< Linux Wireless LAN Howto >

Linux Wireless LAN Howto

Jean Tourrilhes

14 November 01

Linux & Wireless LANs : Un*x, with no string attached...

1 Introduction
This document will explore the magical world of Wireless LANs and Linux.
Wireless LAN is not a very widespread and well known technology, even in the
Linux world, so we will try to gather here most of the available information.
Despite the fact that it is very similar to common networking technologies, it is
significantly different to justify this specific document covering the subject.

1.1 What is a Wireless LAN ?

It’s a networking technology allowing the connection of computers without
any wires and cables (apart from the mains), mostly using radio technology (and
sometime infrared). It’s called LAN (Local Area Network) because the range
targeted is small (within an office, a building, a store, a small campus, a house...).
This technology is slowly growing (I should say maturing), and despite a general
lack of interest, Linux is able to take advantage of some of the wireless networks
available.

1.2 Content of this document

My first task is to talk a bit about the different Wireless LANs options under
Linux. What the products on the market are, their compatibility with Linux and
where to find the necessary bits and pieces to make them work. This should help
you to make your mind on the product of your dreams.
Once you’ve picked a Wireless LAN, you will have to live with it. The next
chapter go through the main differences of Wireless LAN compared to other
networking technologies. This includes the main steps of the installation and usage
considerations.
Then, we will have a nice overview of the Wireless Extensions. The Wireless
Extensions is a new standard interface to configure Wireless LAN devices and get
wireless specific statistics from them. Of course, this is a Linux exclusivity !
At this point, you will find a long and dense section, talking mostly of the
different technologies used in Wireless LANs and other boring related stuff. It is
quite safe to skip that one.

1.3 Target and Assumptions

The main goal of this document is to reduce the traffic of unanswered
questions related to wireless in the Linux newsgroups and mailing lists (and in my

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mailbox). After that, you should have no more arguments for asking foolish
questions around.
I hope that this document will help people to make the most of their Wireless
LAN under a competent operating system and understand what is in the box. If I
could convince people to give it a try, it would make me happy.
This document act mostly as a complement to the exhaustive documentation
existing for Linux. Because of that, I might not explain every details of everything
and target already quite knowledgeable people. Don’t worry, there is a section on
how to improve your culture at the beginning of the section 3.

1.4 Legal stuff

Strange world where everybody has to protect himself from sharks, lawyers
and crazy people :
Any information in this document is purely fictious and any resemblance to
real hardware, software or driver is purely coincidental...
I mean, if because you read this document your hardware burn, you get fired
from your job or anything else bad happen, I’m not responsible, it can’t be my fault,
so please use your own brain. Writing this kind of documents is not part of my job
at HP, so I don’t expect them to claim any responsibility for its content.
Any brand mentioned in this document is trademark of its respective owner.
For example Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds.
Then, this is my document, written by me (Jean Tourrilhes), therefore I own
its copyright. So don’t remove my name (and copyright notice) and pretend that you
wrote it yourself. In matter of copy, distribution and modification, you should ask
me politely and use common sense.
Having said that, this document is also licensed under the terms of the Linux
Documentation Project Copying License.

1.5 This document

This document is only available in the format that are convenient to me
(acrobat/pdf, html). It might be updated in the future (if I feel like it and if I have
some time). I guess that it is pretty safe to assume that it will still be available for
the time to come at these web addresses :
http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Wireless.html
http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Wavelan.html
I may be reached at the following e-mail address :
[email protected]
Constructive comments and interesting information are welcomed. I hope
that you will help me to keep this document up to date and improve its content.
Comments about my english and my style will be answered in french. Flames
and spam will be processed through a Rayleig Fading channel with a -120 dB
attenuation in order to reduce the noise :-)

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2 The devices, the drivers

This section describes the most common Wireless LAN products available on
the market and their compatibility with Linux. I will make a short description of
each product and will mainly focus on the drivers.
Except in a few case, you need a driver to interface you wireless network
device to the Linux kernel. The availability of a driver is as usual your main
concern, especially with wireless devices because few people are using such
hardware, so few of them are willing to develop, debug and maintain such a piece
of code.
For each driver, I will list its status (stable, buggy...), the maintainer, the
version, how to get it and the main features. If you hear about something new or if
you have developed yourself a driver, please notify me.

2.1 Lucent Wavelan & DEC RoamAbout DS

Driver status : stable
Driver name : ISA : wavelan.o
Pcmcia : wavelan_cs.o
Version : v19 (20/4/99), v20 (29/7/99) or v23 (10/10/00)
Where : ISA : Linux kernel (2.0.37, 2.2.11 & 2.3.15)
Pcmcia : Pcmcia package (3.0.11)
Creators : Bruce Janson (ISA) and Anthony D. Joseph (Pcmcia)
Maintainer : Jean Tourrilhes <[email protected]>
Web page : http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Wavelan.html
Mailing list : http://lists.samba.org/pipermail/wireless/
Documentation : man pages, headers
Configuration : Wireless Extensions
Statistics : Wireless Extensions
Multi-devices : isa : up to 4
pcmcia : yes
Interoperability : proprietary protocol, interoperate with Windows
Other features : module, hardware multicast, Wireless Extensions, SMP
Non implemented : roaming
Bugs : see release notes on web page :-(
License : GPL & OpenSource
Vendor web pages : http://www.wavelan.com/
http://www.networks.digital.com/dr/wireless/
http://www.cabletron.com/dnpg/dr/npg/lanfm-mn.html

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2.1.1 The device

The Wavelan has been around for quite a while now, and this product is now
discontinued. The Wavelan is a radio LAN, using the 900 MHz or 2.4 GHz ISM
band (Direct Sequence). It is built by Lucent, formerly AT&T, formerly NCR, and
there is a few OEM version (for example the DEC RoamAbout DS). The Wavelan
comes in two flavours, an ISA card and a PCMCIA card (plus the access point).
The Wavelan appears to the PC as a standard network card and interfaces
naturally with the networking stack. The configuration includes setting the
frequency (10 different channels), Network ID (16 bits). Hardware encryption is
optional (DES or AES - 64 bits key).
This product is built around a standard Ethernet controller (that may be
found in some 3Com and Intel Ethernet cards), and the Ethernet physical layer is
replaced by a radio modem. The ISA and Pcmcia cards share the same basic
architecture, have the same modem, but have different Ethernet Controllers and
bus interfaces (the pcmcia has only one transmit buffer). Because the Wavelan
doesn’t use a specific radio MAC (no MAC level retransmissions for example), it
uses very efficiently the bandwidth, but is more sensitive to packet loss and
collisions.
There is two versions of the modem, a 900 MHz and a 2.4 GHz version.
Revision 2 of the 2.4 GHz modem allows the user to set the frequency (from a set
of predefined channels - the availability of each channel depend on the regulation).
The Wavelan is Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (11 chips encoding), using a
2 Mb/s signalling rate (using effectively 22 MHz of bandwidth) and diversity
antennas.
2.1.2 The driver
The ISA driver has also been around for quite a while now in the kernel and
is pretty stable. The last set of modifications were to solve a few remaining small
problems and add Wireless Extensions and some other features, so the driver is
fairly complete now. The only things remaining to do is the implementation of the
roaming protocol (but it might come, if I’m not too lazy...).
The Pcmcia driver has caught up with the ISA one to offer the same level of
functionality and reliability. The only difference are the pcmcia specific functions
(auto loading, auto unloading, crude power saving).
The latest releases of both drivers (v23) adds SMP support.
The drivers use the card EEprom to save the configuration changes for
subsequent reboots. Wireless Extensions let you configure the NWID, the
frequency, the sensitivity and the encryption key (optional). Statistics include the
signal quality, signal level, noise level and the count of packet received with an
invalid NWID (see Wavelan documentation). Private Wireless Extensions include
the setting of the quality threshold.

2.2 Lucent Wavelan IEEE, Orinoco, Enterasys RoamAbout 802,

Elsa AirLancer 11 and Melco/Buffalo 802.11b
Driver status : stable (but no longer maintained - see section 2.3)

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Driver name : wvlan_cs.o

Version : v1.0.7
Where : Pcmcia package (3.1.25)
Maintainers : Anton Blanchard <[email protected]>
Andreas Neuhaus <[email protected]>
Harald Roelle <[email protected]>
Web pages : http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Wavelan-IEEE.html
http://www.fasta.fh-dortmund.de/users/andy/wvlan/
http://www.roelle.com/wvlanPPC/index.html
Mailing list : http://lists.samba.org/pipermail/wireless/
Documentation : man page, headers
Configuration : Wireless Extensions & module parameters
Statistics : Wireless Extensions
Multi-devices : Yes
Interoperability : 802.11-DS and 802.11-b, interoperate with Windows
Other features : MTU selection, multicast, promiscuous mode, power
management, WEP hardware encryption, SMP, multi-
firmware and PPC support.
Non implemented : Some optimisations...
Bugs : May have some performance issues
License : GPL
Vendor web page : http://www.wavelan.com/
http://www.enterasys.com/wireless/
http://www.elsa.com/
http://www.hp.com/notebooks/us/eng/products/wireless/
http://www.buffalotech.com/
http://www.1stwave.de/
http://www.artem.de/
2.2.1 The device
Even if it uses the same name, the Wavelan IEEE product is completely
different from the old Wavelan, and totally incompatible in term of protocol and
hardware interface. It is still built by Lucent, and it still operate in the 2.4 GHz
ISM band (Direct Sequence), but the new hardware fully support the IEEE 802.11
protocol (and 802.11-b for the more recent versions) and is no longer based on a
Ethernet MAC chip. There is only a Pcmcia version (the ISA version uses a ISA to
Pcmcia bridge) and the different access points. Recently, Lucent has added a USB
adapter and mini PCI version of the card for laptop (this one is based on a PCI-
Pcmcia bridge).

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To confuse the issue, Lucent has recently renamed the Wavelan IEEE as
Orinoco (Wavelan was better IMHO), and this division was in the part of Lucent
spin-off into a new company called Agere. Enterasys is also selling the Wavelan
IEEE as RoamAbout 802 (this company was formerly known as Cabletron, which
was the former DEC networking division). Elsa is selling it in Europe as
AirLancer 11 (on the other hand, the 2 Mb/s version is quite different). In Japan
(and maybe also in Europe), Melco is selling it as Buffalo WLI-PCM-L11. Lately,
more vendors have been joining the club, such as HP (HP 802.11b Wireless LAN),
IBM (IBM High Rate Wireless LAN), Dell (Dell TrueMobile 1150 - on the other
hand, the 1100 is an Aironet card), Compaq (Compaq WL 110, WL 210 and WL
215 - the WL100 and WL200 are PrismII based), 1stWave (1stWave PC-Card)
and ARtem (ARtem ComCard). The Apple Airport is also derived from the
Wavelan IEEE (see section 2.5).
The Wavelan IEEE appears to the PC as a standard network card and
interfaces naturally with the networking stack. The configuration includes only
setting the network name (ESSID), the rest is automatic (finding the equivalent
BSSID and channel). As usual for Lucent, the documentation and website are rich.
As with all IEEE 802.11 products, the Wavelan offer a fully featured MAC
protocol, including MAC level acknowledgement (good news for all of us having
dealt with the old Wavelan card), optional RTS/CTS, fragmentation, automatic
rate selection, roaming. This seems exhaustive, but is mandatory for IEEE 802.11
compliance. Different version of the card include different levels of security (bronze
is basic, silver is with WEP (RC4-40 bits) and gold is with RC4-128 bit encryption).
The MAC support both Managed and Ad-Hoc modes. However, the initial
firmware for those cards did support only a non-compliant Ad-Hoc mode (called Ad-
Hoc demo mode - which interoperate with most PrismII cards). In order to gain
WiFi compliance, Lucent added in recent firmware (6.06 and greater) a second Ad-
Hoc mode which is fully 802.11 compliant (called Peer to Peer mode or IBSS Ad-
Hoc mode - and which interoperate with Aironet cards). Of course, the two Ad-Hoc
modes are not interoperable.
The 2.4 GHz modem is an enhanced version of the previous generation, Direct
Sequence Spread Spectrum (11 chips encoding), using both 1 and 2 Mb/s signalling
rate (using effectively 22 MHz of bandwidth) and 5.5 and 11 Mb/s in second
generation cards, diversity antennas and with 13 different frequencies (depending
on the regulations).
Initially, the Wavelan was only offering 1 and 2 Mb/s bit rates (basic IEEE
802.11 DS standard). For a while, Lucent was also selling a “turbo” version of the
card, which was adding 5 and 10 Mb/s bit-rates for shorter range using Lucent
proprietary modulations (so, not compatible with 802.11-b).
Nowadays, Lucent offers only the second generation of the Wavelan IEEE,
which is much cheaper and fully compliant with the new 802.11-b standard,
supporting 1, 2, 5.5 and 11 Mb/s bit-rate (compatible with other 11 Mb/s products).
All Wavelan IEEE cards do not offer the exact same set of features, because
Lucent keep changing the firmware. From firmware 1.00 to 4.52, Lucent was
mostly adding features (encryption, power saving) and keeping it backward

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compatible, but firmware 6.04 and later created a major incompatibility. Firmware
6.06 and later implement a fully 802.11 compliant IBSS Ad-Hoc mode (on top of the
Ad-Hoc demo mode). Firmware 6.04 dropped Fragmentation Threshold setting in
favor of microwave oven robustness (an automatic fragmentation scheme).
Firmware 6.16 did fix a few bugs with the IBSS Ad-Hoc mode (security,
ESSID=”any”).
2.2.2 The driver
Andreas Neuhaus is no longer working to improve this driver, therefore it’s
now discontinued in favor of the new Orinoco driver (see section 2.3). The driver is
based on Lucent source code, which is a cut down version of their full driver. So, it
lacks all the part about handling natively 802.11 frames and Lucent proprietary
API, and initially it lacked some of the more fancy features of Lucent’s driver, but
Andreas is adding them slowly. Of course, the driver support all version of the card
(bronze, silver, gold - basic, turbo, turbo 11 Mb/s) and is fully interoperable with
Access Points and Windows nodes.
Andreas has done a very good job into providing features like Wireless
Extensions (I must admit that I did help him quite a bit ;-) and many configuration
parameters (station name, channel, mtu size). The new version adds Power
management and encryption setting, change of the operating mode via Wireless
Extensions, promiscuous and multicast support...
Andreas has done a lot of debugging of the driver and it seems now much more
stable. Lastly, the ISA to Pcmcia and PCI to Pcmcia bridges may be a source
troubles under Linux. The latest version of the driver fixes SMP support, multi-
cards configuration, improve wireless.opts support, add IBSS Ad-Hoc mode
support and support properly and sanely the various firmware releases.
Harald Roelle has developped a patch for this driver in order to fully support
the PPC architecture. This patch mostly contain some bit order fixes. This patch
should help other architecture with endianess issues. His patch was eventually
integrated (with major changes) by David Hinds in version 1.0.6 of the driver. I
added firmware detection support in 1.0.6 to properly handle all the various
firmware releases and their variations (in particular the two Ad-Hoc modes), and
fixed the remaining SMP bugs.
The driver does not support the USB and Mini-PCI version of the Wavelan.
Nowadays, Anton Blanchard is the official maintainer of the driver, with the
help of David Gibson. David has done a complete rewrite of the driver (see section
2.3), so this driver won’t be maintained anymore...
Note that Lucent has also released a binary library driver (see section 2.4)
which is maybe more solid and performant than the driver of Andreas, but lack
proper support for Wireless Extensions.

