Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Fri, 10 May 2019 10:45:56 -0700
From:      Adrian Chadd <adrian.chadd@gmail.com>
To:        Stephen Patrick <stephen@cablefree.net>
Cc:        "freebsd-wireless@freebsd.org" <freebsd-wireless@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: TDMA Wireless status?
Message-ID:  <CAJ-Vmo=KLJ5Xsaoi52EYMpMYNqx7=QDjSOdgfvoZYvvJDHwE-w@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <CANt51yLuMxWRV_oqYvr3LRVXJAP93fVZVDvk5XbncAW1q6dRXg@mail.gmail.com>
References:  <CANt51y%2BSgv2O%2B5TV0rsE%2BK_WL%2BuVYGarh54NviY5arVkFsU1Ng@mail.gmail.com> <CAJ-VmokHwKSqtXO6=Yi85xxxJLF9zvDuxzqnzo_BcQTAjJ8v1Q@mail.gmail.com> <CANt51yLhZWi30vGaQGjjJ2fM237huzn-Rmh=9949Lx6d%2Bh9p0Q@mail.gmail.com> <CAJ-Vmon2DJWZjMUHea8O=bYZ1cN1k=MnikCp4UEwaTwJZMziJQ@mail.gmail.com> <CANt51yJQ=iX7afgCQZrd1EqgjmCp8kPnbQ_mmvZL7qV6DvyZmg@mail.gmail.com> <CAJ-VmokOw0Tb18gLb4S8ezy76SEOL1sc1Gpmx%2BGRXYDTuJnvbQ@mail.gmail.com> <CANt51yLuMxWRV_oqYvr3LRVXJAP93fVZVDvk5XbncAW1q6dRXg@mail.gmail.com>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
I'm too busy right now! sorry!


-a


On Fri, 10 May 2019 at 10:09, Stephen Patrick <stephen@cablefree.net> wrote:

