xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/wlan.4 (revision 06064893b3c62c648518be78604fac29fc0d9d61)
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26.\" $FreeBSD$
27.\"
28.Dd December 7, 2004
29.Dt WLAN 4
30.Os
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm wlan
33.Nd generic 802.11 link-layer support
34.Sh SYNOPSIS
35.Cd "device wlan"
36.Sh DESCRIPTION
37The
38.Nm
39module provides generic code to support 802.11 drivers.
40Where a device does not directly support 802.11 functionality
41this layer fills in.
42The
43.Nm
44is required for the
45.Xr wi 4 ,
46.Xr an 4
47and
48.Xr ath 4
49drivers, with other drivers to follow.
50.Pp
51The
52.Nm
53module supports multi-mode devices capable of
54operating in both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands and supports numerous
55802.11 protocols: 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g.
56The WPA, 802.11i, and 802.1x security protocols are supported
57through a combination of in-kernel code and user-mode applications.
58The WME and WMM multi-media protocols are supported entirely within
59the
60.Nm
61module but require a suitably capable hardware device.
62.Pp
63The
64.Nm
65module defines several mechanisms by which plugin modules may
66be used to extend functionality.
67Cryptographic support such as WEP, TKIP, and AES-CCMP are implemented
68as modules that are loaded on demand (if not statically configured
69into a system).
70Similarly there is an authenticator framework for defining 802.11
71authentication services and a framework for integrating access
72control mechanisms specific to the 802.11 protocol.
73.Sh DEBUGGING
74If the associated interface is marked for debugging with, for example,
75.Pp
76.Dl "ifconfig wi0 debug"
77.Pp
78then messages describing the operation of the 802.11 protocol will
79be sent to the console.
80Complete debugging controls are available using:
81.Pp
82.Dl "sysctl net.wlan.X.debug=mask"
83.Pp
84where X is the number of the
85.Nm
86instance and mask is a bit-or of control bits that determine which
87debugging messages to enable.
88For example,
89.Dl "sysctl net.wlan.0.debug=0x00200000"
90.Pp
91enables debugging messages related to scanning for an access point,
92adhoc neighbor, or an unoccupied channel when operation as an access point.
93The
94.Xr 80211debug
95tool provides a more user-friendly mechanism for doing the same thing.
96.Pp
97Many drivers will also display the contents of each 802.11 frame
98sent and received when the interface is marked with
99both debugging and
100.Cm link2 ;
101e.g.,
102.Pp
103.Dl "ifconfig wi0 debug link2"
104.Pp
105Beware however that some management frames may be processed entirely within
106the device and not be received by the host.
107.Sh COMPATIBILITY
108The module name of
109.Nm
110was used to be compatible with
111.Nx .
112.Sh SEE ALSO
113.Xr an 4 ,
114.Xr ath 4 ,
115.Xr awi 4 ,
116.Xr netintro 4 ,
117.Xr wi 4 ,
118.Xr wlan_wep 4 ,
119.Xr wlan_tkip 4 ,
120.Xr wlan_ccmp 4 ,
121.Xr wlan_xauth 4 ,
122.Xr wlan_acl 4
123.Sh STANDARDS
124More information can be found in the IEEE 802.11 Standard.
125.Sh HISTORY
126The
127.Nm
128driver first appeared in
129.Fx 5.0 .
130.Sh AUTHORS
131Atsushi Onoe is the author of original
132.Nx
133software from which this work began.
134.An -nosplit
135.An Sam Leffler
136brought the code into
137.Fx
138and then rewrote it to support multi-mode devices,
139802.11g, WPA/802.11i, WME, and add the extensible frameworks
140for cryptographic, authentication, and access control plugins.
141This manual page was written by
142.An Tom Rhodes Aq trhodes@FreeBSD.org .
143