linux/net
Bruno Randolf afe0cbf875 cfg80211: Add nl80211 antenna configuration
Allow setting of TX and RX antennas configuration via nl80211.

The antenna configuration is defined as a bitmap of allowed antennas to use.
This API can be used to mask out antennas which are not attached or should not
be used for other reasons like regulatory concerns or special setups.

Separate bitmaps are used for RX and TX to allow configuring different antennas
for receiving and transmitting. Each bitmap is 32 bit long, each bit
representing one antenna, starting with antenna 1 at the first bit. If an
antenna bit is set, this means the driver is allowed to use this antenna for RX
or TX respectively; if the bit is not set the hardware is not allowed to use
this antenna.

Using bitmaps has the benefit of allowing for a flexible configuration
interface which can support many different configurations and which can be used
for 802.11n as well as non-802.11n devices. Instead of relying on some hardware
specific assumptions, drivers can use this information to know which antennas
are actually attached to the system and derive their capabilities based on
that.

802.11n devices should enable or disable chains, based on which antennas are
present (If all antennas belonging to a particular chain are disabled, the
entire chain should be disabled). HT capabilities (like STBC, TX Beamforming,
Antenna selection) should be calculated based on the available chains after
applying the antenna masks. Should a 802.11n device have diversity antennas
attached to one of their chains, diversity can be enabled or disabled based on
the antenna information.

Non-802.11n drivers can use the antenna masks to select RX and TX antennas and
to enable or disable antenna diversity.

While covering chainmasks for 802.11n and the standard "legacy" modes "fixed
antenna 1", "fixed antenna 2" and "diversity" this API also allows more rare,
but useful configurations as follows:

1) Send on antenna 1, receive on antenna 2 (or vice versa). This can be used to
have a low gain antenna for TX in order to keep within the regulatory
constraints and a high gain antenna for RX in order to receive weaker signals
("speak softly, but listen harder"). This can be useful for building long-shot
outdoor links. Another usage of this setup is having a low-noise pre-amplifier
on antenna 1 and a power amplifier on the other antenna. This way transmit
noise is mostly kept out of the low noise receive channel.
(This would be bitmaps: tx 1 rx 2).

2) Another similar setup is: Use RX diversity on both antennas, but always send
on antenna 1. Again that would allow us to benefit from a higher gain RX
antenna, while staying within the legal limits.
(This would be: tx 0 rx 3).

3) And finally there can be special experimental setups in research and
development even with pre 802.11n hardware where more than 2 antennas are
available. It's good to keep the API simple, yet flexible.

