ath9k<-->ath9k ad-hoc does not associate

ath9k-devel Alexandros C. Couloumbis 2 participants 2 messages Aug 8, 2008 – Jul 21, 2011

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Alexandros C. Couloumbis

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2008-08-08 14:42 UTC #0 lore raw

Greetings,

I am using an openwrt-x86 trunk 12244 image with linux-2.6.26.2, compiled with gcc-4.2.2, compat-wireless-2008-08-06 from:
http://www.orbit-lab.org/kernel/compat-wireless-2.6/2008/08/compat-wireless-2008-08-06.tar.bz2
and ath9k commit c3785ea5f6f61095a3cffa8c688d9aae171abb83

The hardware used is: alix & wrap boards along with a pair of
Unex DNMA-83 (Atheros 9160) wifi cards.

the mac80211 is compiled with all debug options enabled. frame dumping is not enabled though. also timing info is enabled on kernel debug.

the wifi cards are not able to ping one another. here is some output:

iwconfig, ifconfig & iwlist wlan0 scan from the wrap board:

wlan0 IEEE 802.11abgn ESSID:"awmn"
Mode:Ad-Hoc Frequency:5.745 GHz Cell: 0E:18:12:1E:75:73 Tx-Power=23 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2352 B
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0 Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0B:6B:B0:21:B8
inet addr:192.168.100.1 Bcast:192.168.100.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

wmaster0 Link encap:UNSPEC HWaddr 00-0B-6B-B0-21-B8-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

wlan0 Scan completed :

          Cell 01 - Address: E6:FE:0E:A1:77:22
                    ESSID:"awmn"
                    Mode:Ad-Hoc
                    Channel:149
                    Frequency:5.745 GHz (Channel 149)
                    Quality=17/100  Signal level:-84 dBm  Noise 
level=-95 dBm
                    Encryption key:off
                    Bit Rates:6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s
                              36 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Extra:tsf=000005ffca03c65c
                    Extra: Last beacon: 370ms ago

iwconfig, ifconfig & iwlist wlan0 scan on the alix board:

wlan0 IEEE 802.11abgn ESSID:"awmn"
Mode:Ad-Hoc Frequency:5.745 GHz Cell: E6:FE:0E:A1:77:22 Tx-Power=23 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2352 B
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0 Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0B:6B:B0:21:FA
inet addr:192.168.100.2 Bcast:192.168.100.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:3 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:180 (180.0 B)

wmaster0 Link encap:UNSPEC HWaddr 00-0B-6B-B0-21-FA-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

dmesg on the wrap side is filled with:

[ 1504.350024] RX beacon SA=00:0b:6b:b0:21:fa BSSID=0e:18:12:1e:75:73 
TSF=0x11d4b13007e3e5 BCN=0x11d4b130076345 diff=32928 @120435
[ 1504.459005] RX beacon SA=00:0b:6b:b0:21:fa BSSID=0e:18:12:1e:75:73 
TSF=0x11d4b13008f3ea BCN=0x11d4b13008f34b diff=159 @120445
[ 1504.560161] RX beacon SA=00:0b:6b:b0:21:fa BSSID=0e:18:12:1e:75:73 
TSF=0x11d4b1300a83e6 BCN=0x11d4b1300a8346 diff=160 @120455
[ 1504.660023] RX beacon SA=00:0b:6b:b0:21:fa BSSID=0e:18:12:1e:75:73 
TSF=0x11d4b1300f93ed BCN=0x11d4b1300c134c diff=229537 @120466
[ 1504.766188] RX beacon SA=00:0b:6b:b0:21:fa BSSID=0e:18:12:1e:75:73 
TSF=0x11d4b1300da3e5 BCN=0x11d4b1300da345 diff=160 @120476
[ 1504.868558] RX beacon SA=00:0b:6b:b0:21:fa BSSID=0e:18:12:1e:75:73

TSF=0x11d4b1300fb3eb BCN=0x11d4b1300f334b diff=32928 @120486

dmesg on the alix side:

