xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/wlan.4 (revision 6af83ee0d2941d18880b6aaa2b4facd1d30c6106)
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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
85.Ar X
86is the number of the
87.Nm
88instance and mask is a bit-or of control bits that determine which
89debugging messages to enable.
90For example,
91.Pp
92.Dl "sysctl net.wlan.0.debug=0x00200000"
93.Pp
94enables debugging messages related to scanning for an access point,
95adhoc neighbor, or an unoccupied channel when operation as an access point.
96The
97.Xr 80211debug
98tool provides a more user-friendly mechanism for doing the same thing.
99.Pp
100Many drivers will also display the contents of each 802.11 frame
101sent and received when the interface is marked with
102both debugging and
103.Cm link2 ;
104e.g.,
105.Pp
106.Dl "ifconfig wi0 debug link2"
107.Pp
108Beware however that some management frames may be processed entirely within
109the device and not be received by the host.
110.Sh COMPATIBILITY
111The module name of
112.Nm
113was used to be compatible with
114.Nx .
115.Sh SEE ALSO
116.Xr an 4 ,
117.Xr ath 4 ,
118.Xr awi 4 ,
119.Xr netintro 4 ,
120.Xr wi 4 ,
121.Xr wlan_acl 4 ,
122.Xr wlan_ccmp 4 ,
123.Xr wlan_tkip 4 ,
124.Xr wlan_wep 4 ,
125.Xr wlan_xauth 4
126.Sh STANDARDS
127More information can be found in the IEEE 802.11 Standard.
128.Sh HISTORY
129The
130.Nm
131driver first appeared in
132.Fx 5.0 .
133.Sh AUTHORS
134Atsushi Onoe is the author of original
135.Nx
136software from which this work began.
137.An -nosplit
138.An Sam Leffler
139brought the code into
140.Fx
141and then rewrote it to support multi-mode devices,
142802.11g, WPA/802.11i, WME, and add the extensible frameworks
143for cryptographic, authentication, and access control plugins.
144This manual page was written by
145.An Tom Rhodes Aq trhodes@FreeBSD.org .
146