2.3 Wavelan IEEE/Orinoco, PrismII and Symbol cards

Driver status : stable
Driver name : orinoco_cs.o
Version : v0.08

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Where : Linux kernel (2.4.12)

Pcmcia package (3.1.29)
http://www.ozlabs.org/people/dgibson/dldwd
Maintainers : David Gibson <[email protected]>
Anton Blanchard <[email protected]>
Web page : http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Orinoco.html
Mailing list : http://lists.samba.org/pipermail/wireless/
Documentation : man page, headers
Configuration : Wireless Extensions only
Statistics : Wireless Extensions
Multi-devices : Yes
Interoperability : 802.11-DS and 802.11-b, interoperate with Windows
Other features : MTU selection, multicast, promiscuous mode, power
management, WEP hardware encryption, SMP, multi-
firmware, multi vendors and PPC support.
Non implemented : Some optimisations...
Bugs : Not fully functional on some Prism2 cards
License : MPL and GPL
Vendor web pages : [Too many to list here]
2.3.1 The devices
As explained in various sections, Lucent Wavelan-IEEE/Orinoco devices (see
section 2.2), Intersil PrismII devices (see section 2.10) and Symbol High Rate
devices (see section 2.16) are basically using the same MAC controller. This
driver attempt to support all those devices, which are described in details in their
own sections.
However, even though those devices use the same MAC controller and the
same driver, those devices are not the same. Each vendor has its own firmware,
so the set of features of those cards vary. Some differences are visible to the user
(for example 128 bits key support and multicast), some are more related to
performance and robustness tuning of the MAC.
Moreover, those devices don’t use the same radio modem (mostly Lucent or
Intersil) and same antennas. For PrismII cards, even the actual layout of the radio
components on the card can make a huge difference. This will mostly translate into
difference of coverage between the various cards (range and resistance to
interference). The range between some cards may vary by a factor 2 in some
conditions.
2.3.2 The driver
Anton Blanchard and David Gibson became official maintainers of the
wvlan_cs driver (see section 2.2) in the end of 2000. David was not very happy
about the state of wvlan_cs.

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The HCF (the low level library provided by Lucent) hadn’t been maintained
since the initial release of the driver and was quite difficult to read and
understand. While the higher layer of the driver had gone a long way and were
robust and fully featured, the HCF was a mess and the cause of many problems
(TxTimeout, driver corruption/crashes and else).
Rather than put up with that, David looked deeply in the low level of the
wlan-ng driver from Mark (see section 2.10) and the FreeBSD driver and wrote a
totally new driver combining a new low level core and the high level features of
wvlan_cs. The end result was a driver much more readable, robust and well
behaved than wvlan_cs. In the process, David added support for PrismII cards.
Then, I fixed a few Wireless Extensions bugs, added some support for Symbol
cards, and we pushed the driver in the kernel. The driver was initially named
dldwd_cs and was renamed orinoco_cs at this point. Later on, David Hinds
backported this driver to the Pcmcia package for users of earlier kernels.
The main goal of the driver is to support Wavelan IEEE/Orinoco cards and
OEM. The driver support all the firmwares and features of those cards properly
and fully (Ad-Hoc demo mode, IBSS mode, bit-rate, encryption keys...), and support
all the features available in wvlan_cs (except module parameters) with less bugs.
Ben has added Airport support to this driver (see section 2.5), and the
support of those cards is similar to Orinoco cards (i.e. most features supported
properly).
Starting in release 0.6d, the support of Symbol cards and OEM is complete,
at least for firmware 1.5 and 1.7. Bit rate, mode of operation (managed, ad-hoc
IBSS and ad-hoc demo), encryption and power management are fully working. The
release 0.8 added full support for later Symbol firmware 2.00 and 2.20. On
firmware 2.20 and later, Power Management is disabled.
The support of PrismII cards and clones is still in progress. More debugging
and testing need to be done, but the driver can set most features to some degree
(Ad-Hoc demo mode, IBSS mode, bit-rate, encryption keys have been seen to work).
It seems the upgrading firmware fixes problems related to encryption. However,
the wlan-ng driver may still has more features and is more tested...
Starting in release 0.8, the driver also support PLX adapters that are sold
with some PrismII cards. Those adapters are not real Pcmcia adapters and the card
looks like a PCI card. The driver also support Pcmcia cards in regular ISA to
Pcmcia or PCI to Pcmcia adapters, as long the Pcmcia adapter is recognised and
configured properly by the Pcmcia package.
The driver does not support the USB and PCI version of the card. There is
various kind of MiniPCI implementation of the card, the driver support some of
them (Pcmcia based - Lucent) but not most (PCI or USB based - PrismII).

2.4 Lucent Wavelan & Enterasys Roamabout (binary library driver)

Driver status : stable
Driver name : wavelan2_cs.o and roamabout_cs.o
Version : v6.10

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Where : ftp://ftp.wavelan.com/pub/software/ORiNOCO/PC_Card/linux/
http://www.enterasys.com/software/RoamAbout/
ftp://projects.sourceforge.net/pub/pcmcia-cs/contrib/
Contact : Lucent support <[email protected]>
EnteraSys support <[email protected]>
Maintainers : Richard van Leeuwen <[email protected]>
Dean W. Gehnert <[email protected]>
Documentation : Extensive readme
Configuration : Module parameters, Wireless Extensions
Statistics : Wireless Extensions
Multi-devices : yes, but the ISA to Pcmcia bridge must be reconfigured
Interoperability : 802.11-DS and 802.11-b, interoperate with Windows
Other features : WEP encryption, power management and microwave oven
robustness
Non implemented : Do not support all firmware releases
Bugs : ?
License : Binary only for the core + OpenSource Linux wrapper
Vendor web page : http://www.wavelan.com/
http://www.enterasys.com/wireless/
2.4.1 The device
This is the same device as the previous entry (section 2.2).
2.4.2 The driver
Lucent has decided to not put all its eggs in the same basket and developed a
bold strategy for the support of the Wavelan IEEE under Linux. Not only they have
released some source code to allow the source driver mentioned above, but they
have as well contracted Dean to release a driver based on a binary library. This
gives Linux users the choice, a GPL full source driver to hack with and a stable full
featured binary driver (the official term from Lucent is “Linux Driver Source/
Library”).
Dean has written the code interfacing between Linux and the library, and had
put together a nice package easy to install and with documentation. As expected,
the binary driver is probably more stable and than the full source driver mentioned
above, with a slightly different set of feature, and offers all the features of Lucent
Window drivers, plus a nice integration with Linux. This driver supports both the
basic version of the card and the “turbo”. The major drawback is the binary core,
preventing the use on other architectures (PPC, Arm...).
Now, the driver is supported by Lucent, and they keep adding in it the same
features they add to the Windows drivers (such as microwave oven robustness).
Their also have added support for the IBSS Ad-Hoc mode (see discussion above).
The latest version adds support for 2.4 kernel and many common Wireless

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Extensions. Note that Enterasys/Cabletron is also distributing a slightly modified

version of this driver (usually an older one).
But, as with any binary driver, you should check if your architecture and your
version of the kernel and Pcmcia package are supported.

2.5 Apple Airport

Driver status : stable
Driver name : airport.o
Version : 0.06c
Where : Linux kernel (2.4.6)
http://www.ozlabs.org/people/dgibson/dldwd
http://ppclinux.apple.com/~benh/
Maintainer : Benjamin Herrenschmidt <[email protected]>
Documentation : web page, headers
Configuration : Wireless Extensions & module parameters
Statistics : Wireless Extensions
Multi-devices : No
Interoperability :802.11-DS and 802.11-b, interoperate with Mac-OS ;-)
Other features : MTU selection, multicast, promiscuous mode, power
management, WEP hardware encryption, SMP and multi-
firmware.
Non implemented : Some optimisations...
Bugs : -
License : GPL
Vendor web page : http://www.apple.com/airport/
2.5.1 The device
The Apple AirPort is in fact the Lucent Wavelan IEEE repackaged, so has
the same characteristic as the Wavelan (see section 2.2). All Airport hardware is
802.11-b compliant (second generation of Wavelan IEEE) and support 11 Mb/s, and
Apple seem to offer only the version with 40 bit encryption.
The AirPort card for the most Apple hardware is the OEM version of the
Wavelan IEEE, but it uses a specific slot in those computers and the antennas are
pre-integrated in the host. Most recent Apple machines offer this interface (iBook,
PowerBook 2000 (aka Pismo), AGP G4s, recent iMacs (DV/SE)...). Note that this
interface is not Pcmcia compatible even is the connector is the same, so this card
can’t be used in the normal PC-Card slot of other laptops. This is why this card
work only in specific Apple hardware slot and only with a specific driver.
The Access Point (the famous flying saucer) is similar in functionality to the
Lucent RG-1000 Residential Gateway, and is fully interoprable with other 802.11-
b hardware.

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2.5.2 The driver

The first version of the Airport driver was done by Benjamin Herrenschmidt
by porting the driver of Andreas Neuhaus (see section 2.2) to support the Apple
Aiport card. He has basically integrated the specific PPC patch of Harald Roelle,
thrown away all the Pcmcia code and replaced it with the specific Apple
initialisation code.
Apart from that, the driver is basically the same, with the same features and
same bug ;-)
The second version of the driver was also done by Benjamin Herrenschmidt
and is just a wrapper on top of the driver of David Gibson (see section 2.3), and was
integrated in version 0.05 (kernel 2.4.5). This is a much cleaner solution, because
both driver share the same source, so the feature set is identical and all
improvements and bug fixes of the Orinoco driver are automatically in the Airport
driver and vice-versa.

2.6 Netwave AirSurfer & Xircom Netwave

Driver status : fairly stable
Driver name : netwave_cs.o
Version : v 0.4.1
Where : Pcmcia package (2.9.12)
Maintainers : John Markus Bjørndalen <[email protected]>
Dag Brattli <[email protected]>
Web pages : http://www.cs.uit.no/~johnm/
http://www.cs.uit.no/~dagb/
Documentation : man page
Configuration : Module parameters & Wireless Extensions
Statistics : Wireless Extensions
Multi-devices : yes (except for module parameters setting)
Interoperability : proprietary protocol, interoperate with Windows
Other features : -
Non implemented : hardware multicast, multiple transmit buffers
Bugs : -
License : OpenSource
Vendor web page : http://www.netwave-wireless.com/
2.6.1 The device
The Netwave was also a quite common product, but nowadays this product is
discontinued. This is a radio LAN operating in the 2.4 GHz ISM band. It was
built by Netwave Technologies, formerly part of Xircom. The Netwave is Pcmcia
only, and comes in a small form factor (everything is included on the Pcmcia card !).

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The Netwave use a specific MAC protocol designed for radio (a pre 802.11
protocol, with fancy stuff such as RTS/CTS, virtual carrier sense and
fragmentation). It uses a 9 bits domain (Network ID), the highest bit of it used for
the type of network (set for access point operation and unset for ad-hoc operation).
The Netwave uses also a 16 bits scrambling key (encryption). The Modem offers a
1 Mb/s signalling rate and frequency hopping (100 ms hop period). On the bad side,
the Netwave has no antenna diversity and a high overhead.
Note that the Netwave AirSurfer plus is a very different beast (see below).
2.6.2 The driver
The original author of the driver (John) has made a very good job for
debugging it, and his good friend (Dag) has joined the project, and is fixing the
remaining bugs and adding new features. The driver is quite simple and don’t
implement yet the full Wireless Extensions. The driver uses only one transmit
buffer, which lower slightly the performance. The device configuration includes the
domain and the scrambling key which can be set through Wireless Extensions or
as module parameters (need to be set in /etc/pcmcia/config.opts - don’t forget to
restart cardmgr after a change).
It seems that the Netwave is quite picky with some pcmcia sockets and you
might need to choose carefully the interrupt (try different ones) and set the
memory speed correctly. In some cases, under high load (big ftp), the transmission
sometime get stuck (I guess that some interrupt are lost) and the driver has to reset
the card (you won’t notice it, it just decreases the performance).

