xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/wlan.4 (revision 9336e0699bda8a301cd2bfa37106b6ec5e32012e)
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26.\" $FreeBSD$
27.\"
28.Dd September 6, 2007
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 an 4 ,
46.Xr ath 4 ,
47.Xr awi 4 ,
48.Xr ipw 4 ,
49.Xr iwi 4 ,
50.Xr ral 4 ,
51.Xr rum 4 ,
52.Xr ural 4 ,
53.Xr wi 4 ,
54.Xr wpi 4 ,
55and
56.Xr zyd 4
57drivers, with other drivers to follow.
58.Pp
59The
60.Nm
61module supports multi-mode devices capable of
62operating in both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands and supports numerous
63802.11 protocols: 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g.
64The WPA, 802.11i, and 802.1x security protocols are supported
65through a combination of in-kernel code and user-mode applications.
66The WME and WMM multi-media protocols are supported entirely within
67the
68.Nm
69module but require a suitably capable hardware device.
70.Pp
71The
72.Nm
73module defines several mechanisms by which plugin modules may
74be used to extend functionality.
75Cryptographic support such as WEP, TKIP, and AES-CCMP are implemented
76as modules that are loaded on demand (if not statically configured
77into a system).
78Similarly there is an authenticator framework for defining 802.11
79authentication services and a framework for integrating access
80control mechanisms specific to the 802.11 protocol.
81.Sh DEBUGGING
82If the associated interface is marked for debugging with, for example,
83.Pp
84.Dl "ifconfig wi0 debug"
85.Pp
86then messages describing the operation of the 802.11 protocol will
87be sent to the console.
88Complete debugging controls are available using:
89.Pp
90.Dl "sysctl net.wlan.X.debug=mask"
91.Pp
92where
93.Ar X
94is the number of the
95.Nm
96instance and mask is a bit-or of control bits that determine which
97debugging messages to enable.
98For example,
99.Pp
100.Dl "sysctl net.wlan.0.debug=0x00200000"
101.Pp
102enables debugging messages related to scanning for an access point,
103adhoc neighbor, or an unoccupied channel when operation as an access point.
104The
105.Xr 80211debug
106tool provides a more user-friendly mechanism for doing the same thing.
107.Pp
108Many drivers will also display the contents of each 802.11 frame
109sent and received when the interface is marked with
110both debugging and
111.Cm link2 ;
112e.g.,
113.Pp
114.Dl "ifconfig wi0 debug link2"
115.Pp
116Beware however that some management frames may be processed entirely within
117the device and not be received by the host.
118.Sh COMPATIBILITY
119The module name of
120.Nm
121was used to be compatible with
122.Nx .
123.Sh SEE ALSO
124.Xr an 4 ,
125.Xr ath 4 ,
126.Xr awi 4 ,
127.Xr ipw 4 ,
128.Xr iwi 4 ,
129.Xr netintro 4 ,
130.Xr ral 4 ,
131.Xr rum 4 ,
132.Xr ural 4 ,
133.Xr wi 4 ,
134.Xr wlan_acl 4 ,
135.Xr wlan_ccmp 4 ,
136.Xr wlan_tkip 4 ,
137.Xr wlan_wep 4 ,
138.Xr wlan_xauth 4 ,
139.Xr wpi 4 ,
140.Xr zyd 4
141.Sh STANDARDS
142More information can be found in the IEEE 802.11 Standard.
143.Sh HISTORY
144The
145.Nm
146driver first appeared in
147.Fx 5.0 .
148.Sh AUTHORS
149Atsushi Onoe is the author of original
150.Nx
151software from which this work began.
152.An -nosplit
153.An Sam Leffler
154brought the code into
155.Fx
156and then rewrote it to support multi-mode devices,
157802.11g, WPA/802.11i, WME, and add the extensible frameworks
158for cryptographic, authentication, and access control plugins.
159This manual page was written by
160.An Tom Rhodes Aq trhodes@FreeBSD.org .
161