NOTE: this page is for archival only, see the note at the end of the page.

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ar9271

ar9271 is an 802.11n 1-stream USB chipset by Atheros. This page covers its development.

ar9271 hardware details

ar9271 is the next generation of the Atheros 802.11n USB solutions. Contrary to ar9170 it uses an Atheros MAC – ar9170 is using a Zydas MAC. Some feature details to keep in mind:

  • 802.11n 1x1 2.4 GHz - 1 stream:
    • HT20 - MCS 7, highest MCS index for single stream
      • long guard interval (800 ns) @ 65 Mbit/s max theoretical
      • short guard interval (400 ns) @ 72.2 Mbit/s max theoretical
    • HT40 - MCS 7, highest MCS index for single stream
      • long guard interval (800 ns) @ 135 Mbit/s max theoretical
      • short guard interval (400 ns) @ 150 Mbit/s max theoretical
  • TCP/IP throughout rates expected at 2.4 HT40: ~70-95 Mbit/s
  • 2 external antennas for TX/RX antenna diversity
  • Internal embedded CPU

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Mailing list

Since ar9271 support is not yet upstream and the driver is still being worked on we use the Linux driver project mailing list to track its development and patches:

http://driverdev.linuxdriverproject.org/mailman/listinfo/devel

Status

ar9271 support is still under development. You can only upload the firmware to the device right now. Next step is to get a mac80211 basic driver up and running with monitor support.

Development

If you'd like to work on development for ar9271 get the code first:

git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/mcgrof/ar9271.git

If you do not have hardware and are serious about working on a mac80211 driver for ar9271 please contact mcgrof@gmail.com, Atheros is looking to work with the community by providing hardware samples to interested developers. Prior to contacting mcgrof@gmail.com for a device though please consider sending patches to help with the existing code. The HTC/HIF code could use a lot of help to be more upstream-friendly first. You will need hardware once we start working on the mac80211 driver.

Firmware

ar9271 requires firmware, you can get ar9271fw from:

git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/mcgrof/athfw2lnx.git

Open firmware ?

We are first trying to write the driver for ar9271, however one interested community member has expressed interest in working on an open firmware for ar9271. We are working with this community member on trying to get this done but we have nothing certain or guaranteed.

TODO

  • More HTC/HIF/WMI cleanup - for upstream inclusion
  • HTC is designed for only one device - merge onto ath9k_fw_usb then...
  • Write initial mac80211 driver - (mcgrof@gmail.com: working on this right now)

Patches

You can send patches to:

To: mcgrof@gmail.com
Cc: devel@linuxdriverproject.org

ar9271 hw support

Initial hw support for ar9271 has been committed onto wireless-testing. These patches only added the necessary changes onto ath9k to support the ar9271 hardware. HTC/HIF_USB modules are already on its way on being ported. The last step to support ar9271 will be a new mac80211 driver which makes uses of HTC/HIF_USB and the ath9k hw routines as well as the shared ath.ko for.

ar9271 and ar9170 seem to share a few things, one of which is firmware upload. ar9271's firmware upload routine was modified to make it match ar9170's as much as possible to share it on ath.ko. The only difference between the firmware upload is on ar9170 you can sometimes not account for the success of the last urb submitted which tells the harware the firmware was loaded.

Sharing code between ar9271 and ar6k

Sharing code between ar9271 and ar6k may be possible as the same HTC framework is used. ar6k uses ethernet-like frames though so more review is required.

Atheros host target communication

ar9271 support makes use of the HTC / WMI framework for host target communication that the mobile ar6k driver uses present on the OpenMoko. The bus transport layer is new, however.

The Atheros host / target communication framework consists of 3 parts:

  • HTC - Host Target Communication
  • HIF - Host Interface Layer
  • WMI - Wireless Module Interface

HTC

ar9271 relies on the Atheros HTC (Host/Target Communication) for the communication between the host CPU the device is present on and between the ar9271 CPU (target).

The Atheros HTC defines a very basic API which allows designers to build protocols of communication for a specific target (device with CPU) and an interconnect/bus. The protocols of communication are Operating System agnostic and architecture agnostic.

When necessary the HTC APIs can be extended to accommodate different interconnects. HTC can also be extended to make enhancements which would make communication more suitable for an Operating System.

It should be noted HTC was originally implemented to accommodate the Atheros AR6000 wireless chipset on Linux and Windows mobile for use on SDIO and SPI.

HTC TX / RX completion callbacks

These TX and RX callbacks in HTC will themselves check the endpoint target and call a respective callback for each endpoint. Control messages are processed via the endpoint 0. Only the RX completion callback makes use of the control endpoint, messages in the control endpoint for TX are disregarded. Buffers are always freed in the TX completion HTC callback. Buffers are only freed by the RX completion HTC callback if the endpoint target does not have a registered callback or if the endpoint is the control endpoint.

HTC Control messages

Messages sent to the RX completion HTC callback on the control endpoint have a message ID which identifies what control message is being received. There are 3 HTC control messages IDs:

  • HTC_MSG_READY_ID
  • HTC_MSG_CONNECT_SERVICE_RESPONSE_ID
  • HTC_MSG_CONFIG_PIPE_RESPONSE_ID

HTC_MSG_READY_ID

When this message is received HTC calls HTCProcessTargetReady().

HTC_MSG_CONNECT_SERVICE_RESPONSE_ID

When this message is received HTC calls HTCProcessConnectionRsp().

HTC_MSG_CONFIG_PIPE_RESPONSE_ID

When this message is received HTC calls HTCProcessConfigPipeRsp().

HIF

The Host InterFace layer, originally designed first for the AR6000 device, is the interconnect driver interface used by a driver. It uses HTC to register callbacks for device insertion and removal, for registration with HTC. ar9271 is the first HIF USB device, as such we have implemented its own HIF driver for USB. The ar9271 module would use the HIF layer to allocate the URBs needed for communication from/to the device. The HIF layer module also defines the callbacks to deal with URBs after being submitted for processing. During initialization the HIF layer uploads the firmware to the ar9271 device upon device probe.

WMI

The Wireless Module Interface, also designed first for AR6000, a wireless protocol of communication for Atheros wireless devices using a host/target split. WMI defines commands which you can issue to the target firmware or that the target firmware can send back for processing. WMI also has events for which callbacks are registered, each event has registered callback.


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