2.7 Netwave AirSurfer plus

Driver status : fairly stable
Driver name : asplus_cs.o
Version : 1.0.2
Where : http://ipoint.vlsi.uiuc.edu/wireless/asplus.html
ftp://projects.sourceforge.net/pub/pcmcia-cs/contrib/
Maintainer : Jay Moorman <[email protected]>
Documentation : Readme, man page
Configuration : Module parameters, Wireless Extensions
Statistics : Wireless Extensions
Multi-devices : yes (except for module parameters setting)
Interoperability : proprietary protocol (same as Netwave), interoperate with
Windows
Other features : -
Non implemented : 802.11 mode, hardware multicast, multiple transmit buffers
Bugs : -
License : OpenSource
Vendor web page : http://www.netwave-wireless.com/

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2.7.1 The device

The Netwave AirSurfer plus is the second generation of Netwave card (this
product is now also discontinued), still operate in the 2.4 GHz ISM band and is
as well a small Pcmcia card. Netwave Technologies has now been acquired by
BayNetwork, now a part of Nortel. The BayStack 650 is the new name of the
hardware.
The AirSurfer plus has two modes of operation, compatible with the old
generation of Netwave, or 802.11 compliant. The hardware is based on an AMD
core, and a 1 Mb/s frequency hopping modem.
2.7.2 The driver
Jay took the code of the original Netwave driver and modified it to support the
new AirSurfer plus, keeping most of the features with it. So, you still have the
Wireless Extensions, and modules parameters (in /etc/pcmcia/config.opts).
The current driver support the AirSurfer plus only in Netwave compatible
mode, and doesn’t support the AirSurfer plus with the 802.11 firmware.

2.8 BayStack 660, ZoomAir, YDI and other Harris Prism based cards...
Driver status : stable
Driver name : wlan_cs.o
Version : 0.2.7, 0.2.7a, 0.3.1.1 (beta version) and 0.3.4 (beta version)
Where : http://www.linux-wlan.com/linux-wlan/
http://www.astro.umd.edu/~teuben/linux/wireless.html
http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~jhill/linuxwlan/
http://www.spesh.com/danny/wlan
Maintainers : Mark S. Mathews <[email protected]>
Peter Teuben <[email protected]>
Jason Hill <[email protected]>
Danny O’Brien <[email protected]>
Mailing list : http://www.linux-wlan.com/linux-wlan/
Documentation : Readme, man page
FAQ : http://linux.grmbl.be/wlan/
Configuration : Module parameters & configuration tool
Statistics : Statistic tool
Multi-devices : yes
Interoperability : 802.11-DS, interoperate with Windows
Other features : Quite exhaustive 802.11 support
Non implemented : WEP
Bugs : -
License : MPL

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Vendor web pages : http://www.netwave-wireless.com/

http://www.zoomtel.com/zoomair/
http://www.ydi.com
http://www.intalk.com/
http://www.dbtel.com.tw/english.html
http://www.gemtek.com.tw/
http://www.sem.samsung.co.kr/
http://www.intersil.com/prism/
http://www.amd.com/products/npd/npd.html
2.8.1 The device
The Harris Prism chipset and the AMD AM930 controller are some highly
integrated parts designed to ease the process of building 802.11 products. Harris
has done a Pcmcia reference design based on their chipset and the AMD core,
which explain the high number of vendors building variants of this card (the Harris
website has a longer list than mine ;-). A special mention for YDI (Young Design
Inc) which openly support Linux (see below). Note that all those products are now
discontinued (and replaced with PrismII design)...
The AMD core integrates a generic microcontroller and the hardware
baseband (ASIC) to do the time critical functions of 802.11. AMD has developed the
802.11 firmware with all the usual basic 802.11 features (MAC level ACK, RTS/
CTS, Fragmentation...). The Prism chipset is a 2.4 GHz Direct Sequence modem
offering 1 and 2 Mb/s. The Prism chipset can also be extended to supports the new
802.11 HR standard, with 5.5 and 11 Mb/s bit-rate (either MBOK or CCK
modulation).
The Pcmcia cards are mostly similar from vendor to vendor. Some vendors
offer ISA cards, and the Access Points are where vendors are making their
difference (ZoomTelephonics uses a software AP on a PC, others have hardware
AP). Each vendor also has to provide the high level 802.11 in their drivers
(authentication, WEP, Roaming...), so those might be different (not that it does
matter much under Linux).
The BayStack 650 and Netwave AirSurfer plus use the same AMD controller,
but a different physical layer (Frequency Hopping), so are not compatible with this
driver.
Harris has just become Intersil and released the Prism II chipset, successor
of the PrismI chipset, this time including the MAC controller (so they won’t use any
more the AMD part in their reference design). I’ll detail it in the next section (see
section 2.10).
2.8.2 The driver
Mark and the people at AVS have developed a full 802.11 driver for the Prism
reference design card (AMD controller + Prism chipset), and this driver work for
the many other implementations as well (see web page).

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The driver is well written and very complete : it’s currently the only driver
where most of the higher layer 802.11 functionality is implemented. There is also
many initialisation parameters and a tool to configure the card. Because the 802.11
standard is very complex, not everything is totally finished and a few features like
WEP (RC4 40 bits encryption) are missing.
There is currently two branches maintained by Mark, 0.2.X which is stable
and 0.3.X which is experimental.
Peter (with help from YDI) has created a alternative version of Mark’s
package to add ISA support, fix a few bugs and with explicit support of cards from
YDI. In the long run, those changes should find their way in Mark’s package...
Jason has created a version of the 0.3.1 beta driver with support for the
BayStack 660, by porting bits from 0.2.6 (this allow support for both the BayStack
660 and infrastructure).
Danny has a patch to make the driver compile and work with kernel 2.4.X.
I believe that this driver doesn’t support the BayStack 650 and Netwave
AirSurfer plus cards (which don’t use the Prism chipset but Frequency Hopping),
but the changes for that might not be that hard to implement.

2.9 Z-Com LANEscape, ELSA MC2

Driver status : ?
Driver name : wl24_cs.o
Version : 1.3 (stable), 2.03 (unstable) and 1.20 (Elsa full source)
Where : http://www.boerde.de/~matthias/airnet/zcom/
http://www.elsa.de
Maintainer : ?
Documentation : README file
Configuration : Specific tool
Statistics : no
Multi-devices : unknown
Interoperability : 802.11-FH (need updated firmware), interoperate with
Windows
Other features : -
Non implemented : -
Bugs : Must have the correct firmware revision.
License : Binary only (1.3, 2.03) or Open source (1.20), no license info
Vendor web page : http://www.zcom.com.tw/
http://www.elsa.de

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2.9.1 The device

Z-Com is based in Taiwan, and the WL2400 family is based on the classic
AMD+Prism design. The family includes the usual ISA and Pcmcia cards, the
Access Point, and also a PC104 version (that’s interesting)...
Z-Com claims that the WL2400 is firmware upgradable to 802.11, but I’ve
been told that some old cards have an hardware bug preventing it. Anyway, the
card has all the usual 802.11 features, and the modem is classsical Direct Sequence
at 2.4 GHz, supporting 1 and 2 Mb/s.
Z-Com also offers the XI family, which support 5.5. and 11 Mb/s (probably
using a Prism II chipset). Those are not supported by this driver.
Elsa is a German company selling various hardware component and started
to sell Z-Com cards as Elsa AirLancer MC2. Those cards were quite popular in
Germany.
Elsa also sell a new AirLancer MC11 which has nothing to do with Z-Com and
is the Wavelan-IEEE (see section 2.2).
2.9.2 The driver
The driver has been written by the manufacturer, and Matthias put it on its
web site. The driver only contains the object files (no source) and seem to have been
designed for kernel 1.3.X and working in 2.0.X kernels (but, as the driver interfaces
in the kernel have changed since, this driver might not work in 2.2.X). The driver
only work with old firmware revisions, and doesn’t work with the 802.11 compliant
firmware.
Matthias seems to now have access to the driver source code and is
investigating compatibility with 2.2.X and new firmware revisions.
Lately, Elsa has released the full source code of this driver for their card,
including configuration utility. Elsa has made the setup easier and seem to have
also fixed a few bugs, because it is now working with kernel 2.2.X...

2.10 Intersil PrismII based cards (Compaq, Samsung, D-Link, LinkSys

and many others)
Driver status : beta
Driver name : prism2_cs.o, prism2_plx.o and prism2_pci.o
Version : 0.1.10
Where : http://www.linux-wlan.com/linux-wlan
ftp://server.mycity.it/wireless/ibss
https://www.wavehan.de/projekte/prism2/
Maintainer : Mark S. Mathews <[email protected]>
Alessandro <[email protected]>
Reyk Floeter <[email protected]>
Mailing list : http://www.linux-wlan.com/linux-wlan/
http://www.lifix.fi/extarchive/lwlan/

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Documentation : Readme
Configuration : Module parameters & configuration tool
Statistics : Statistic tool
Multi-devices : yes
Interoperability : 802.11-DS and 802.11-b, interoperate with Windows
Other features : Quite exhaustive 802.11 support, Encryption, PPC support,
PLX and PCI support.
Non implemented : ?
Bugs : ?
License : MPL
Vendor web pages : http://www.compaq.com/products/wlan/index.html
http://www.magiclan.com/
http://www.dlink.com/products/DigitalHome/Wireless/
http://www.linksys.com/products/
http://www.zoomtel.com/zoomair/za11index.html
http://www.nokia.com/corporate/wlan/card_c110.html
http://www.addtron.com/
http://www.gemtek.com.tw/Product.htm
http://www.smc.com/
http://www.ambicom.com/
http://www.teletronics.com/
http://www.intersil.com/prism/
2.10.1 The device
The PrismII chipset is the successor of the PrismI chipset, described in the
previous section (see section 2.8), and is build by Intersil (formerly Harris). Intersil
offer this chipset and some reference design to various OEM, allowing them to
build various 802.11-b products (cards or integrated in their own products). I
expect that all the people that were formerly using the PrismI chipset will switch
sooner or later to the PrismII.
The first manufacturers to offer PrismII cards were Samsung and Compaq
(rumored to be selling a rebadged Samsung card - on the other hand, the WL 110,
WL 210 and WL 215 are Orinoco cards), with a Pcmcia card, a PCI card and an
Access Point. Aironet and Symbol also uses the PrismII chipset, but with their own
MAC controllers (see section 2.20 and section 2.16). Other Prism vendors like
ZoomAir, Nokia and GemTek are slowly releasing their own version of the
PrismII card. Some big networking vendors like D-Link, LinkSys and SMC were
also quick to jump on this new opportunity for them, as well as many smaller
vendors like AddTron, Ambicom and Teletronics...
Most vendors offer regular Pcmcia cards for laptops. For desktop machines,
the situation is a bit more messy, some vendors offer standard PCI-Pcmcia cards,

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dedicated PLX cards (that look like a regular PCI-Pcmcia bridge but is not) or some
fully integrated PCI cards (Prism2.5). Some vendors also offer USB adapters.
Lastly, some laptop include MiniPCI cards that may be either integrated PCI cards
or USB adapters.
Like the initial PrismI design, the PrismII is fully compatible with 802.11 and
include a 2.4 GHz Direct Sequence modem, with all the usual features (Roaming,
WEP...).
The main differences between the PrismI and PrismII chipset are a higher
integration, a higher performance modem and the replacement of the AMD
controller with Intersil own design. The higher integration (5 chips instead of 8)
allows to reduce the price and the size of the product, and to simplify the
integration. The new physical layer (modem) has a better performance (but a lower
transmit power), increasing range, speed and battery life, and is fully compliant
with the 802.11-b standard (5.5 and 11 Mb/s). Finally, the new MAC controller
handle most of the 802.11 functionality (instead of leaving it to the driver), which
simplify driver development and help performance on slow devices (palmtop,
embedded design).
Note that the PrismII firmwares are usually not of the highest quality and
quite inconsistent from one release to another, both on the cards and on the Access
Points, and you may have to try a few of them before finding the one that work for
you. For example, encryption and IBSS ad-hoc mode seems to be working only in
the latest firmwares (0.8 and later), and multicast is not working at all. It also
usually takes a bit of time to get the workaround for the latest firmwares in the
various Linux drivers.
A few words about Ad-Hoc modes : people have reported to me that the
default Ad-Hoc mode of those cards interoperate with the Wavelan Ad-Hoc demo
mode and is therefore not 802.11-b compliant. It seems that some of the newer
firmwares and drivers for some of these cards have the option to select the IBSS
Ad-Hoc mode which is 802.11-b compliant.
2.10.2 The driver
Who was more qualified to write this driver than Mark, from AVS, who
already wrote the driver for the PrimsI cards ? In fact, Intersil did partner with
Mark to get this driver written for us !
As usual with Mark, the driver is really complete and well written. It is
currently only in beta stage, and Mark told me that he needs to add more
documentation and debug some more features. The driver support both Pcmcia and
PCI cards. This driver is compatible with Linux bridging software, includes a
generic 802.11 interface, exposing the full 802.11 MIB to user space, and include
hooks to build an Access Point. The driver also come with a configuration tools, an
utility to dump 802.11 frames and a daemon responding to 802.11 events.
The release 0.1.10 fixes a number of long standing problems and include a
number of patches and features that were floating around on the mailing lists. The
latest driver support properly WEP encryption and Ad-Hoc mode. Note that the

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driver support only IBSS ad-hoc mode and only for recent firmwares, whereas
most cards also support the old ad-hoc demo mode.
The latest version has also support for PLX and PCI cards. The PLX card
allow to add a Pcmcia card in a PCI slot, but does not support any of the Pcmcia
functionality, so is not supported through the Pcmcia package but directly by the
driver. PCI support is for fully integrated PCI cards or MiniPCI cards. Mark is
currently working on USB support.
Mark is also selling a Wireless Development kit and an Access Point, based
on a PPC platform and this driver.
Alessandro and Virgilio maintain a separate version of the driver that
support ad-hoc modes (IBSS and ad-hoc demo mode), and they are working on a
USB version of the driver.
Reyk has developped a patch that adds basic Wireless Extension support to
the driver. He needs help for testing and improvements.

2.11 Intersil PrismII support in the Orinoco driver

The Orinoco driver (see section 2.3) may be used with most PrismII cards.