[ 1614.667845] phy0: HW CONFIG: freq=5825
[ 1614.727853] phy0: HW CONFIG: freq=5745
[ 1614.735100] wlan0: sta_find_ibss (active_ibss=0)
[ 1614.735131]    bssid=e6:fe:0e:a1:77:22 found
[ 1614.735154]    bssid=0e:18:12:1e:75:73 found
[ 1614.735193]    sta_find_ibss: selected 0e:18:12:1e:75:73 current 
e6:fe:0e:a1:77:22
[ 1614.735226] wlan0: Selected IBSS BSSID 0e:18:12:1e:75:73 based on 
configured SSID
[ 1614.735297] phy0: HW CONFIG: freq=5745
[ 1644.738301] wlan0: No active IBSS STAs - trying to scan for other 
IBSS networks with same SSID (merge)
[ 1644.768298] phy0: HW CONFIG: freq=2412
[ 1644.828298] phy0: HW CONFIG: freq=2417
[ 1644.888299] phy0: HW CONFIG: freq=2422
[ 1644.948299] phy0: HW CONFIG: freq=2427
[ 1645.008303] phy0: HW CONFIG: freq=2432
[ 1645.068305] phy0: HW CONFIG: freq=2437
[ 1645.128303] phy0: HW CONFIG: freq=2442
[ 1645.188303] phy0: HW CONFIG: freq=2447
[ 1645.248306] phy0: HW CONFIG: freq=2452
[ 1645.308305] phy0: HW CONFIG: freq=2457
[ 1645.368304] phy0: HW CONFIG: freq=2462
[ 1645.428306] phy0: HW CONFIG: freq=5180
[ 1645.488308] phy0: HW CONFIG: freq=5200
[ 1645.548307] phy0: HW CONFIG: freq=5220
[ 1645.608313] phy0: HW CONFIG: freq=5240
[ 1645.668321] phy0: HW CONFIG: freq=5745
[ 1645.699752] phy0: Adding new IBSS station 00:0b:6b:b0:21:b8 (dev=wlan0)
[ 1645.699799] phy0: Allocated STA 00:0b:6b:b0:21:b8
[ 1645.699869] phy0: Inserted STA 00:0b:6b:b0:21:b8
[ 1645.728313] phy0: HW CONFIG: freq=5765
[ 1645.788314] phy0: HW CONFIG: freq=5785
[ 1645.848316] phy0: HW CONFIG: freq=5805
[ 1645.908316] phy0: HW CONFIG: freq=5825
[ 1645.968324] phy0: HW CONFIG: freq=5745
[ 1645.975576] wlan0: sta_find_ibss (active_ibss=0)
[ 1645.975606]    bssid=e6:fe:0e:a1:77:22 found
[ 1645.975645]    sta_find_ibss: selected e6:fe:0e:a1:77:22 current 
0e:18:12:1e:75:73
[ 1645.975678] wlan0: Selected IBSS BSSID e6:fe:0e:a1:77:22 based on 
configured SSID
[ 1645.975769] phy0: Removed STA 00:0b:6b:b0:21:b8
[ 1645.975864] phy0: HW CONFIG: freq=5745
[ 1645.984326] phy0: Destroyed STA 00:0b:6b:b0:21:b8

I would be happy to provide any further output if necessary.

best regards,

--
Alexandros C. Couloumbis
http://dev.ozo.com/

Vic O

2011-07-21 21:55 UTC #1 lore raw

Quoted 20 lines

Alexandros C. Couloumbis <alex <at> ozo.com> writes:
iwconfig, ifconfig & iwlist wlan0 scan from the wrap board:
wlan0 IEEE 802.11abgn ESSID:"awmn"
Mode:Ad-Hoc Frequency:5.745 GHz Cell: 0E:18:12:1E:75:73 Tx-Power=23 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2352 B
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0 Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
iwconfig, ifconfig & iwlist wlan0 scan on the alix board:

Quoted 11 lines

wlan0 IEEE 802.11abgn ESSID:"awmn"
Mode:Ad-Hoc Frequency:5.745 GHz Cell: E6:FE:0E:A1:77:22 Tx-Power=23 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2352 B
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0 Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

This reply is almost a year in the making, but it looks like your ad-hoc interfaces are creating new cells(new IBSS)
on initialization (you'll see that the 48-bit cell IDs are different).
Thus, even though they are on the same channel, same ESS ("awmn")
and within wireless range, they can't talk.

The 802.11 standards for IBSS (ad-hoc) mode specifies that this problem should be solved by having the first interface to establish a BSS periodically broadcasting a beacon so that newer nodes get this beacon and associate to that cell.

However, for some reason ath9k doesn't handle this problem correctly (ath5k did a good job with it).

In the meantime, you can specifically set the cell ID using the iw command on all your interfaces (in this case the cell ID is the 48-bit value made up of twos).

iw dev wlan0 ibss join "awmn" 5745 22:22:22:22:22:22