NAME

     ieee80211_output — software 802.11 stack output functions

SYNOPSIS

     #include <net80211/ieee80211_var.h>

     int
     M_WME_GETAC(struct mbuf *);

     int
     M_SEQNO_GET(struct mbuf *);

     struct ieee80211_key *
     ieee80211_crypto_encap(struct ieee80211_node *, struct mbuf *);

     void
     ieee80211_process_callback(struct ieee80211_node *, struct mbuf *, int);

DESCRIPTION

     The net80211 layer that supports 802.11 device drivers handles most of the work required to transmit
     frames.  Drivers usually receive fully-encapsulated 802.11 frames that have been classified and assigned a
     transmit priority; all that is left is to do crypto encapsulation, prepare any hardware-specific state, and
     push the packet out to the device.  Outbound frames are either generated by the net80211 layer (e.g.
     management frames) or are passed down from upper layers through the ifnet(9) transmit queue.  Data frames
     passed down for transmit flow through net80211 which handles aggregation, 802.11 encapsulation, and then
     dispatches the frames to the driver through it's transmit queue.

     There are two control paths by which frames reach a driver for transmit.  Data packets are queued to the
     device's if_snd queue and the driver's if_start method is called.  Other frames are passed down using the
     ic_raw_xmit method without queueing (unless done by the driver).  The raw transmit path may include data
     frames from user applications that inject them through bpf(4) and NullData frames generated by net80211 to
     probe for idle stations (when operating as an access point).

     net80211 handles all state-related bookkeeping and management for the handling of data frames.  Data frames
     are only transmit for a vap in the IEEE80211_S_RUN state; there is no need, for example, to check for
     frames sent down when CAC or CSA is active.  Similarly, net80211 handles activities such as background
     scanning and power save mode, frames will not be sent to a driver unless it is operating on the BSS channel
     with “full power”.

     All frames passed to a driver for transmit hold a reference to a node table entry in the m_pkthdr.rcvif
     field.  The node is associated with the frame destination.  Typically it is the receiver's entry but in
     some situations it may be a placeholder entry or the “next hop station” (such as in a mesh network).  In
     all cases the reference must be reclaimed with ieee80211_free_node() when the transmit work is completed.
     The rule to remember is: net80211 passes responsibility for the mbuf and “node reference” to the driver
     with each frame it hands off for transmit.

PACKET CLASSIFICATION

     All frames passed by net80211 for transmit are assigned a priority based on any vlan tag assigned to the
     receiving station and/or any Diffserv setting in an IP or IPv6 header.  If both vlan and Diffserv priority
     are present the higher of the two is used.  If WME/WMM is being used then any ACM policy (in station mode)
     is also enforced.  The resulting AC is attached to the mbuf and may be read back using the M_WME_GETAC()
     macro.

     PAE/EAPOL frames are tagged with an M_EAPOL mbuf flag; drivers should transmit them with care, usually by
     using the transmit rate for management frames.  Multicast/broadcast frames are marked with the M_MCAST mbuf
     flag.  Frames coming out of a station's power save queue and that have more frames immediately following
     are marked with the M_MORE_DATA mbuf flag.  Such frames will be queued consecutively in the driver's if_snd
     queue and drivers should preserve the ordering when passing them to the device.

FRAGMENTED FRAMES

     The net80211 layer will fragment data frames according to the setting of iv_fragthreshold if a driver marks
     the IEEE80211_C_TXFRAG capability.  Fragmented frames are placed in the devices transmit queue with the
     fragments chained together with m_nextpkt.  Each frame is marked with the M_FRAG mbuf flag, and the first
     and last are marked with M_FIRSTFRAG and M_LASTFRAG, respectively.  Drivers are expected to process all
     fragments or none.

TRANSMIT CALLBACKS

     Frames sent by net80211 may be tagged with the M_TXCB mbuf flag to indicate a callback should be done when
     their transmission completes.  The callback is done using ieee80211_process_callback() with the last
     parameter set to a non-zero value if an error occurred and zero otherwise.  Note net80211 understands that
     drivers may be incapable of determining status; a device may not report if an ACK frame is received and/or
     a device may queue transmit requests in its hardware and only report status on whether the frame was
     successfully queued.

SEE ALSO

     bpf(4), ieee80211(9), ifnet(9)