2.12 Intersil PrismII driver with HostAP mode

Driver status : beta
Driver name : prism2.o
Version : 2001-11-10
Where : http://www.epitest.fi/Prism2/
Maintainer : Jouni Malinen <[email protected]>
Documentation : Readme, web page
Configuration : Module parameters and Wireless Extensions
Statistics : Wireless Extensions and /proc interface
Multi-devices : yes
Interoperability : 802.11-DS and 802.11-b, interoperate with Windows
Other features : Host AP mode, bridging
Non implemented : ?
Bugs : ?
License : GPL
Vendor web pages : [Same as PrismII driver]
2.12.1 The device
This is the same device as the previous entry (section 2.10).
2.12.2 The driver
Jouni has recently written this totally new driver for PrismII card. It is well
written, it was probably inspired by the various other driver floating around and is
much more simpler than the linux-wlan-ng driver (see section 2.10).

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The driver has correct support for the various feature of the PrismII card,
support Wireless Extensions and offer various extra information in a /proc
directory.
What set this driver apart from the other driver is its support for Host AP
mode. In this mode, the driver act as an Access Point on the air and does all the
802.11 management necessary. In this mode, the driver also allows bridging
through the regular Ethernet bridge driver of Linux. Impressive work !

2.13 Samsung MagicLAN (binary library driver)

Driver status : beta
Driver name : swld11_cs.o
Version : 1.20
Where : http://www.magiclan.com/product/magiclan/download/mlist.jsp
Maintainer : Jae-Jun Lee <[email protected]>
Documentation : Readme
Configuration : Module parameters, Wireless Extensions and utility
Statistics : Wireless Extensions
Multi-devices : yes
Interoperability : 802.11-DS and 802.11-b, interoperate with Windows
Other features : Encryption, Proprietary Samsung API
Non implemented : ?
Bugs : ?
License : Binary only for the core + (?)source wrapper
Vendor web pages : http://www.sem.samsung.co.kr/
http://www.magiclan.com/
2.13.1 The device
The Samsung MagicLAN is one of the various products based on the Intersil
PrismII chipset (see section 2.10 for full details). It’s a fully featured wireless lan
compliant with 802.11-b. The Compaq products are rumored to be the Samsung
one, with a new sticker...
2.13.2 The driver
Samsung has released their own version of a PrismII driver for their card. The
driver seems complete and well written, the new releases fixes more bugs and I had
report of people successfully using it (with Samsung cards and even some LinkSys
and D-Link cards).
The main difference with the PrismII driver of Mark (see section 2.10) is that
the Samsung driver is based on a binary library (so, only available on x86
platforms), offer encryption and Ad-Hoc mode and offer exhaustive support for
Wireless Extensions. Quite a few people are reporting that this driver works better
for them...

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2.14 Proxim RangeLan2, Proxim Symphony, DEC RoamAbout FH, AMP

Wireless, Intel AnyPoint and Compaq Symphony
Driver status : stable
Driver name : rlmod.o
Version : 1.7.1
Where : http://www.komacke.com/distribution.html
Creator : Paul Chinn <[email protected]>
Maintainer : Dave Koberstein <[email protected]>
Mailing list : http://www.komacke.com/archive/rl2-library/
Documentation : Readme file
Configuration : specific tool, partial implementation of Wireless Extensions
Statistics : none
Multi-devices : no (“insmod -o” multiple modules)
Interoperability : proprietary protocol or HomeRF, interoperate with Windows
Other features : Uses Proxim source code
Non implemented : -
Bugs : -
License : Binary only for the core + OpenSource Linux wrapper
Vendor web pages : http://www.proxim.com
http://www.wlif.com
http://www.homerf.org/
http://www.networks.digital.com/dr/wireless/
http://www.intel.com/anypoint/
2.14.1 The device
The RangeLan2 is a classical product using the 2.4 GHz band, made by
Proxim, a small californian company. The products are certified and sold in
approximately 50 countries. The RangeLan2 is based on Proxim proprietary
protocol, OpenAir, that Proxim is trying to push as an alternative to 802.11. Of
course, you will find many OEM version (like the DEC and AMP versions). It comes
as ISA cards, Pcmcia cards, design-in modules, and access point.
The RangeLan2 implements a specific MAC protocol designed for radio
(OpenAir, another pre 802.11) implemented on a generic microcontroller. It uses a
4 bits domain, 4 bits channel and 4 bits subchannel, and also a station type
(primary master, secondary, slave - this is used for network synchronisation).
There is no encryption, instead it uses a technique called Security ID (which is a
simple password used to derive the network ID). The OpenAir protocol is heavily
based on RTS/CTS, offer a good robustness but some overhead. It offers as well a
modulable contention window size, contention free access for the master, packet
fragmentation and power saving.

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The Modem uses frequency hopping, and 2 levels of modulations (2FSK/

4FSK) : it runs a 1.6 Mb/s signalling rate for good channel condition (short to
medium distances) and falls back to 0.8 Mb/s otherwise.
The Symphony line of product (home networking) offered by Proxim uses the
MAC protocol of the RangeLan2 (OpenAir) with a lower cost radio, and the main
difference is the software bundle and the price. On the other hand, the Proxim
RangeLan802 line is very different from OpenAir products, using the 802.11-FH
protocol and a different interface, so the Linux driver won’t work with it.
Recently, Proxim has released its first Symphony products compatible with
the HomeRF SWAP standard. These are also sold as Intel AnyPoint and
Compaq Symphony-HRF. The ISA, PCI and Pcmcia versions are still offered,
and a USB version has been added. Those products use the same physical layer as
the original Symphony, but the MAC protocol can either operate in OpenAir mode
or SWAP mode. The main advantage of SWAP is the support for cordless
telephony.
Proxim has also various 802.11-b products, named Harmony, Skyline or
RangeLan-DS which are based on the PrismII chipset (and probably work with the
various Linux-PrismII drivers - see section 2.10). Proxim has just release some
802.11-a products, and I have no news about Linux drivers.
2.14.2 The driver
Dave uses the Proxim driver source code to build a library (distributed as
object only), so we should expect a good quality code. Paul wrote the part to
interface with the Linux kernel and Dave maintains it. He has written as well a
small utility to set the configuration in the driver (through ioctl). The driver
supports the Proxim Rangelan2, the Proxim Symphony, the DEC RoamAbout FH
and the AMP Wireless products. The driver support both ISA PnP and Pcmcia
cards, both with the RangeLan2 and Symphony labels...
The current driver doesn’t support the RangeLan802 line, but you may
contact Dave if you would like to see a driver for RangeLan802.
Starting with version 1.7.0, the driver also support the SWAP protocol and
SWAP compliant devices from Proxim, Intel and Compaq (in both OpenAir and
SWAP mode). Both the driver and the configuration tools have been extended for
this support. Also, some primitive support for USB hardware has been added.
What I like about this driver is that after all those years, Dave is still strongly
supporting the driver, fixing bugs, adding new features and adding support for the
newer cards. It’s impressive to see such consistency and dedication...

2.15 Symbol Spectrum24 (FH)

Driver status : Beta (Pcmcia only)
Driver name : spectrum24_cs.o
Version : Beta 4
Where : http://sourceforge.net/projects/spectrum24
ftp://projects.sourceforge.net/pub/pcmcia-cs/contrib/

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Maintainer : Lee John Keyser-Allen <[email protected]>

Discussion forums : http://sourceforge.net/forum/?group_id=11099
Documentation : Readme file
Configuration : module parameters, partial support of Wireless Extensions
Statistics : None
Multi-devices : -
Interoperability : 802.11-FH, interoperate with Windows
Other features : Support of micro-AP, multicast, statistics...
Non implemented : -
Bugs : -
License : GPL
Vendor web page : http://www.symbol.com/products/wireless/wireless.html
2.15.1 The device
Symbol is one of the other major player for Frequency Hopping devices in the
2.4 GHz band and has been selling its Spectrum24 line of products for ages. Symbol
sells mostly to vertical market (in their bar-code readers, in warehouses, in
supermarket), so their products are not usually found in retailers. The Spectrum24
family include an Access Point, a ISA card, a Pcmcia card and a Pcmcia card with
micro-AP functionality. However, the main strength of Symbol is their “all-in-one”
products, including a Palm or a WinCE device with a bar code reader and a 802.11
card, all neatly integrated.
The Spectrum24 products were designed from the start to be compliant with
the 802.11 standard, way before the standard was eventually adopted. The first
generation (1 Mb/s only) was compatible and interoperable with other 802.11
products (but not compliant), and the second generation of Spectrum24 (1 and
2 Mb/s) is officially 802.11 compliant.
Symbol is also very active in developing Voice over IP solutions for their
wireless LANs, and that’s why they are also selling some Spectrum24 phones. They
are using the H.323 codec, compression and call setup (raw 64 kb/s, compressed 10
times) and a 30 ms packet rate (but I fail to see what they have done to overcome
overhead and latency issues at the MAC level).
The MAC has all the usual features of the 802.11 standard, like MAC level
retransmission, RTS/CTS, fragmentation, auto bit-rate selection, power saving
and roaming. A nice feature of the MAC is the support of the micro-AP
functionality, which allows to turn a PC into an Access Point (I would like more
vendors to start doing that). However, their products don’t seem to support ad-hoc
mode.
The physical layer is Frequency Hopping supporting 1 and 2 Mb/s, with
100 mW or 500 mW output power and 100 ms dwell size.

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2.15.2 The driver

Lee has written the driver as a student project for Symbol, so with active help
from Symbol. He plans to continue supporting it, and Symbol may get more active
in distributing the driver.
The driver is designed for the Pcmcia card (LA2400 and micro-AP version),
and the new 2 Mb/s version of the card. It is possible to use older cards (1 Mb/s) by
updating the firmware for 802.11 compliance, and to use ISA card by configuring
properly the Pcmcia package (those cards use a regular ISA to Pcmcia bridge).
Despite being beta, the driver is stable, well written and supports most
features of the card (like micro-AP, shared memory access...).

2.16 Symbol Spectrum24 High Rate, 3Com AirConnect and Intel PRO/
Wireless
Driver status : Beta (Pcmcia only)
Driver name : spectrum24t_cs.o
Version : 1.03
Where : http://sourceforge.net/projects/spectrum24
ftp://ftp.symbol.com/pub/SOFTWARE/IEEE/PC_CARD/LINUX/
Contact : Brad LeFore <[email protected]>
Maintainer : Lee John Keyser-Allen <[email protected]>
Discussion forums : http://sourceforge.net/forum/?group_id=11099
Documentation : Readme file
Configuration : module parameters
Statistics : None
Multi-devices : -
Interoperability : 802.11-DS and 802.11-b, interoperate with Windows
Other features : Multicast, WEP encryption and support for CF cards
Non implemented : -
Bugs : -
License : GPL or BSD
Vendor web page : http://www.symbol.com/products/wireless/wireless.html
http://www.intel.com/network/products/wireless.htm
http://www.3Com.com/
2.16.1 The device
Despite beeing a long time proponent of Frequency Hopping, Symbol couldn’t
ignore the success of 802.11-b. After a strategic agrement with Intel, Symbol is
back with a complete line of 802.11-b products, that are called Spectrum24 High
Rate (to better confuse them with their old FH products). Symbol still sell mostly
to vertical markets through VAR, but both 3Com and Intel are repackaging Symbol
cards, as Intel PRO/Wireless and 3Com AirConnect. Note that the latest 3Com

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Wireless LAN XJack card (3CRWE62092A, with the XJack antenna) is a No Wires
Needed card.
The card is mostly sold in the Pcmcia form factor, along with the Access Point.
There is a PCI version that looks like a Pcmcia card in a regular PCI to Pcmcia slot.
But, unfortunately for us, Symbol doesn’t sell yet any of their famous “all-in-one”
products with 802.11-b. Recently Symbol released a Compact Flash version of
their card called Wireless Networker which has an amazing form factor.
The Symbol product is composed of the Intersil PrismII chipset (see section
2.10) with Symbol own MAC controller (which is originally derived from the same
core as the MAC from Lucent, Aironet and Intersil). From Symbol, we can expect
a design giving good quality and performance.
The MAC has all the usual features of the 802.11 standard, like MAC level
retransmission, RTS/CTS, fragmentation, auto bit-rate selection, power saving,
WEP encryption and roaming, which extensive configurability. The physical layer
has the classic PrismII feature, supporting 1, 2, 5.5 and 11 Mb/s.
2.16.2 The driver
The driver was initially written by TriplePoint, and Lee has taken over the
maintainance. Not surprisingly, the driver is very similar to the Wavelan-IEEE
binary driver (except for being full source), to the point of mentioning “Turbo” cards
(what Symbol calls “High Rate”).
The driver is well writen, has an extensive collection of module parameters
and has been tested successfully with Symbol, 3Com and Intel cards. Lee plans to
add Wireless Extensions and fix the few remaining bugs...
The version 1.01 of the driver fixes some bugs related to higher bit rate
(11 Mb/s) and encryption. The version 1.02, adds support for kernel 2.4.X and
disable power management (doesn’t work on latest firmwares).
Symbol has recently release a separate version of this driver to support
Compact Flash cards. Compact Flash cards need a specific driver because they
don’t have the firmware stored on the card and therefore the driver has to
download the firmware to the card after each reset.

