awi(4) - NetBSD Manual Pages

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AWI(4)                  NetBSD Kernel Interfaces Manual                 AWI(4)


NAME

     awi -- AMD PCnetMobile IEEE 802.11 PCMCIA wireless network driver


SYNOPSIS

     awi*     at pcmcia? function ?


DESCRIPTION

     The awi driver supports various IEEE 802.11 wireless cards that run AMD
     PCnetMobile firmware based on the AMD 79c930 controller with the Intersil
     (formerly Harris) PRISM radio chipset.  It provides access to 32kb of
     memory shared between the controller and the host.  All host/device
     interaction is accomplished via this shared memory, which can be accessed
     either via PCMCIA or I/O memory spaces.  The awi driver encapsulates all
     IP and ARP traffic in 802.11 frames.

     The driver works both in infrastructure mode and in ad-hoc (independent
     BSS) mode.

     In infrastructure mode, it communicates with an Access Point, which
     serves as a link-layer bridge between an Ethernet segment and the wire-
     less network.  An access point also provides roaming capability, which
     allows a wireless node to move between access points.

     In ad-hoc mode, the device communicates peer to peer.  Although it is
     more efficient to communicate between wireless nodes, the coverage is
     limited spatially due to the lack of roaming capability.

     In addition to these two modes in the IEEE 802.11 specification, the awi
     driver also supports a variant of ad-hoc mode outside of the spec for DS
     radio cards.  This makes it possible to communicate with the WaveLAN ad-
     hoc mode of wi(4) driver.  The NWID has no effect in this mode.

     Another mode added to the awi driver can be used with old Melco access
     points with 2Mbps cards.  This mode actually uses the IEEE 802.11 ad-hoc
     mode with encapsulation of raw Ethernet packets (including headers) in
     802.11 frames.

     For more information on configuring this device, see ifconfig(8) and
     ifmedia(4).


HARDWARE

     Cards supported by the awi driver include:

           BayStack 650   1Mbps Frequency Hopping PCCARD adapter
           BayStack 660   2Mbps Direct Sequence PCCARD adapter
           Icom SL-200    2Mbps Direct Sequence PCCARD adapter
           Melco WLI-PCM  2Mbps Direct Sequence PCCARD adapter
           NEL SSMagic    2Mbps Direct Sequence PCCARD adapter
           Netwave AirSurfer Plus
                          1Mbps Frequency Hopping PCCARD adapter
           Netwave AirSurfer Pro
                          2Mbps Direct Sequence PCCARD adapter
           Nokia C020 WLAN
                          2Mbps Direct Sequence PCCARD adapter
           Farallon SkyLINE
                          2Mbps Direct Sequence PCCARD adapter
           Zoom Air Model 4000

     The original Xircom Netwave AirSurfer is supported by the cnw(4) driver,
     and the PRISM-II cards are supported by the wi(4) driver.


MEDIA SELECTION

     In addition to default Auto media type, the DS cards support DS1 and DS2
     media types, while the FH cards support the FH1 media type.  For each
     media type, the adhoc mediaopt can be used to indicate to the driver to
     operate in ad-hoc mode.  The flag0 mediaopt should be used only with old
     access points, which operate in IBSS mode.  For DS radio cards, the
     adhoc,flag0 mediaopt can be used for wi(4) compatible WaveLAN ad-hoc
     mode.


DIAGNOSTICS

     awi0: no suitable CIS info found  The device cannot be mapped due to a
     resource conflict.  Or, the device failed to initialize its firmware.

     awi0: failed to complete selftest (%s)  The device failed to complete its
     self test.  In some circumstances, resetting device after power on fails.
     Re-inserting the card or setting the interface up and then down again
     (using ifconfig(8)) may also be helpful.

     awi0: transmit timeout  The device failed to generate an interrupt to
     acknowledge a transmitted packet.

     awi0: failed to lock interrupt  The system was unable to obtain the lock
     to access shared memory.

     awi0: command %d failed %x  The device failed to complete the request
     from the system.


SEE ALSO

     arp(4), cnw(4), ifmedia(4), netintro(4), pcmcia(4), wi(4), ifconfig(8),
     wiconfig(8)

     Am79C930 PCnet Mobile Single-Chip Wireless LAN Media Access Controller,
     http://www.amd.com.


HISTORY

     The awi device driver first appeared in NetBSD 1.5.


AUTHORS

     The initial version of the awi driver was written by Bill Sommerfeld
     <sommerfeld@NetBSD.org>.  It was then completely rewritten to support
     cards with the DS phy and ad-hoc mode by
     Atsushi Onoe <onoe@NetBSD.org>.

NetBSD 5.2.2                    January 2, 2006                   NetBSD 5.2.2