[Prism54-users] iwspy functionality w/ prism54

[brf@sailor.bunzy.net]

On Sat, Feb 28, 2004 at 12:04:08AM -0500, Luis R. Rodriguez wrote:
> Attention *Jean*
> 
> On Tue, Feb 24, 2004 at 10:42:50PM -0600, Bob Farmer wrote:
> > Since there is currently no iwspy functionality in the Prism driver, we 
> > (myself and/or colleagues) are considering implementing it ourselves. 
> > We require the ability to collect link quality stats on the individual 
> > nodes in an ad hoc network.
> > 
> > However, there does not seem to be any clue in the driver as to how one 
> > would obtain the link quality data.  It appears that the driver is 
> > obtaining link quality stats in AP mode by querying it via the BSSID, 
> > but I'm guessing that wouldn't help for ad hoc mode.  Does anyone know 
> > how one would go about obtaining the data?  
> 
> I'd check other drivers and see what they are doing. If its about
> intercepting 802.11 Ad-Hoc packets and generating wireless statistics
> for each node I think that then this is generic. Why would it be
> driver-specific? Unless of course, I've missed the whole concept of
> iwpsy.

I've looked at the Orinoco driver (which has working iwspy support) and it
appears to get a "quality" field with each frame it receives, and then it
keeps track of the latest quality on a per-MAC basis (for each MAC being
"spied")...  In the prism54 driver, I didn't see evidence of any such info
currently being pulled (or even available at all) for each frame or MAC.

The driver-specific part is getting the signal/noise info.  That's where I 
was hoping you might be able to offer clues.

> > Is there a programming 
> > manual for this chip that is publicly available?
> 
> Yes, it's called the RM034. Globespan has it available under NDA. You'll
> have to contact them if you want to get it. I was told by Globespan we
> (prism54 team) were probably going to get them offered (under NDA) but
> haven't heard back (along with the firmware license that was promissed).
> 
> I'm not sure if we can legally contribute to a GPL driver if we sign an
> NDA. Of course, I'm not sure since I don't even know what the NDA looks
> like.

Ugh.


Thanks,
Bob Farmer