2.17 Ericsson WLAN 11 Mb/s

Driver status : First shot
Driver name : eriwlan_cs.o
Version : 1.0 (2000-10-11)
Where : http://www.ericsson.com/wlan/su-downloads11.asp
Maintainer : Christian Olrog <[email protected]>
Documentation : Readme file
Configuration : module parameters and /proc interface
Statistics : /proc interface
Multi-devices : -
Interoperability : 802.11-DS and 802.11-b, interoperate with Windows

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Other features : Power management

Non implemented : -
Bugs : -
License : GPL
Vendor web page : http://www.ericsson.com/wlan/
2.17.1 The device
After their success with wide area communications (GSM and co.), Ericsson
decided to expand in new markets and started looking seriously at local
connectivity. Ericsson is of course the main driving force behind BlueTooth (see
section 5), but they realised pretty quickly the BlueTooth would not fulfill the need
of the Wireless LAN market. Ericsson is also pushing hard HiperLAN II (see
section 5), a high performance system (54 Mb/s) in the 5 GHz band with strong
quality of service support.
The initial Ericsson Wireless LAN products were OEM of BreezeCom
pro.11 products (Frequency Hopping, 3 Mb/s - see section 2.28). Due to the success
of 802.11-b, their second product line are fully 802.11-b compliant, and are in fact
OEM of the Symbol cards (see section 2.16). As such, this product has all the usual
802.11-b features...
2.17.2 The driver
This driver apply only to the 11 Mb/s version of the Ericsson card. This is only
the second driver written by Christian from scratch, after the BreezeCom driver
(see section 2.28 - this other driver applies to Ericsson 3 Mb/s cards). And as usual
for him, the source code is well written, concise and clean. Impressive job !
This driver is very new, so I don’t have yet report of its use. The driver seems
to support only a minimal set of configuration and statistics for now. Christian told
me that it should work with other Symbol cards with minor changes, and that the
driver has been tested with IPsec and MobileIP. I hope to have more info about it
at a later date...

2.18 Symbol High Rate support in the Orinoco driver

The Orinoco driver (see section 2.3) may be used with most Symbol HR cards.

2.19 Aironet ARLAN

Driver status : stable (ISA only)
Driver name : arlan.o
Version : 2.0 & 2.1b
Where : Linux kernel (2.3.10 & 2.2.7-acX), web-page for 2.0.X version
Maintainers : Elmer Joandi <[email protected]>
Cullen Jennings <[email protected]>
Web pages : http://www.ylenurme.ee/~elmer/655/
http://www.cs.ubc.ca/spider/jennings/

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Documentation : README file + web page

Configuration : /proc interface (2.1.X kernels and up only)
Statistics : ?
Multi-devices : ?
Interoperability : proprietary protocol, interoperate with Windows
Other features : -
Non implemented : Multicast (driver is point to point ?)
Bugs : -
License : GPL
Vendor web page : http://www.aironet.com/products/2200fam/2200fams.html
2.19.1 The device
The Arlan was a radio LAN, built by Aironet, using the 900MHz or 2.4GHz
ISM band (Direct Sequence). This product has been discontinued and replaced by
the 4500 series (see below). The Arlan comes in 3 flavour, an ISA (655), an MCA
(670) and a pcmcia (690) card (plus the access point). Later, they renamed the ISA
card IC2200 and the Pcmcia card PC2200 (still the same hardware).
The configuration include setting the frequency and Network ID (24 bits ?).
The MAC protocol is implemented on a generic microcontroler. There is two
versions of the modem, a 900 MHz and a 2.4 GHz version. Both use Direct
Sequence Spread Spectrum. The 900 MHz modem allow signalling rate up to
860 kb/s (fall back to 215 kb/s) and 12 channels. The 2.4 GHz version allow
signalling rate up to 2 Mb/s (fall back to 1 Mb/s) and 5 channels.
2.19.2 The driver
Russell Nelson told me a while ago that he was trying to convince Aironet to
release the specifications of the Arlan to develop a Linux driver. Cullen Jennings
started the development of a point to point driver, Elmer Joandi rewrote some
parts and added a lot of features to be compatible with the Access Point, released
the whole under GPL, and here is the result.
The driver support only the ISA version of the card (655 or IC 2200). The
driver have been fully tested and optimised by Elmer Joandi, includes a complete
/proc interface and should be soon included in the kernel.

2.20 Aironet ARLAN 4500, 4800, Cisco 340 and Cisco 350 series
Driver status : stable
Driver name : ISA, PCI : airo.o
Pcmcia : airo_cs.o
Version : 1.8 - 2001/03/27
Where : Pcmcia package (3.1.25) and Linux kernel (2.4.6)
Maintainers : Benjamin Reed <[email protected]>
Javier Achirica <[email protected]>

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Web pages : http://sourceforge.net/projects/airo-linux/

http://www.cse.ucsc.edu/~breed/airo.html
Mailing list : http://csl.cse.ucsc.edu/pipermail/aironet/
Documentation : README file
Configuration : /proc interface and Wireless Extensions
Statistics : /proc interface and Wireless Extensions
Multi-devices : N/A
Interoperability : 802.11-DS and 802.11-b, interoperate with Windows
Other features : Support ad-hoc and managed mode, WEP (encryption) and
dumping raw 802.11 frames.
Non implemented : -
Bugs : -
License : MPL & GPL
Vendor web page : http://www.aironet.com/
2.20.1 The device
Aironet has been the producer of some of the most performant wireless LANs
for a long time. Aironet was a division of Telxon, and was spun-off when Symbol,
one of their competitor, did aquire Telxon. After a short independant life, Aironet
was aquired by Cisco.
The previous section was dealing with Aironet old pre-802.11 products (see
section 2.19), this section deals with their more recent 802.11 compliant products.
Their first 802.11 products were the 3500 family, Frequency Hopping (1 and 2 Mb/
s), and 4500, Direct Sequence (1 and 2 Mb/s).
The Arlan 4500 family is 802.11 compliant wireless LANs in the 2.4 GHz ISM
band, and is Direct Sequence. It includes an ISA, PCI, Pcmcia, serial, Ethernet and
multi-Ethernet versions, plus the Access Point.
These cards are based on the Harris Prism chipset, like many other cards
(see section 2.8), but Aironet are using their own MAC controller. The 4500 offer
standard 1 and 2 Mb/s bit rate. The MAC includes all the standard 802.11 features,
with Power Saving, WEP, Ad-Hoc mode and roaming, plus a lot of Aironet
extensions (short headers, variable base rate...). Conform to their reputation, their
MAC is one of the richest in term of features, and one of the most performant.
The 3500 family (Frequency Hopping) eventually died, and I won’t talk about
it here.
The 4500 family was quickly followed by the 4800 family, still based on the
Prism chipset, adding 5.5 and 11 Mb/s bit rate, either in MBOK (proprietary) or
CCK, which is 802.11-b compliant. The 4800 can do encryption only at 1 and 2 Mb/
s (this limitation was removed in the 4800B).
With introduction of the PrismII chipset, Aironet did release the 4800B
family. It is functionally equivalent to the 4800, except that the new PrismII
chipset allows lower price, greater sensitivity but force a lower transmit power

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(30 mW). Aironet still use their own MAC controller in the 4800B (and not the new
PrismII MAC - see section 2.10).
After the aquisition by Cisco, the Aironet 4800B was renamed Cisco 340
series (exact same hardware, new name). Dell also sell the same hardware under
its own brand as Dell TrueMobile 1100 (on the other hand, the TrueMobile 1150
is a Wavelan IEEE).
Like Lucent, Cisco offer different cards with different level of encryption. The
cards labelled 340 feature no encryption, the cards labelled 341 feature 40 bits
encryption and the cards labelled 342 feature 128 bits encryption. Moreover, some
versions of the Pcmcia card are sold with antenna but others without antennas.
Cisco has now released the Cisco 350, a new family of 802.11b cards. From
the information I did gather, it seems to be equivalent to the 340 series with a
greater transmit power (100 mW instead of 30 mW). The Cisco 350 also improves
the performance of the AP and introduce greater security (Radius authentication
and co).
2.20.2 The driver
Ben has produced a solid driver for the Aironet card, The driver supports the
ISA, PCI and Pcmcia cards (4500, 4800 & 4800B versions), it looks fairly complete
and debugged, with a nice /proc interface. The driver also has very complete WEP
support.
Ben also told me that the driver was able to recognise the PC3500 cards, but
more work would be needed there to get it fully working.
Recently, I’ve started adding Wireless Extension to this driver. Ben was kind
enough to integrate properly my work in his driver. Then, Javier Achirica did an
amazing job of completing Wireless Extension support (power management, spy
and co), and this driver has one of the the most complete Wireless Extension
support of all.
Then, Javier Achirica added to the driver the Cisco proprietary API, which
allow communication with Cisco utilities (see section 2.22) and, amongst other
things, flashing new firmware on the card. All this amazing work is in the latest
release from Ben (1.5). He also wrote a couple of open source utilities allowing to
dump all the register of the card and to flash new firmwares through this API.
Lately, the driver has been integrated in the Linux kernel (2.4.6 and later).
Javier has also added the ability to dump raw 802.11 frames.

2.21 Aironet ARLAN 802.11 (alternate driver)

Driver status : stable
Driver name : ISA, PCI : aironet4500_card.o
Pcmcia : aironet4500_cs.o
Version : 0.1
Where : Linux kernel 2.3.31 and above
Maintainer : Elmer Joandi <[email protected]>

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Documentation : Configure.help file

Configuration : /proc interface
Statistics : /proc interface
Multi-devices : -
Interoperability : 802.11-DS and 802.11-b, interoperate with Windows
Other features : Support ad-hoc and managed mode, and WEP (encryption).
Non implemented : Pcmcia interface
Bugs : Buggy SMP support.
License : GPL
Vendor web page : http://www.aironet.com/
2.21.1 The device
This is the same device as the previous entry (section 2.20).
2.21.2 The driver
To some, it may seem that this is a totally new driver that has just popped up
in the kernel with little warning. In fact, Elmer had developed this driver for a
commercial company (SpectrumWireless) a while back and they agreed to let him
release it in GPL form after some month.
The code is very complete, especially the /proc interface. It comes as four
modules, the generic core, the /proc interface, the PCI/ISA interface and the Pcmcia
interface. The driver support both the 4500 and 4800 families. Unfortunately, the
Pcmcia interface is incompatible with the Linux Pcmcia support and doesn’t work
well.
Elmer told me that compared to Ben driver, his driver was probably more
robust and featured but much less friendly. In essence, the focus was slightly
different, so each driver has it own strength.

2.22 Cisco/Aironet 802.11 (Cisco driver)

Driver status : stable (rock solid)
Driver name : ISA, PCI : airo.o
Pcmcia : airo_cs.o
Version : 1.5.000
Where : http://www.cisco.com/public/sw-center/sw-wireless.shtml
Maintainer : Cisco
Documentation : Text files
Configuration : Cisco utilities
Statistics : Cisco utilities
Multi-devices : -
Interoperability : 802.11-DS and 802.11-b, interoperate with Windows
Other features : Support ad-hoc and managed mode, and WEP (encryption).

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Non implemented : -
Bugs : Doesn’t work with kernel 2.4.X
License : Cisco open source license
Vendor web page : http://www.aironet.com/
2.22.1 The device
This is the same device as the two previous entry (section 2.20).
2.22.2 The driver
Recently, Cisco decided to get more involved with supporting their Wireless
LAN cards under Linux. Rather than developping an entirely new driver, they
decided to base their work on Ben’s driver (section 2.20), which is a good idea. One
of the key person behind this operation was Jim Veneskey.
The main contribution of Cisco is a proprietary API, which allow
communication with Cisco utilities and, amongst other things, flashing new
firmware on the card, and of course a set of utilities which are mostly identical to
the Windows utilities. They also provided nice installation scripts and did lot’s of
testing of the driver to guarantee its stability (Cisco usually do some pretty
intensive testing of their products).
However, since Cisco grabed a snapshot of Ben’s driver (section 2.20), it
improved as well. As they are derived from the same base, it’s easy to compare the
two drivers. In term of features, I guess that Ben’s driver is winning, because it now
has the Cisco API of this driver and Wireless Extensions (which is not in this
driver). However, I beleive that Cisco has an edge in term of stability.
I hope that the two drivers will merge rather than diverge, and that changes
will be propagated from one to the other, so that we have a driver with both
features and rock solid stability, but only time will tell... Cisco told me that they
were going to try to catch up with Ben’s driver.

2.23 Raytheon Raylink, WebGear Aviator2.4 & Aviator Pro and BUSlink
wireless LAN
Driver status : stable
Driver name : ray_cs.o
Version : 1.67 (stable) and 1.70 (experimental)
Where : Pcmcia package (3.1.9)
Linux kernel (2.3.18 & 2.3.24)
Maintainer : Corey Thomas <[email protected]>
Web page : http://world.std.com/~corey/raylink.html
Documentation : README file + headers
Configuration : modules parameters and Wireless Extension (read only)
Statistics : Wireless Extensions
Multi-devices : yes (except for module parameters setting)

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Interoperability :802.11-FH (need updated firmware), interoperate with

Windows (need to set the correct parameters)
Other features : hardware multicast, MTU selection
Non implemented : A few high level 802.11 functionalities.
Bugs : SMP not fully tested, changing parameters through Wireless
Extensions doesn’t work right yet.
License : GPL
Vendor web page : http://www.raylink.com/micro/raylink/
http://www.webgear.com/
http://www.buslink.com/Net1.htm
2.23.1 The device
The Raylink is a IEEE 802.11 FH device build by Raytheon for the 2.4 GHz
ISM band. Raytheon build only a Pcmcia card and an Access Point. I’ve been told
that some version of the BreezeCom BreezeNet Pro Pcmcia card was an OEM
version of the Raylink.
You are more likely to buy the Raylink as a WebGear product, either as
Aviator2.4 or Aviator2.4 pro (which have nothing in common with their old Aviator
900 MHz line). The Aviator2.4 and Aviator2.4 pro are in fact the same product as
the Raylink, the Aviator2.4 driver comes pre-configured in ad-hoc mode and offer
only the Pcmcia card, whereas the Aviator2.4 pro driver comes preconfigured in
managed mode and offer both the Pcmcia card and the Access Point (translation
seems also to be different in each driver). Of course, it is possible to change the
mode in the driver and all these products are fully interoperable. WebGear also
offers a ISA to Pcmcia bridge to install the Pcmcia card in desktops.
Lately, WebGear has stop selling those cards, but recently BUSlink has
started selling them again (same card, different sticker).
The Raylink delivers all the features expected from a 802.11 compliant device,
with ad-hoc networking, access point operation, authentication and roaming. The
MAC protocol is as defined in 802.11 : CSMA/CA with MAC level retransmissions.
Configuration includes mostly the ESSID (network name).
The modem is 2.4 GHz Frequency Hopping, with 1 Mb/s and 2 Mb/s bit rate,
and includes antenna diversity.
2.23.2 The driver
Corey has implemented a very complete driver supporting most of the feature
of the hardware and some 802.11 functionality (it should be able to talk to some
802.11 nodes). There is an exhaustive list of configuration parameters, a /proc
interface for more parameters, and a tool to dump 802.11 frames. Good work !
The new version of the driver adds Alpha support, authentication, and
compatibility with the Windows driver. SMP is slowly being tested. I’ve added to
the driver quite complete support for Wireless Extension (changing parameters
still doesn’t work right - therefore wireless.opts do not work).

