[rt2x00-users] running AP mode and sta/adhoc mode in parallel

[Helmut Schaa]

On Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 11:57 AM, Ivo Van Doorn <ivdoorn at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 11:51 AM, Helmut Schaa
> <helmut.schaa at googlemail.com> wrote:
>> On Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 11:32 AM, Ivo Van Doorn <ivdoorn at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>>> I tested the rt2x00 driver on an RT3052 Soc and noticed it does not support AP
>>>> mode and station/adhoc mode opearting in parallel. After some digging in the
>>>> git history of rt2x00 I found 2 commits (0fc980392e5a06 and 62e70cf856)
>>>> claiming that this would not be possible or at least not worthwhile to do. I
>>>> am wondering whether it really is impossible or whether it "just" is a lot of
>>>> work. If it is doable how much work would it be ?
>>>
>>> The device is simply not capable of doing it.
>>
>> Basically I agree :)
>>
>> I guess the biggest issue is that the AP and STA mode interface have to share
>> the hardware TSF timer. That means the STA mode interface cannot correctly
>> sync up with the AP and as such wouldn't be able to implement power save
>> functionality. Or the AP TSF timer would jump from time to time and this confuse
>> its clients.
>>
>> Other then that I think it would be possible to do since the device can have
>> up to 8 consecutive MACs. But this would need quite some effort in rt2x00.
>
> It can have multiple MACs, but you also have the BSSID field which for AP
> mode must be initialized to the MAC address of the device, and in case
> of STA to the
> MAC address of the AP to which it is associated. So this would only be
> possible when the STA is connected to itself which is rather ridiculous. ;)

Good point! Do you know by any chance what the BSSID field is used for in
STA mode? I don't have any idea :)

Helmut