June 9, 2009

This time around for the 2.6.30 kernel release more than 900 patches related to wireless went into the next version of Linux. Besides lots of internal cleanups, notable new features are:

• rt2x00 now supports powersave (use iwconfig wlan0 power timeout 500ms to enable)

• rt2x00 now supports mesh (point/portal) and WDS operation
• ath9k now supports mesh point operation
• mac80211 IBSS can be fixed to channel/BSSID for those who can't use 802.11s mesh but need layer 3 mesh
• mac80211 now re-aligns frames where necessary to avoid unaligned IP payload for platforms that are not capable of processing such frames
• mac80211 can support 802.11w (protected management frames), however the only driver currently supporting it is ath9k (other drivers just need testing)
• mac80211 now deconfigures/reconfigures the device during suspend/resume
• iwlwifi now supports 1000/6000 hw series

• cfg80211/nl80211 support scanning (iw dev wlan0 scan)

• mac80211 now supports aggregation with iwlwifi again (broken since 2.6.27)

For further wireless related details you can check the 2.6.30 wireless log.

March 23, 2009

Linux 2.6.29 is released. With almost 600 commits, wireless keeps moving. New features:

• We now support access point functionality with selected drivers

• minstrel is the default rate control algorithm

• dynamic powersave support for some drivers

• HT capabilities of the local hardware are now visible in iw

• mesh parameters can now be configured

And a number of fixes, notably:

• short slot handling is now working properly
• HT/11n code revamped
• new, much cleaner, rate control API
• when auth/assoc times out, notify userspace to allow it to react faster

As always, a large number of driver changes were made too.

December 23, 2008

The 2.6.28 kernel is released. About 400 patches related to wireless have been merged and once again this release brings a slew of new wireless features to the kernel:

• regulatory support – the kernel will now attempt to obey local wireless spectrum regulations

• libertas_tf – a thin firmware driver for the XO-1's wireless

• ath5k gains mesh networking

• the full-mac orinoco driver gains WPA support

• p54 gains 5 GHz support

• mac80211 got mesh portal functionality (bridging a mesh mode interface)

• the minstrel rate control algorithm was added along with rate control API improvements

• nl80211 userspace API improvements for various things

As usual, some drivers and mac80211 received cleanups and API changes:

• Some mac80211 driver operations are no longer required to be atomic which makes drivers simpler
• mac80211 code was restructured to be easier to read
• more station information is shared with the driver
• the rate control API was rewritten and made available to outside mac80211 (due to be updated again in 2.6.29 for better HT control etc.)

October 10, 2008

Linux 2.6.27 is out. Our patch rate is increasing, there were about 700 patches in wireless code. The feature rate seems to be slightly decreasing, entirely new features are:

• the ath9k driver

• Intel wireless 5000 series support
• some RTL8187B support
• mac80211_hwsim - virtual 802.11 hardware
• some of the rt2x00 drivers can do hardware crypto now

• b43 got mesh networking support

Important internal improvements were made:

• mac80211 is entirely multi-queue aware now, with the new multi-queue netdev features

• mac80211 now requires many fewer kmalloc calls – control information was moved to skb->cb

• mac80211 now creates correct QoS sequence numbers

Unfortunately, as of now, aggregation had to be disabled due needing more than just fixups after the multiqueue work.

July 14, 2008

Linux 2.6.26 is released. With almost 600 changesets related to wireless, this release brings you lots more wireless goodies:

• mac80211 now supports draft mesh networking (802.11s; thanks to the open80211s project)

• zd1211rw supports mesh networking (b43 will follow in 2.6.27, hopefully more drivers later)

• mac80211 now supports more optional HT (802.11n) features
• mac80211's monitor interfaces can now be configured more precisely, "cooked" monitors were added
• mac80211's IBSS implementation now supports IBSS merging and received various bugfixes

• mac80211 now has an in-kernel documentation book, help welcome!

• b43 now has support for PCMCIA devices and QoS/WME

Also, lots of removals this time:

• the bcm43xx driver
• the old ieee80211softmac code

Access point mode has received a lot of attention in the stack and drivers, but is not ready yet.

Finally, lots of internal API updates and fixes.