 12:32:30 EST


On Mon, Jan 16, 2006 at 03:55:55PM +0100, Johannes Berg wrote:
> I really don't see why a plain STA mode card should be required to carry
> around all the code required for AP operation -- handling associations
> of clients, powersave management wrt. buffering, ... Sure, fragmentation

From the perspective of the hardware driver, there is little AP or
STA-specific code, especially when IBSS is thrown in. Thick MACs
excepted, there's little more than "frame tx/rx, and hardware control
twiddling".

The AP/STA smarts happen in the 802.11 stack. And, speaking from
experience, it is very hard to separate them cleanly, at least not
without incurring even more overall complexity and bloat.

It's far simpler to build them intertwined, then add a bunch of #ifdefs
if you want to disable AP or STA mode individually to save space.

- Solomon
--
Solomon Peachy ICQ: 1318344
Melbourne, FL
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.

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