1.\" 2.\" Copyright (c) 2003 Tom Rhodes 3.\" All rights reserved. 4.\" 5.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 6.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 7.\" are met: 8.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 9.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 10.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 11.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 12.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 13.\" 14.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 15.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 16.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 17.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 18.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 19.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 20.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 21.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 22.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 23.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 24.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 25.\" 26.\" $FreeBSD$ 27.\" 28.Dd November 26, 2005 29.Dt WLAN 4 30.Os 31.Sh NAME 32.Nm wlan 33.Nd generic 802.11 link-layer support 34.Sh SYNOPSIS 35.Cd "device wlan" 36.Sh DESCRIPTION 37The 38.Nm 39module provides generic code to support 802.11 drivers. 40Where a device does not directly support 802.11 functionality 41this layer fills in. 42The 43.Nm 44is required for the 45.Xr an 4 , 46.Xr ath 4 , 47.Xr awi 4 , 48.Xr ipw 4 , 49.Xr iwi 4 , 50.Xr ral 4 , 51.Xr ural 4 , 52and 53.Xr wi 4 54drivers, with other drivers to follow. 55.Pp 56The 57.Nm 58module supports multi-mode devices capable of 59operating in both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands and supports numerous 60802.11 protocols: 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g. 61The WPA, 802.11i, and 802.1x security protocols are supported 62through a combination of in-kernel code and user-mode applications. 63The WME and WMM multi-media protocols are supported entirely within 64the 65.Nm 66module but require a suitably capable hardware device. 67.Pp 68The 69.Nm 70module defines several mechanisms by which plugin modules may 71be used to extend functionality. 72Cryptographic support such as WEP, TKIP, and AES-CCMP are implemented 73as modules that are loaded on demand (if not statically configured 74into a system). 75Similarly there is an authenticator framework for defining 802.11 76authentication services and a framework for integrating access 77control mechanisms specific to the 802.11 protocol. 78.Sh DEBUGGING 79If the associated interface is marked for debugging with, for example, 80.Pp 81.Dl "ifconfig wi0 debug" 82.Pp 83then messages describing the operation of the 802.11 protocol will 84be sent to the console. 85Complete debugging controls are available using: 86.Pp 87.Dl "sysctl net.wlan.X.debug=mask" 88.Pp 89where 90.Ar X 91is the number of the 92.Nm 93instance and mask is a bit-or of control bits that determine which 94debugging messages to enable. 95For example, 96.Pp 97.Dl "sysctl net.wlan.0.debug=0x00200000" 98.Pp 99enables debugging messages related to scanning for an access point, 100adhoc neighbor, or an unoccupied channel when operation as an access point. 101The 102.Xr 80211debug 103tool provides a more user-friendly mechanism for doing the same thing. 104.Pp 105Many drivers will also display the contents of each 802.11 frame 106sent and received when the interface is marked with 107both debugging and 108.Cm link2 ; 109e.g., 110.Pp 111.Dl "ifconfig wi0 debug link2" 112.Pp 113Beware however that some management frames may be processed entirely within 114the device and not be received by the host. 115.Sh COMPATIBILITY 116The module name of 117.Nm 118was used to be compatible with 119.Nx . 120.Sh SEE ALSO 121.Xr an 4 , 122.Xr ath 4 , 123.Xr awi 4 , 124.Xr ipw 4 , 125.Xr iwi 4 , 126.Xr netintro 4 , 127.Xr ral 4 , 128.Xr ural 4 , 129.Xr wi 4 , 130.Xr wlan_acl 4 , 131.Xr wlan_ccmp 4 , 132.Xr wlan_tkip 4 , 133.Xr wlan_wep 4 , 134.Xr wlan_xauth 4 135.Sh STANDARDS 136More information can be found in the IEEE 802.11 Standard. 137.Sh HISTORY 138The 139.Nm 140driver first appeared in 141.Fx 5.0 . 142.Sh AUTHORS 143Atsushi Onoe is the author of original 144.Nx 145software from which this work began. 146.An -nosplit 147.An Sam Leffler 148brought the code into 149.Fx 150and then rewrote it to support multi-mode devices, 151802.11g, WPA/802.11i, WME, and add the extensible frameworks 152for cryptographic, authentication, and access control plugins. 153This manual page was written by 154.An Tom Rhodes Aq trhodes@FreeBSD.org . 155