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The driver has been developed for the Raytheon Raylink and has also been
successfully tested with the WebGear Aviator2.4 and the BUSlink.

2.24 No Wires Needed Swallow (and BreezeCom DS11)

Driver status : stable
Driver name : swallow_cs.o
Version : 0.7.0 (kernel 2.4.0) and 0.4.0 (kernel 2.2.16 - older version)
Where : http://www.xs4all.nl/~bvermeul/swallow/
Maintainer : Bas Vermeulen <[email protected]>
Documentation : README file
Configuration : Module parameters, Wireless Extensions, /proc interface
Statistics : no
Multi-devices : unknown
Interoperability : 802.11-DS and 802.11-b, interoperate with Windows
Other features : Security (very complete), roaming table
Non implemented : Multicast
Bugs : -
License : GPL
Vendor web page : http://www.nwn.com/
http://www.breezecom.com/
2.24.1 The device
No Wires Needed is a small company in the Netherlands building a range of
802.11 DS devices, including a Pcmcia card (Swallow), an Access Point and a Hub.
They also offer a ISA version using a ISA to Pcmcia bridge. They have two version,
the 550 (5.5 Mb/s) and the more recent 1100 (11 Mb/s). BreezeCom also EOM this
card for their DS.11 range (the PC-DS.11).
The Swallow delivers all the features expected from a 802.11 compliant
device, with ad-hoc networking, authentication and roaming. The main difference
with other 802.11 devices is that NWN offers some strong link layer encryption and
a key management and distribution system.
The modem is the famous Prism chipset used in many other cards (see section
2.8), which is 2.4 GHz Direct Sequence, with 1 Mb/s, 2 Mb/s, 5.5 Mb/s and 11 Mb/s
bit rate. No Wires Needed use their own MAC design on an embedded ARM
processor, and not the AMD or PrismII MAC controller. This give them more
performance and flexibility. Now that Intersil has aquired No Wires Needed,
Intersil can offer 2 different 802.11 MAC controller !
2.24.2 The driver
Bas has implemented a quite complete driver for the Swallow 550 and 1100
card (Pcmcia). He has patiently debugged the driver to fix races, timeouts and

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increase the performance. The driver is working for both the NWN and the
BreezeCom cards.
Bas has also implemented Wireless Extension support for the security
support, and support the full range of security features in the driver. You can also
configure the ESSID on the fly with Wireless Extensions...
Lately, Bas has been doing lot of work on roaming support. The driver export
the roaming tables in a /proc interface, allowing the implementation of a user space
roaming daemon. This interface also contains some other configuration
parameters.

2.25 No Wires Needed 1148 and 3Com WLAN XJack

Driver status : stable
Driver name : poldhu_cs.o
Version : 0.2.4 (for kernel 2.4.X)
Where : http://www.xs4all.nl/~bvermeul/swallow/
Maintainer : Bas Vermeulen <[email protected]>
Documentation : README file
Configuration : Module parameters, Wireless Extensions, /proc interface
Statistics : no
Multi-devices : unknown
Interoperability : 802.11-DS and 802.11-b, interoperate with Windows
Other features : Security (very complete), roaming table, ad-hoc modes
Non implemented : Multicast
Bugs : -
License : GPL
Vendor web page : http://www.nwn.com/
http://www.3Com.com/
2.25.1 The device
Recently, No Wires Needed has replaced the Swallow 550 and 1100 with a
new 802.11-b card, the 1148. The design and the feature of this card seems very
similar to their previous one (see section 2.24) : The MAC is the same ARM core and
they still offer AirLock encryption. The main difference seems that they are now
using a PrismII modem (see section 2.10).
3Com has recently released a Wireless LAN XJack card (3CRWE62092A)
which is a clone of the NWN 1148 (as opposed to the AirConnect cards which are
clone of the Symbol HR cards). The main difference between the 3Com and NWN
card is the removal of AirLock encryption (WEP is still available), the addition of
Ad-Hoc mode, and of course the famous pop-up antenna ;-)

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2.25.2 The driver

Because the card is so similar to the Swallow, it was natural that a driver for
this card would be derived from the Swallow driver. In fact, No Wires Needed
contacted Bas to implement a driver for the new card. Bas modified his Swallow
driver and created this driver which offer very similar functionality and feature as
the Swallow driver (see section 2.24).
So, the driver includes complete security support, Wireless Extensions and
roaming support. The driver also include read only support for most low level
commands (SNWNMP).
Bas has also added in the driver the necessary support for the 3Com WLAN
XJack cards, including its specific features. All features of the card (ad-hoc mode,
encryption) are configurable through Wireless Extensions.

2.26 Nokia C110/C111

Driver status : ???
Driver name : nokia_c110.o
Version : 1.00
Where : http://forum.nokia.com/main/1,13682,5_63_10,00.html
Maintainer : Nokia
Documentation : Readme
Configuration : Specific Pcmcia scripts
Statistics : /proc file
Multi-devices : yes
Interoperability : 802.11-DS and 802.11-b, interoperate with Windows
Other features : Encryption, multicast, user profiles
Non implemented : ?
Bugs : ?
License : Binary only for the core + Nokia OpenSource Linux wrapper
Vendor web pages : http://www.nokia.com/corporate/wlan/
2.26.1 The device
In the past years, Nokia has slowly moved into the Wireless LAN market.
They started by buying Intalk, a company producing PrismI clones (see section 2.8),
and Nokia continued selling those cards, renamed Nokia C020 and C021. While
beeing busy working on BlueTooth and HiperLanII, Nokia didn’t forgot 802.11-b
and released a new set of card, the C110 and C111.
As can be expected, the Nokia C110/C111 is another PrismII clone (see section
2.10). On the other hand, it seem that Nokia has changed quite a few things
compared to the original PrismII design, for example they have added a Smart
Card reader on the Pcmcia card (for security settings).

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2.26.2 The driver

Nokia quietly made this driver available in the registered only part of their
web site and don’t seem to mention it anywhere, fortunately I have my spies to
inform me ;-) This driver is only for the C110/C111, on the other hand the C020 is
supposed to work with the linux-wlan package (see section 2.8).
The driver contains a very thin source wrapper on top of the binary part (one
version for kernel 2.2.X, one for 2.4.X). On the other hand, the package come with
exhaustive set of complex Pcmcia scripts to configure the card and enable profiles.
The driver works in infrastructure and Ad-Hoc mode, and support WEP.

2.27 Diamond Multimedia HomeFree

Driver status : stable
Driver name : tir2000.o
Version : 06/02/2000
Where : http://david.poda.cz/homefree
Maintainer : Pavel Machek <[email protected]>
Documentation : README file
Configuration : Module parameters
Statistics : None
Multi-devices : yes (except for module parameters setting)
Interoperability : proprietary protocol, do not interoperate with Windows
Other features : Act as a tty device (not a network driver)
Non implemented : Windows compatibility
Bugs : May not be legal in all locales...
License : GPL
Vendor web page : http://www.diamondmm.com/
http://www.alation.com/
2.27.1 The device
The HomeFree was one of the first affordable home networking solution. It is
sold by Diamond Multimedia and designed by a small company, Alation. The card
comes in ISA, PCI and Pcmcia form factor.
To reduce the cost, Alation has used the same solution as IrDA : to implement
the MAC protocol in the driver instead of on the card. In fact, they are using a IrDA
chip as the baseband, and instead of connecting it to an Ir transceiver, they use a
classical 1 Mb/s Frequency Hopping modem at 2.4 GHz.
This solution save the cost of an embedded microcontroller on the card and
allow to build a cheaper product (and to develop it faster). The downside is that
building the MAC protocol in the driver tend to increase the protocol overhead (the
MAC need more time to react to events - this reduce throughput and increase
latency) and use more resources on the host (processor cycles and memory). In fact,

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this is an effect similar to win-modems and win-printers. Also, because there is a

lot more code (which is more tightly integrated in the OS and performance critical),
the driver is more difficult to port to other OSes (and that’s why the driver below
doesn’t implement the HomeFree MAC protocol).
Personally, I’m not a fan of this design, but it seems to do the job cheaply.
2.27.2 The driver
Pavel has developed a very simple and nice driver for the HomeFree. The
development was sponsored by PODA s.r.o., a Czech company, which allowed Pavel
to release the driver as GPL after some time...
This driver is both very different from a standard network driver (as the other
driver I present on this page) and very different from the HomeFree Windows
driver. This driver is a straight tty interface to the hardware (like a serial port),
and doesn’t implement any MAC protocol. Therefore, it can’t be interfaced directly
to the standard Linux networking stack, and is not compatible with the Windows
driver.
Therefore, to use this driver, a MAC protocol of some sort is needed (to
arbitrate access to the medium, multiplex connection and ensure reliability). Pavel
recommend to use either some Ham protocols such as Scarab, or to use the Linux-
IrDA stack. You can also develop you own application directly on top of this half
duplex interface (most serial applications will assume full duplex).
The advantage of that is that those protocols are very lightweight, so usually
perform much better (in term of raw throughput) than the original HomeFree
protocol, and even better than some other WLAN products. However, those
protocol (Scarab, IrDA) are not designed for the specifics of the 2.4 GHz band and
don’t include all the goodies found in 802.11. For example, IrDA allow only two
nodes to be exchanging data at one time (only one IrLAP connection active) and
deal poorly with multi nodes network. I also don’t know how they deal with co-
located networks and radio interferences.
However, the most critical missing feature is regulations compliance. The
802.11 protocol include some feature to insure compliance with all the various
regulations in the 802.11 band (such as Frequency Hopping - usage of Radio
Frequency tend to be highly regulated). As the driver of Pavel doesn’t include all
these features, this driver may not be legal in your country (note : this doesn’t
apply to the Windows driver, the Windows driver is legal because Diamond has
certified it with the FCC and ETSI), and usage of this driver may bring you big
troubles (same as setting up a illegal transmitter in the FM band). So, if you care
about legislation, I advise you to check with Pavel about your specific case,
otherwise use at your own risks...

2.28 BreezeCom BreezeNet PRO Pcmcia

Driver status : stable
Driver name : brzcom_cs.o
Version : 1.0
Where : http://www.breezecom.com/Support_10010.asp?tNodeParam=30

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ftp://projects.sourceforge.net/pub/pcmcia-cs/contrib/
Creator : Christian Olrog
Maintainer : Alfred Cohen <[email protected]>
Documentation : Readme file
Configuration : module parameters
Statistics : /proc interface
Multi-devices : no
Interoperability : 802.11-FH (only pro.11), interoperate with Windows
Other features : -
Non implemented : security (WEP), power saving
Bugs : -
License : GPL
Vendor web page : http://www.breezecom.com/
2.28.1 The device
The BreezeNet is a Radio LAN using the 2.4 GHz ISM band (Frequency
Hopping). The earlier versions of the Pcmcia cards were OEM of other vendors, the
old one was an OEM version of the Netwave, then it was an OEM version of the
Raylink, but their latest pro.11 Pcmcia card is 100 % BreezeCom (the one with
two little antenna sticks). BreezeCom has also a 802.11-b line, called DS.11, and
the Pcmcia card is a NWN card.
In term of protocol and modem, the Pcmcia cards are very similar to the other
BreezeCom products (see section 2.29). The first two Pcmcia cards were limited in
term of bit-rate (only 1 Mb/s), and have lower transmit power.
2.28.2 The drivers
The driver presented here apply only to the latest pro.11 Pcmcia card. For the
old Pcmcia card (not pro), you may use the newave_cs driver (in all good Pcmcia
packages). For the first pro.11 Pcmcia card, you may use the ray_cs driver (in
recent Pcmcia packages - and therefore get 802.11 compliance). For the DS.11 card
(802.11-b compliant), you may use the swallow_cs driver.
BreezeCom has also release a Linux driver for their latest pro.11 card. I’ve
been informed of the existence of this driver since October 99, and many people
have been using it since by getting it directly from BreezeCom, but BreezeCom did
release this driver to the wide public only 6 months later. Let’s not complain,
because the driver contains the full source and is now GPL, so it was worth the
wait !
The driver was written by Christian Olrog, an employee of Ericsson, based on
the original Windows driver source, and it seems that the maintainance has been
taken over by Alfred Cohen of BreezeCom. The source code looks very nice and
complete, with only a few features missing. One interesting feature is that the
driver can show the signal strength for Access Points in the area. However, the
initial configuration could be simpler...