Signed-off-by: Bruno Randolf <br1@einfach.org>

--
v7:	Made bitmasks 32 bit wide and rebased to latest wireless-testing.
Signed-off-by: John W. Linville <linville@tuxdriver.com>
2010-11-16 16:37:05 -05:00
..
9p net/9p: Return error on read with NULL buffer 2010-10-28 09:08:49 -05:00
802 net/802: add __rcu annotations 2010-10-25 13:09:44 -07:00
8021q vlan: rcu annotations 2010-10-25 13:09:43 -07:00
appletalk Merge branch 'master' of master.kernel.org:/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net-2.6 2010-04-11 14:53:53 -07:00
atm Merge git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net-next-2.6 2010-10-23 11:47:02 -07:00
ax25 Merge branch 'for-next' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/jikos/trivial 2010-10-24 13:41:39 -07:00
bluetooth Merge git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net-next-2.6 2010-10-23 11:47:02 -07:00
bridge bridge: Forward reserved group addresses if !STP 2010-10-21 04:25:48 -07:00
caif Merge branch 'master' of master.kernel.org:/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net-2.6 2010-10-06 19:39:31 -07:00
can can-raw: add msg_flags to distinguish local traffic 2010-10-21 04:27:03 -07:00
ceph ceph: fix num_pages_free accounting in pagelist 2010-10-20 15:38:23 -07:00
core pktgen: Limit how much data we copy onto the stack. 2010-10-28 11:47:53 -07:00
dcb include cleanup: Update gfp.h and slab.h includes to prepare for breaking implicit slab.h inclusion from percpu.h 2010-03-30 22:02:32 +09:00
dccp dccp ccid-2: Stop polling 2010-10-28 10:27:01 -07:00
decnet net dst: use a percpu_counter to track entries 2010-10-11 13:06:53 -07:00
dns_resolver DNS: If the DNS server returns an error, allow that to be cached [ver #2] 2010-08-11 17:11:28 +00:00
dsa phylib: available for any speed ethernet 2010-08-11 23:03:50 -07:00
econet net: return operator cleanup 2010-09-23 14:33:39 -07:00
ethernet net: return operator cleanup 2010-09-23 14:33:39 -07:00
ieee802154 ieee802154: Fix possible NULL pointer dereference in wpan_phy_alloc 2010-05-23 23:11:07 -07:00
ipv4 ip_gre: fix fallback tunnel setup 2010-10-30 16:21:28 -07:00
ipv6 ipv6/udp: report SndbufErrors and RcvbufErrors 2010-10-30 16:17:23 -07:00
ipx BKL: introduce CONFIG_BKL. 2010-10-21 15:44:13 +02:00
irda Merge branch 'for-next' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/jikos/trivial 2010-10-24 13:41:39 -07:00
iucv [S390] cleanup lowcore access from external interrupts 2010-10-25 16:10:19 +02:00
key net: return operator cleanup 2010-09-23 14:33:39 -07:00
l2tp l2tp: static functions should not be exported 2010-10-24 22:26:41 -07:00
lapb include cleanup: Update gfp.h and slab.h includes to prepare for breaking implicit slab.h inclusion from percpu.h 2010-03-30 22:02:32 +09:00
llc net/llc: storing negative error codes in unsigned short 2010-09-16 22:38:23 -07:00
mac80211 mac80211: support hardware TX fragmentation offload 2010-11-16 16:37:04 -05:00
netfilter netfilter: xt_socket: Make tproto signed in socket_mt6_v1(). 2010-10-28 12:59:53 -07:00
netlabel net: Remove unnecessary returns from void function()s 2010-05-17 23:23:14 -07:00
netlink netlink: fix netlink_change_ngroups() 2010-10-24 16:25:39 -07:00
netrom net: sk_sleep() helper 2010-04-20 16:37:13 -07:00
packet net: simplify flags for tx timestamping 2010-08-19 00:08:30 -07:00
phonet phonet: remove the unused variable pn 2010-10-20 01:55:54 -07:00
rds RDS: Let rds_message_alloc_sgs() return NULL 2010-10-30 16:34:18 -07:00
rfkill rfkill: remove dead code 2010-11-15 13:24:06 -05:00
rose Merge branch 'master' of master.kernel.org:/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net-2.6 2010-09-27 01:03:03 -07:00
rxrpc Add a dummy printk function for the maintenance of unused printks 2010-08-12 09:51:35 -07:00
sched Merge git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net-next-2.6 2010-10-23 11:47:02 -07:00
sctp Merge git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net-next-2.6 2010-10-23 11:47:02 -07:00
sunrpc convert get_sb_single() users 2010-10-29 04:16:28 -04:00
tipc Merge branch 'master' of master.kernel.org:/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net-2.6 2010-10-21 08:43:05 -07:00
unix fs: allow for more than 2^31 files 2010-10-26 16:52:15 -07:00
wanrouter fix printk typo 'faild' 2010-08-09 11:25:17 +02:00
wimax Merge git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net-next-2.6 2010-05-20 21:04:44 -07:00
wireless cfg80211: Add nl80211 antenna configuration 2010-11-16 16:37:05 -05:00
x25 Merge git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net-next-2.6 2010-10-23 11:47:02 -07:00
xfrm xfrm: make xfrm_bundle_ok local 2010-10-21 03:09:46 -07:00
Kconfig ceph: factor out libceph from Ceph file system 2010-10-20 15:37:28 -07:00
Makefile ceph: factor out libceph from Ceph file system 2010-10-20 15:37:28 -07:00
TUNABLE
compat.c net: Limit socket I/O iovec total length to INT_MAX. 2010-10-28 11:47:52 -07:00
nonet.c llseek: automatically add .llseek fop 2010-10-15 15:53:27 +02:00
socket.c Merge git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net-2.6 2010-10-30 18:42:58 -07:00
sysctl_net.c net: Remove unnecessary returns from void function()s 2010-05-17 23:23:14 -07:00