1.\" 2.\" Copyright (c) 2003 Tom Rhodes 3.\" All rights reserved. 4.\" 5.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 6.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 7.\" are met: 8.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 9.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 10.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 11.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 12.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 13.\" 14.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 15.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 16.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 17.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 18.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 19.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 20.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 21.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 22.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 23.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 24.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 25.\" 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 , 54and 55.Xr zyd 4 56drivers, with other drivers to follow. 57.Pp 58The 59.Nm 60module supports multi-mode devices capable of 61operating in both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands and supports numerous 62802.11 protocols: 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g. 63The WPA, 802.11i, and 802.1x security protocols are supported 64through a combination of in-kernel code and user-mode applications. 65The WME and WMM multi-media protocols are supported entirely within 66the 67.Nm 68module but require a suitably capable hardware device. 69.Pp 70The 71.Nm 72module defines several mechanisms by which plugin modules may 73be used to extend functionality. 74Cryptographic support such as WEP, TKIP, and AES-CCMP are implemented 75as modules that are loaded on demand (if not statically configured 76into a system). 77Similarly there is an authenticator framework for defining 802.11 78authentication services and a framework for integrating access 79control mechanisms specific to the 802.11 protocol. 80.Sh DEBUGGING 81If the associated interface is marked for debugging with, for example, 82.Pp 83.Dl "ifconfig wi0 debug" 84.Pp 85then messages describing the operation of the 802.11 protocol will 86be sent to the console. 87Complete debugging controls are available using: 88.Pp 89.Dl "sysctl net.wlan.X.debug=mask" 90.Pp 91where 92.Ar X 93is the number of the 94.Nm 95instance and mask is a bit-or of control bits that determine which 96debugging messages to enable. 97For example, 98.Pp 99.Dl "sysctl net.wlan.0.debug=0x00200000" 100.Pp 101enables debugging messages related to scanning for an access point, 102adhoc neighbor, or an unoccupied channel when operation as an access point. 103The 104.Xr 80211debug 105tool provides a more user-friendly mechanism for doing the same thing. 106.Pp 107Many drivers will also display the contents of each 802.11 frame 108sent and received when the interface is marked with 109both debugging and 110.Cm link2 ; 111e.g., 112.Pp 113.Dl "ifconfig wi0 debug link2" 114.Pp 115Beware however that some management frames may be processed entirely within 116the device and not be received by the host. 117.Sh COMPATIBILITY 118The module name of 119.Nm 120was used to be compatible with 121.Nx . 122.Sh SEE ALSO 123.Xr an 4 , 124.Xr ath 4 , 125.Xr awi 4 , 126.Xr ipw 4 , 127.Xr iwi 4 , 128.Xr netintro 4 , 129.Xr ral 4 , 130.Xr rum 4 , 131.Xr ural 4 , 132.Xr wi 4 , 133.Xr wlan_acl 4 , 134.Xr wlan_ccmp 4 , 135.Xr wlan_tkip 4 , 136.Xr wlan_wep 4 , 137.Xr wlan_xauth 4 , 138.Xr zyd 4 139.Sh STANDARDS 140More information can be found in the IEEE 802.11 Standard. 141.Sh HISTORY 142The 143.Nm 144driver first appeared in 145.Fx 5.0 . 146.Sh AUTHORS 147Atsushi Onoe is the author of original 148.Nx 149software from which this work began. 150.An -nosplit 151.An Sam Leffler 152brought the code into 153.Fx 154and then rewrote it to support multi-mode devices, 155802.11g, WPA/802.11i, WME, and add the extensible frameworks 156for cryptographic, authentication, and access control plugins. 157This manual page was written by 158.An Tom Rhodes Aq trhodes@FreeBSD.org . 159