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The driver has been in use by many Linux users since its original
development and there doesn’t seem to have been much complains about it, which
is good ;-)

2.29 BreezeCom BreezeNet (not Pcmcia)

Driver status : not needed (for Pcmcia, see above)
Driver name : -
Version : -
Where : -
Maintainer : none
Documentation : none
Configuration : none
Statistics : none
Multi-devices : yes
Interoperability : 802.11-FH (only pro.11), 802.11-DS and 802.11-b (only
DS.11), interoperate with Windows
Other features : -
Non implemented : configuration & statistics
Vendor web page : http://www.breezecom.com/
2.29.1 The device
The BreezeNet is a Radio LAN using the 2.4 GHz ISM band (Frequency
Hopping). It is built by BreezeCom, a small company from Israel, and some OEM
version might be available. The BreezeNet doesn’t connect to any of the usual PC
bus but instead uses an Ethernet network card to interface to the host computer,
and so require no driver to work (they have also some real access points). For the
Pcmcia hardware, see above.
There is three versions of the BreezeNet, the old one, somewhat Netwave
compatible, then the first pro.11 version (flash upgradable to 802.11) and the new
pro.11 version, which is 802.11 compliant, so with all the usual MAC features
expected from 802.11 devices. In all cases the modem includes Frequency Hopping
Spread Spectrum (20 ms hop period), a 3 Mb/s signalling rate (fall back to 2 and
1 Mb/s) and antenna diversity. Note that the 3 Mb/s bit rate is not 802.11
compliant.
BreezeCom now offers a DS.11 series of adapters which is 802.11-b compliant,
with usual 802.11-b features (and up to 11 Mb/s) and still using the Ethernet
interface.
2.29.2 The drivers
No driver is needed, this product use an Ethernet connection. You need to
have an dedicated Ethernet 10baseT card configured under Linux to plug it into.
For the device configuration and statistics, unless someone write the necessary
tools for Linux, I guess that you must return to DOS/Windows.

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2.30 Not supported

Netwave AirSurfer plus (in 802.11 mode), BayStack 650 : Now that a driver
for the BayStack 660 is available, it should be quite easy to make a driver for those
cards, by reusing the physical layer parts in the AirSurfer plus driver. FreeBsd
seems to have a driver for this device...
RadioLan has a 10 Mb/s at 5 GHz product, rather very short range and no
Linux drivers.
WebGear Aviator 900 MHz : connect to the parallel port and offer cable
replacement solution. No functional Linux driver yet.
The IBM Wireless LAN Entry is a discontinued product that may be
sometime found for a very very low price. Unfortunately, there is no working driver
for those and information on the device is impossible to find.

2.31 A note on driver licenses

Donald Becker’s web page alerted me on the license and copyright issues
for networking drivers (see http://www.scyld.com/expert/modules.html#legal for
details). If you just plan to use the driver in your Linux PC, there should be no
problem, but if you plan other use of the drivers you should pay attention to the
exact license the driver come in.
Most drivers are GPL, which prevent their use with non-GPL kernels (so
commercial operating systems can’t reuse the code) and prevent to use portions of
the source in non-GPL drivers, except with the explicit authorisation from the
author.
Some other drivers come with a binary library, which restrict its potential
use (the driver can’t be ported to other architectures).
This may be tough, but those people have spend long nights and week ends
convincing the hardware manufacturer to release information, writing and
debugging the code, so please respect their copyrights and decisions.

2.32 More information on the devices, other Wireless LANs

You will notice that I don’t give too much information on the different devices.
The web page of each vendors usually contain the full specification of the products
they sell.
They are many more products available than the ones that I’ve listed (which
are the most common). If your favourite wireless LAN is not listed above, either
there is no driver under Linux that I know of, or it is an OEM version of one of
these (same hardware under a new brand).
To have a good picture of all the devices available and their characteristics,
you should redirect your favourite browser to :
http://hydra.carleton.ca/info/wlan.html

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2.33 Other Wireless technologies

2.33.1 Wireless bridges
Wireless bridges allow to connect different networks via radio, their goal is
to replace a dedicated leased line (T1, for example). They usually offer longer
distance through directional antennas, and are peer to peer.
These devices are a totally independent box (like other bridges, routers or
gateways) and not a card to plug in your PC, so have no interactions with Linux.
2.33.2 Radio Amateur and AX25 (HAM)
These devices are quite specific and are described in their own howto.
2.33.3 Infrared
Apart from the remote control stuff, most infrared devices are IrDA
compliant. IrDA defines a full lightweight protocol stack on top of very cheap and
simple hardware, and is optimal for short ad-hoc transactions (using Obex for
example). TCP/IP networking over IrDA can be done using PPP over IrComm,
IrLAN or IrNET (all of them point-to-point solutions).
More information on IrDA for Linux is available at :
http://www.cs.uit.no/linux-irda/
http://mobilix.org/howtos.html
http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/IrDA/IrDA.html
There is also some real Wireless LANs using diffuse infrared (no more peer
to peer), but I don’t have much information on these.
2.33.4 BlueTooth
BlueTooth is a radio standard heavily influenced by IrDA and USB, and
offers the functionality of a wireless USB and serial cable replacement (see section
5 for a more complete description). BlueTooth defines its own protocol stack as well,
and offers the possibility to create long term binding between devices (attach
wirelessly peripherals to a phone or a PDA). TCP/IP networking over BlueTooth
can be done using PPP over RfComm.
More information on BlueTooth for Linux is available at :
http://delbert.matlock.com/linux-bluetooth.htm
http://bluez.sourceforge.net/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/bluetooth/
http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/bt/
2.33.5 Digital mobile phones and other radio WAN
Again, this is quite different from Wireless LANs. I don’t know much about
those devices, except the usual generalitie.
Digital mobile phones (GSM, TDMA, CDMA, PHS) very often allow data
connections (slow and expensive). Most of them offer a standard serial interface
with an extended AT command set, so can be configured like a normal modem : ppp
over the serial port.

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Some Nokia GSM phones use a kind of half winmodem interface where the
upper layer handling is done by the host. For these phones you need gnokii (http:/
/gnokii.org). This package also provide tools to play with various extra features of
the phone (SMS, address book...).
Of course, the ultimate geek challenge is to use IrDA (see section 2.33.3) to
connect your mobile phone to your laptop. That’s done with PPP over RfComm or
gnokii.
In most cases, Wireless WANs such as CDPD cards, the Metricom Ricochet
and ARDIS should use modem interface as well.

3 Wireless LANs in use

Installing and using a Wireless LAN is not such a big deal, and is not much
different from other kind of networks. In this chapter, I will give you a few tricks
on how to install those beast and will mostly redirect you to a lot of literature
explaining the things much better than I would do.
Then, I will explain some of the difference of Wireless LANs compared to
wired technology from the user point of view and why it reacts sometime
differently. For more curious people, see the section 5.

3.1 Choice and selection of a Wireless LAN

There is far too many people buying a Wireless LAN and discovering only
after that it is not supported under Linux. So, please, check that a driver is
available for the hardware you plan to use.
Most Wireless LANs are designed to work well in most configurations, but my
experience tells that some Wireless LANs or some environment may be capricious.
Of course, the vendor won’t advertise this, so it’s your responsibility to check that
the Wireless LAN is working with your particular setup. If you intend to cover a
large range, test as many physical locations and combinations as possible to avoid
surprises. Know the limits of your hardware.
The performance of different Wireless LANs may vary widely, depending on
may factors. The throughput of two Wireless LANs advertising the same bit rate
may vary by a factor 5 (I won’t give the names). Range also can have wide
variations, even between similar cards. So, be warned and benchmark your
Wireless LAN...
If you are not happy with your choice of Wireless LAN, don’t hesitate and
return it to where you bough it for a refund.

3.2 Features of the hardware

Obviously, I don’t need to tell you to check the price of the Wireless LAN you
plan to buy, but however consider checking the price in different places, especially
on the Internet. Some hardware are still difficult to find and impossible to get
directly from the manufacturer, and a bit of research always pay off...
Then, the second issue is the form factor, and the interface use to connect
the card to your PC. Most cards nowadays are in Pcmcia form factor, some vendors

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offer as well ISA and PCI versions of their cards, and most other vendors offer some
ISA-to-Pcmcia bridge (separately or included in the box) to allow to plug a Pcmcia
card in a desktop. I’ve seen some cards in PC104 form factor (for embedded
applications), and I expect sooner or later to see cards in Compact Flash form factor
or with a USB interface.
Often, people do wonder about Access Points and residential gateways
and if they need some for their network. In most cases, the Access Point is a bridge
and allow to connect the wireless network to an Ethernet backbone, whereas the
Residential Gateway connect it to an ISP (via dialup/cable/DSL), and those two
kind of products are usually not fully interchangeable. However, most Wireless
LAN cards work in ad-hoc mode (so without Access Point), and a Linux box can
offer connectivity to other networks (routing+proxy ARP, or masquerading).
For people who plan to establish point to point links, they will likely need the
card to offer a connector for an external antenna. Quite often those connectors
are small and not really standard. Of course, if the card doesn’t offer such a
connector, it’s always possible to butcher it...
Then, you may care about all the usual performance characteristics, such as
speed, range, and power consumption. However, be aware that it’s quite
difficult to compare products, for the speed read my various comments about
overhead and benchmarking, and for range pay mostly attention to the transmit
power and the sensitivity.
Finally, each implementation may offer more or less wireless parameters.
Having those parameters will allow to tune the card for specific environments and
configurations. With that, you probably want some deployment and diagnostic
tools from the vendor...

3.3 Interoperability
For people having dealt with Ethernet, it may seem absurd to see all the
interoperability worries that we have to go through for Wireless LANs. But such is
life, and product A may not communicate with product B. To their defense,
Wireless MAC protocols are a few order of magnitude more complex than Ethernet
and have not been around for as long.
For most of the old hardware, and for all the proprietary products,
interoperability is none. In other word, those products communicate only with
products from the same vendor. The risk for you is that you are locked with this
vendor to upgrade your network. That is still OK if the vendor is strong and has
been around in the business for a long time.
The only two standards that have been demonstrated to be interoperable are
802.11-FH and 802.11-DS. I must there applaud the various vendors which have
gone through great pain to make sure that their hardware was playing nice with
others and fixing their interoperability problems. Note that 802.11-FH products
are not interoperable with 802.11-DS products, and vice versa, so you can only mix
products of the same kind of 802.11. For 802.11-b, it is just a simple extension of
802.11-DS (adding 5.5 and 11 Mb/s speeds), and products seem to already
interoperate at higher speed.

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Other standards (such as HiperLan, SWAP and 802.11@5GHz) are

interoperable in theory. As there is very few vendors using those standards (or
even none) and the products are often too recent, we can’t say much about
interoperability. Note that compliance doesn’t mean interoperability and vice
versa...
Note that in some cases, the Linux driver of a device doesn’t implement all
the features of the corresponding Windows driver (typically security), limiting the
interoperability.

3.4 Installation
The reader should be familiar with some of the documents listed in the Useful
readings chapter below, because the information here mainly acts as a complement
to them. A good knowledge of your Wireless LAN is also a prerequisite before
switching to Linux.
Most Wireless LAN vendors have tried to make things easy and offer product
with an interface as similar as possible as Ethernet, and which work mostly the
same way. So, a bit of background on Ethernet and the general Linux networking
is welcomed (see below).
The operating system need a piece of software to interface to the hardware.
That is the role of the driver. Basically, when Linux gives to the driver a packet to
send, the driver have to copy the packet to the hardware and toggle the correct bits
in the correct register on the card to send it. It is the same when the card generates
an interrupt, the driver go and read the packet and give it to Linux. Of course, the
driver needs to know about the specific hardware details and the specific operating
system ways.
In conclusion, you must check first if the driver for your Wireless LAN exists
(see previous section), because in many case it proves to be quite useful...
With Linux, you have to compile the driver source code (some Linux
distribution may offer precompiled modules). There is usually two compilation
options : drivers compiled staticaly in the kernel and as a module. If the driver is
already in the kernel sources, the compilation is quite simple (you have to enable
it in the kernel configuration, static or module). If it is in the Pcmcia package,
you just need to install the package. Otherwise, see the installation instructions
coming with the driver.
Once you’ve got the driver compiled, you must tell your system about it. For
pcmcia drivers, the package has its own configuration scripts (see pcmcia
documentation). For other drivers, you will have to edit the system configuration
scripts. You will likely to have to add a ifconfig line in some script (/etc/init.d/
network for the Debian). There is many other networks configuration files in /etc.
For modules, you need as well to change some stuff in the module configuration
files. See the list of readings below for more information.

3.5 Useful Linux related readings

• Ethernet HowTo - How to install and configure most of the network drivers
• Net2 HowTo - The network stack story

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• Module HowTo - To compile you driver as a module

• Pcmcia HowTo - An excellent medicine for pcmcia drivers
• AX25 HowTo - AX25 and Radio Amateur users should enjoy this one
• The Linux Network Administration guide - A lot of background and tips about
networking and Linux
• Your distribution documentation or FAQ (if any)

3.6 Driver parameters

A lot of users are confused when it comes to set driver parameters. Those
parameters usually allow to specify the base address and interrupt of the hardware
to avoid scanning, but also might be used for multi-device configuration or wireless
specific parameters (see below).
As it is explained nowhere correctly, I disgress a bit and give you a few hints...
For driver compiled staticaly in the kernel, the parameters are passed on
the kernel command line. The syntax is “ether=irq,base,name” where base is the
base address, irq the interrupt and name the device logical name (ex : eth0). The
kernel command line is passed by lilo (or loadlin) itself, so in fact it means that you
add in /etc/lilo.conf a line which look like this :

append=”reboot=warm ether=0,0,eth1 ether=10,0x3E0,eth2 ether=11,0x390,eth3”

For drivers compiled as modules, the parameter interface is much more

flexible and each driver may be different, so you must look in the documentation.
Basically, the driver define a set of parameters by their name and you may set for
each keyword an array (one value for each instance of the hardware). The module
configuration is usually done in /etc/conf.modules like this :

alias eth1 hp100

alias eth2 wavelan
options wavelan io=0x3E0,0x390 name=eth2,eth3 irq=10,11

For pcmcia modules, the configuration is done in the pcmcia scripts, and
you should check the Pcmcia Howto.

3.7 More parameters to configure

The most obvious difference with Ethernet is that there is more parameters
to configure. In order to communicate, all nodes of the network must have those
parameters configured the same. Some examples are : frequency or hopping
pattern, network id or domain, encryption key (for security)...
Under Windows, the installation program usually opens a nice window and
asks the user to enter these parameters, or sets them to a default value. Some
drivers set those parameters in a permanent storage in the device (EEprom), so the
Linux driver is able to reuse them. But, the current tendency is to scrap the
EEprom and to use the Windows 95 registry to save those parameters instead. Of
course, the Linux driver can’t retrieve the parameters in those conditions.

