wvlan_cs is the low-level Card Services driver for the Lucent
WaveLAN/IEEE 802.11 and compatible (the NCR WaveLAN/IEEE 802.11, the
Cabletron RoamAbout 802.11 DS, the Melco WLI-PCM-L11) wireless
ethernet adapters. When this driver is attached to a card, it
allocates the next available device (eth0..eth#). This device name
will be passed on to cardmgr(8) for the card configuration, and
reported in the kernel log.
PARAMETERS
irq_list=i,j,...
Specifies the set of interrupts that may be allocated by this driver.
port_type=n
Select WaveLAN port type:
[1]
BSS - Basic Service Set (default),
[2]
WDS - Wireless Distribution System,
[3]
Pseudo-IBSS - ad-hoc network (no AccessPoint, PtP).
station_name=s
Sets the station name.
The default is card-configured.
network_name=s
Sets the independent network name in ad-hoc mode.
Sets the desired network (desired ESSID) to connect to if using an access point.
The default is card-configured.
channel=n
Channel (frequency) for ad-hoc networks and is useless if using an
access point. Valid range:
[0-14]
(depends on local restrictions) and defaults to
[3]
ap_density=n
Sets the access point density (sensitivity). This affects modem and
roaming thresholds.
[1]
low density (default),
[2]
medium density,
[3]
high density.
medium_reservation=n
Sets the medium reservation (RTS/CTS frame length), which affects the
number of octets in a message or fragment above which a RTS/CTS
handshake is performed.
[500]
hidden stations,
[2347]
no RTS/CTS (default). Valid range:
[0-2347]
frag_threshold=n
Defines the number of bytes used for the fragmentation boundary for
directed messages (Fragmentation length unicast message
transmission).
[2346]
is the default, valid range:
[256-2346]
(even numbers only!).
transmit_rate=n
Transmit rate control.
[1]
fixed low,
[2]
fixed high,
[3]
auto select high (default),
[4]
fixed medium,
[5]
fixed high,
[6]
auto select standard,
[7]
auto select medium.
eth=n
Network device naming. By default
[1]
devices are named eth#, set this to
[0]
to have devices named wvlan#.
mtu=n
Maximum transfer unit.
[1500]
is the default, valid range:
[256-2296]
WIRELESS EXTENSIONS
Use iwconfig(8) to manipulate wireless extensions.
You need a kernel which was compiled with CONFIG_NET_RADIO set.
It is recommended that you run at least Linux kernel 2.2.11 and use wireless_tools 19.
Older version do not support all of the current commands.
ESSID (network ID)
Set the network ID of the desired network to connect to (with access point)
or the name of your private ad-hoc network (no access point).
Mode
Set the operating mode to
Ad-Hoc
or
Managed.
In managed mode, the card will try to connect to an Access Point, to
get access to the infrastructure. In Ad-Hoc mode, the card doesn't
require an Access Point and can communicate directly with its peers.
Frequency & channels
Channel (frequency) for ad-hoc networks. The frequency is changed
immediately and is only changeable in ad-hoc network mode. You may
enter a frequency value in the 2.4 GHz band or the channel number.
Valid values:
2.412, 2.417, 2.422, 2.427, 2.432, 2.437, 2.442, 2.447, 2.452, 2.457, 2.462,2.467, 2.472
or
2.484
GHz (depends on local restrictions) and defaults to
2.422
GHz
Sens
Set the Access Point density (sensitivity). This affects modem and
roaming thresholds.
[1]
low density (default),
[2]
medium density,
[3]
high density.
Rts
Sets the medium reservation threshold (RTS/CTS frame length), which
affects the number of octets in a message or fragment above which a
RTS/CTS handshake is performed.
Use
[500]
when there are hidden stations or large number of nodes and
[2347]
for no RTS/CTS (default). Valid range:
[0-2347]
Frag
Defines the number of bytes used for the fragmentation boundary for
directed messages (Fragmentation length unicast message
transmission). To be used when you have interference on the radio,
because it significantly decreases the performance.
[2346]
is the default, valid range:
[256-2346].
Rate
Set the rate used for transmission (but not reception). You may want
to set it to a fixed value for high number of nodes.
The default is
auto,
or you may use
1, 2, 5.5 or 11
Mb/s (of course, 2 Mb/s cards cannot get the higher speeds).
Enc
Set the encryption key
[0
to
FFFF-FFFF-FF].
Use
[off]
and
[on]
to disable and reenable the hardware encryption. This feature works
only for device with encryption option (Silver or Gold).
The card has 4 different keys that you may select, and you can choose
the default key for transmission (see iwconfig(8)).
Nick (station name)
Set the station name (only used for debugging purpose).
Statistics spy
Set a list of MAC addresses in the driver (up to 8) and get the last
quality of link for each of those (see iwspy(8)).
/proc/net/wireless
status
is the status reported by the modem.
Level
and
Noise
refer to the signal level and noise level in dBm.
PRIVATE IOCTL
You may use iwpriv(8) to manipulate private ioctls.
Histogram
This functionality allow to set a number of signal level intervals and
to count the number of packets received in each of those defined
intervals. This distribution might be used to calculate the mean value
and standard deviation of the signal level.
SPECIFIC NOTES
Some of the mentioned features are optional. You may enable to disable
them by changing flags in the driver header and recompile.
It's currently not possible to use the WaveLAN/IEEE as a bridge (MAC
level). This is not a restriction of the driver, the NIC firmware
doesn't allow to send out packets with another source MAC address
than its own (which is mandatory required for bridgeing to work).
Also the WaveLAN/IEEE can be used to connect to an Access Point, but
cannot be an Access Point itself (because lack of bridgeing).
I would like to thank Lucent Technology for making the necessary information
available to public. Thanks to Nico Valster and Jan Martejin at Lucent for
technical support. Thanks to Frank Bruegmann, who managed to get additional
hardware for me so that I can now do tests in different environments. And
thanks to Jean Tourrilhes for many patches and wireless kernel extensions.
Also many thanks to everybody who tested and helped me developing this
driver :-)
