Analysis of open source drivers for IEEE 802.11 WLANs

Author

Vipin, M. ; Srikanth, S.

Author_Institution

AU-KBC Res. Centre, Anna Univ., Chennai, India

fYear

2010

fDate

2-4 Jan. 2010

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

5

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze the open source IEEE 802.11 wireless local area network (WLAN) stack implementation for further enhancement and implementations. We discuss the IEEE 802.11 WLAN implementation in the latest Linux kernel. This includes a functional breakdown of the driver and the overall flow of information via functions. We also survey the specific implementation methods used in the WLAN Linux stack. We compare the legacy driver implementation with the newer Linux kernel implementation. For reference, the Atheros network device driver is taken as an example to discuss the WLAN structure, stack and driver implementation.

Keywords

IEEE standards; Linux; wireless LAN; Atheros network device driver; IEEE 802.11 WLAN; Linux kernel; WLAN Linux stack; WLAN structure; functional breakdown; open source IEEE 802.11 wireless local area network stack; open source drivers; Electric breakdown; Hardware; Kernel; Linux; Monitoring; Operating systems; Personal digital assistants; Protocols; TCPIP; Wireless LAN; IEEE802.11 WLAN; Linux kernel; Network stack; Open source;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Wireless Communication and Sensor Computing, 2010. ICWCSC 2010. International Conference on

Conference_Location

Chennai

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-5136-4

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-5137-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICWCSC.2010.5415877

Filename

5415877