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The Wireless Extensions (see next section) has been designed to simplify the
process of setting those parameters under Linux by providing an unified interface
across drivers, but not all drivers support (yet) the Wireless Extensions...
In conclusion, you must read your documentation to know what parameters
need to be set, what they are used for, and look the Linux driver documentation to
know how to set them under Linux. See below for a suggested list of information
sources.
It is usually quite a good idea to install the Wireless Lan first under some
mainstream operating system with the official vendors driver and tools, to have a
feeling of how the beast does work. You might also compare the performance before
and after :-)
Once you’ve got all those new parameters set, your Wireless LAN should be
up and running.

3.8 Where to get information about your Wireless LAN

• The official documentation that come with your product.
• Manufacturer web page and support.
• Linux driver source code, documentation (headers, man pages), maintainer.

3.9 Wireless LAN deployment

From the network administrator point of view, the main problem with
Wireless LANs is that the medium is shared. If on a cable you know who is there,
anybody and anything can use the radio band.
To try to separate everyone out there, most products define some network
identifier (Network ID, Network Name or Domain, in 802.11 it is also called
ESSID). This is a number or character string which is used to identify all the people
wanting to be one the same logical network. Networks using different network
identifiers still share the bandwidth, but are logically separate and don’t interfere
with each other.
This situation is not totally ideal, so that’s why usually you have some
distinct channels (or frequencies, or hopping patterns). People on distinct
channels use different part of the bandwidth, so don’t interfere at all. If you want
to install multiple independent networks in the same area, this is the way to go.
The Wireless LAN has only a limited range, so you may reach only device
within that range. This is usually why you should define some cells where
everybody is in range. If you want those cells to communicate or a node to move
across cells, you should install an access point in each of those and configure
those with the same network identifier (and add an Ethernet segment between the
access points).
On the other hand, some time you just want to quickly set up a network
between a group of nodes and don’t want to build an infrastructure. Most Wireless
LANs offer ad-hoc networking, allowing you to just do that (apart from TCP
configuration).

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Some network administrators are also a bit scared by security problem over
the medium. The only solution is to use encryption.

3.10 Access Points, Home Gateways and Ethernet bridging

Most Access Points act as a MAC level bridge, allowing the Wireless LAN to
be a natural extension of a wired network. They are deployed in a cellular fashion,
and provide extended security, management and roaming.
On the other hand, the Home Gateways allow a single cell to be connected
to a WAN, like a modem, a cable modem or a DSL access. The set of features is
quite different, and they offer NAT/masquerading and PPP configuration.
The conventional Ethernet bridging method (promiscuous sniffing) doesn’t
work with most wireless LAN standard, because of the header encapsulation and
the interactions with link layer retransmissions. In other word, most often, when
you use a software bridge on a wireless LAN (such as the Linux bridge on a 802.11
card), it doesn’t work (moreover, quite often promiscuous is broken as well).
The driver could work around this restriction by creating its own MAC
headers (802.11 headers instead of 802.3, and putting the right bits in the right
place), but in fact most vendors don’t provide the specification on how to this with
their hardware (when they don’t explicitely prevent it in hardware, to force you to
buy their Access Points). In other words, don’t expect to use your Linux PC as a
bridge with most products out there, and forget about turning it into an Access
Point.
The workaround is to set the wireless LAN in ad-hoc mode and to use other
methods, such as routing, masquerading, IP bridging, ARP proxying...

3.11 Point to point links (connecting different LANs by wireless)

Most Wireless LANs are designed to be used as a local area network, where
all the nodes can see each other or can see the access point, and they are attached
to other networks through a single access point (or not at all in ad-hoc mode).
Some people have asked me question on how to use Wireless LANs to connect
different LANs together using wireless technology, usually those LANs are in
distant places (across the street). Most of the time, you can’t use a Wireless LAN
because you don’t have a fully connected topology (some node can’t see each other,
it’s more a set of point to point links) and you may need to use directional antennas
to overcome the distance.
I’ve never personally tried this, but I see 2 ways to achieve this.
The first solution is to use Wireless Bridges. Each Wireless Bridge is
connected to one of the LAN section and redirect the traffic over the air to the
correct destination. There is many products on the market, they are a bit expensive
but very flexible, transparent and optimised for the task.
The second is to use normal Wireless LAN cards, and to plug them in a router
(for example a Linux PC). I recommend to use a Wireless LAN supporting RTS/
CTS if you have more than one link, and to set them in ad-hoc mode (no access
point). Each LAN segment must have a different IP subnet, and the wireless link
must have it’s own subnet (it can be a private subnet if you use masquerading).

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After much configuration of the routing tables of your network, you should be able
to get it working.
Some people using the Aironet Arlan cards for this kind of application have
made a very nice Arlan Wireless Routing Howto, and I believe it can apply to
most other Wireless LANs as well :
http://www.rage.net/wireless/wireless-howto.html
Note that it is not always possible to use a bridging software on top of a
Wireless LAN card, and that is why I do recommend routing (or proxy-ARP + IP
forwarding). Setting the card in promiscuous mode won’t give the behavior
expected by the bridge, because of the interaction with MAC level retransmissions.
Some drivers are clever enough, and by playing directly with the 802.11 headers (if
the hardware allows it), they can allow bridging to work, but most drivers are not.

3.12 Performance (speed)

Most people want to know how fast it goes, and complain that they can’t get
the speed written on the box, and that the number seems low, even if in real use
they are far away from saturating the network. Even when converting the byte per
seconds to bit per seconds, there is no denying that the TCP throughput is lower
than the signalling rate. This is because the Wireless LANs are slower to start
with and on top of that uses less efficiently the available bandwidth.
Most Wireless LANs have a signalling rate around 1 or 2 Mb/s. The
signalling rate is the speed the bits are send over the air (Ethernet is 10 Mb/s), but
doesn’t account of all the overhead of the protocols.
The Wireless LAN protocols have usually a higher overhead than their wired
counterpart (like Ethernet) because of some technological limitations and to
improve the reliability and the coverage of the Wireless LAN (optimisation trade-
offs). On the other hand, Wireless LANs protocols are also usually less sensitive to
high load (the throughput doesn’t drop when you overload the network - which
could happen more often).
Some protocols also adapt the signalling rate depending on the quality of the
link (for example a 2 level modulation 2FSK/4FSK). When the link is clear and
reception is strong, it will use the fastest rate, but when there start to be noise or
the device is further away, it goes down to the more robust rate. The throughput
that you will get will depend on that as well (for example the high speed might be
only usable in line of sight).

3.13 Reliability
Most Wireless LANs protocols include mechanisms to improve the reliability
of the packet transmissions to be at the same level or even better than Ethernet
(MAC level retransmissions for example). Anyway, if you are using a protocol such
as TCP (the default under Linux), you will be fully protected again any loss or
corruption of data over the air. In other word, when you copy a file across the radio,
it can’t be corrupted (but it might fail).

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3.14 Coverage
As said earlier, people get excited about speed, and they often don’t realise
that the main measure of performance of a wireless LAN is the coverage, and by
a wide margin. This includes maximum distance between nodes, resistance to
interferences and ability to keep connectivity in a wide range of conditions.
The propagation of radio transmissions is influenced by many factors. Walls
and floors tend to decrease and reflect the signal, and background noise make it
more difficult to extract. The channel quality vary quite a lot over the time (fading).
Depending on the quality of reception, the error rate will change (forcing
packet retransmissions), or the system may switch to a more robust (and slower)
mode (fragmentation or modulation), so the actual throughput will vary from good
to nothing.
Because of the way radio transmission are affected by the environment, it is
quite difficult to predict the comportment of the system and to define a range. You
will have some good, fair and bad area/period, the closer you are the more likely
you are to be in a good one.

3.15 Mobility
One of the main advantage of Wireless LANs is that they offer mobility. It
mean that even when moving around, you retain your connection to the network.
Of course, this mobility is limited by the range of the Wireless LAN. To extend
the range, you must cover the area with access points, which very often include
roaming : you switch transparently to the closer access point which provide you a
connection to the rest of the world and nodes out of range.
Note that most cheap Access Point don’t include roaming (to force you to buy
the more expensive Access Point version), and that Access Points of different
vendors usually don’t fully interoperate (the Access Points don’t talk to each other).
If you want to move across IP subnets, this is time to try Mobile IP :-)

3.16 Security and Privacy

Because they use radio waves, wireless LANs are usually perceived as a
security problem. In fact, it’s much more likely that you will get hacked from the
Internet or that somebody will tap your phone line at the back of your house. It is
also possible to read your screen and your Ethernet cable from across the street,
with the correct equipment, so nothing is bullet proof. But it’s important to assess
the security threat and the possible remedies.
First of all, any attack on a Wireless LAN will be necessary local (physical
proximity), because of the limited range of radio. Most “attacks” will be your
neighboor accidentally connecting to your network due to improper configuration.
Directional antennas will allow the attacker to be further away than regular nodes,
but only with line of sight. But this limit greatly the scope of the risk.
Wireless LAN, because they use digital transmissions, can not be listen to
with a regular radio scanner. The only practical way to attack a Wireless LAN is
to use another Wireless card compatible with it. The attacker may mostly try to do

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two things, snoop your communications (for example to read the e-mail you are
sending) or access your ressources (for example your access to the Internet).
For most users, the network identifier will be enough protection against
casual users : other people can’t accidentally join your network by mistake, unless
they guess the correct network identifier or really try to attack you. Trying to
discover the network identifier is usually not as easy as it seems, unless you use
social engineering...
Some people are more concerned about those issues or may want to increase
the security of their system. Some Wireless LANs offer MAC level encryption
(sometimes only as an option), which is designed for those concerned users and
target security equivalent to a having a shared Ethernet cable (i.e. not much), and
a few systems offer stronger encryption (but still considered weak by some experts
because of the distributed single key and the lack of per-packet authentication).
With these schemes, each packet transmitted over the network is individually
encrypted, and the card refuses unencrypted data. This encryption is totally
transparent to the higher layer and the user just need to set the same encryption
key in the access point and all nodes of the network. The main advantage of those
scheme is that they are very easy to set up.
Recently, various attacks have been found on WEP, the MAC level encryption
scheme of 802.11, which illustrate that WEP is not more secure than what it was
designed for (and probably less - but WEP is still better than nothing). Other
products may use other security mechanism, but designing a secure AND user
friendly AND cost effective security mechanism at the MAC layer is nearly
impossible, and wireless manufacturers are usually not security expert, so most
people serious about security already use a security solution independant of
the wireless link (like a regular VPN, see below). This separation of wireless and
security has other advantages (independant upgrades for example).
I would still argue that most home users don’t really need security beyond
preventing people accidentally joining your network. Most web site that you will
access over wireless and that handle critical information already use SSL to
encrypt those transactions, which is proven to be very secure, and there exist
secure versions of POP or IMAP (still using SSL). Users that access remote
Intranets most often already uses VPN software.
For those who need it, like if you are paranoid, your life depends on it, or if the
wireless link is already behind a firewall, you need to set up a encrypted tunnel
above the wireless link with a VPN protocol. Various VPN protocols can be used
with Linux, such as IPsec, PPTP and SSH (IPsec is the ultimate security solution,
but much more complex to set up and not much more secure). You will need to
setup a VPN gateway on the other side of the Access Points and the VPN software
on every wireless device. That’s usually complicated to setup, but that’s the price
for security.

3.17 Benchmarks
For all the reasons described above, I think it is quite tricky to benchmark
Wireless LANs, and measuring coverage or throughput in isolation is not fair.

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Remember that coverage matters much more than raw performance in real life.
This is why I don’t give any performance numbers. Some computer magazine
publish from time to time some extensive review of all those products and try to do
some performance comparison more or less real life.
If you want to test the throughput of your device, you should use a tool called
Netperf. You might want to submit your results in the database...
http://www.netperf.org/netperf/NetperfPage.html

3.18 Tuning
More and more, vendors are delivering products in configuration that look
good in benchmarks and doesn’t perform as well in real life. This is where you need
to tune a few parameters to get better performance.
Some vendors ship products with RTS/CTS disabled. This is the best setting
if you have only two nodes, but when you have a fair number of nodes active at the
same time, RTS/CTS can increase the performance. And of course, if you have
hidden nodes, you can not get away without it...
Some vendors also tend to set the number of MAC retransmissions a bit
low for my taste. If you use TCP, this might improve your performance slightly
under good conditions, because TCP do its own retransmissions. However, all
applications not using TCP (ping, RTP, NFS...) might suffer from the packet losses.
On a related note, you can play with the bit-rate setting of the card. Most
cards nowadays include a rate-adaptation scheme, which adapt the bit-rate to the
range : basically the card try transmitting at the highest rate and decrease the rate
in case of packet losses. However, in configuration with large number of active
nodes, packet losses also come from the contention process, so disabling this rate
adaptation scheme (forcing the highest rate) can increase performance in some
cases.
If you have interferers in the band, you might need to enable fragmentation
(send smaller packet to fit between interferences) and to raise the sensibility (tell
the card to ignore the noise). Of course, the best thing is to eliminate the interferer,
if possible.
If you have different Access Points and have enabled roaming, you should also
set carefully the roaming threshold, which is the point (in signal strength) at
which the card search for a new Access Point. If you set it too low, the card will
spend to much time with a non optimal AP (getting a poorer throughput), and if
you set it too high the card will waste time searching for a new AP too often.
To finish, all this fine tuning and optimisation could/should be done in the
card itself, the card itself has most of the information it needs to optimise those
settings and the algorithms are not that complex (I describe some in my latest
paper). Let’s hope the vendors will work on that...

4 Wireless Extensions for Linux

See the document about Wireless Extensions.

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5 Wireless LAN technology overview

See the document about the technology overview.

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