> That sounds really interesting!
>
> Is anyone - your or others - interested in pursuing this work further?
> We are very interested -
>
> Look forward to hearing more,
> Best regards
>
> Stephen
>
>
> On Thu, 9 May 2019 at 19:55, Adrian Chadd <adrian.chadd@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> hi!
>>
>> Ok, so the 30 second version:
>>
>> * the AR54xx, AR91xx and later 11n chips had some changes to the
>> resolution of the timers that Sam used to control transmit timing and
>> windows; that should all work fine;
>> * there's no rate control right now, it's "stuff as many frames into the
>> queue and let the hardware transmit what it can when it can"; that isn't
>> optimal but it works fine;
>> * Sam didn't publish code to support >1 STA but I don't think it'd be
>> hard to add that support.
>>
>> SO, out of the box the basic TDMA bits work. But!
>>
>> The important gotcha - on the AR9380 and later chips the DMA engine logic
>> changed. The "FIFO" model uses a FIFO of TX descriptor lists. The earlier
>> model just had  TX descriptor list that you would append to. Unfortunately
>> when they added that they changed the ungate to ungate a single FIFO entry,
>> rather than run the DMA engine until all the txop timers had completed.
>>
>> So for example if you pushed in eight individual packets into 8 FIFO
>> slots in the voice queue and then you got a voice TxOP, you may notice
>> you're only getting a /single/ FIFO slot - ie, one packet - each TxOP.
>>
>> This shows up when doing TDMA because, unfortunately, the TDMA TX uses
>> the TxOP window to control how long each TDMA burst is. So if you only fill
>> in a couple of frames per FIFO slot, it will only transmit a couple frames
>> per TXOP window. I did some hackery in if_ath_tx_edma.c to try and build up
>> larger lists of frames to send to the hardware and it proved that i can hit
>> the theoretical max. But it's not optimal, because say you only send 3/4 of
>> your frame list in a single FIFO slot. Well, the next TXOP it'll only send
>> the last 1/4 and then stop until the next TXOP when it'll grab the next
>> FIFO slot. So, the "right" behaviour would be to push roughly a TXOP worth
>> of frames into a FIFO slot and hope that you're mostly hitting the
>> theoretical maximum.
>>
>> I never got around to implementing AMPDU on it because, well, I got busy
>> with life. AMPDU is a bit of a pain because we'd have to implement delayed
>> block-ack in net80211 and .. again, I never got around to it. It's not
>> impossible, but someone's gonna have to do it. (ie, you'd send A-MPDU
>> bursts during your TxOP and then there would be either a delayed block-ack
>> response in the next burst from the receiver, or it would use its beacon
>> interval to piggyback the delayed block ack on.)
>>
>> I hope that helps!
>>
>>
>>
>> -adrian
>>
>>
>> On Thu, 25 Apr 2019 at 04:20, Stephen Patrick <stephen@cablefree.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hello Adrian!
>>>
>>> Yes, we're certainly very interested.
>>>
>>> Ideally, looking for a developer who could assist in making this real &
>>> working.
>>>
>>> Look forward to hearing more,
>>> Best regards
>>>
>>> Stephen
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sat, 13 Apr 2019 at 19:46, Adrian Chadd <adrian.chadd@gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> There's some work done on the ath(4) hardware for 11a parts done by Sam
>>>> Leffler. I fixed it for 11n parts. It's in FreeBSD-HEAD.
>>>>
>>>> I figured out how to get it mostly working on the AR93xx/AR94xx parts
>>>> too but it turns out there are some significant hardware changes in how the
>>>> MAC schedules packets that a whole lot of work needs to be done to get
>>>> effective TDMA on those parts.
>>>>
>>>> If you're interested in it I can brain dump where I was at with it!
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -adrian
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, 12 Apr 2019 at 01:51, Stephen Patrick <stephen@cablefree.net>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Thanks Adrian,
>>>>>
>>>>> We are interested in "long range outdoor" (10-20km) with high gain
>>>>> antennas.
>>>>> Do you know "Mikrotik Nstreme/NV2" and "Ubiquity Airmax" ?
>>>>> Those have framing/polling done in software - wrapped around the
>>>>> wireless driver.
>>>>> Is there equivalent developed in FreeBSD?
>>>>>
>>>>> Best regards
>>>>>
>>>>> Stephen
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Thu, 11 Apr 2019 at 20:52, Adrian Chadd <adrian.chadd@gmail.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> hi!
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I know that a lot of the 11ac chips do TDMA but the vendors keep the
>>>>>> implementation and knobs close to their chest. We don't have any public
>>>>>> APIs for it. Sorry :(
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> -a
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Thu, 11 Apr 2019 at 10:23, Stephen Patrick <stephen@cablefree.net>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Dear sirs,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Is this feature working for point-to-point, and point-to-multipoint
>>>>>>> long
>>>>>>> range links?
>>>>>>> 802.11ac chipsets/modes supported?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Best regards
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Stephen
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> *Stephen Patrick*
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> *Director*
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Wireless Excellence Limited
>>>>>>> The Oxford Science Park
>>>>>>> G6, Magdalen Centre, Robert Robinson Avenue
>>>>>>> Oxford OX4 4GA -  United Kingdom
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> CAUTION - This message is confidential and may contain privileged
>>>>>>> information intended only for the use of the addressee named above.
>>>>>>> If you
>>>>>>> are not the intended recipient of this message you are hereby
>>>>>>> notified that
>>>>>>> any use, dissemination, distribution or reproduction of this message
>>>>>>> is
>>>>>>> prohibited. If you have received this message in error please notify
>>>>>>> Wireless Excellence immediately. Any views expressed in this message
>>>>>>> are
>>>>>>> those of the individual sender and may not necessarily reflect the
>>>>>>> views of
>>>>>>> Wireless Excellence Ltd.
>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>> freebsd-wireless@freebsd.org mailing list
>>>>>>> https://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-wireless
>>>>>>> To unsubscribe, send any mail to "
>>>>>>> freebsd-wireless-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>>
>>>>> *Stephen Patrick*
>>>>>
>>>>> *Director*
>>>>> <http://www.cablefree.net/>;
>>>>>
>>>>> Wireless Excellence Limited
>>>>> The Oxford Science Park
>>>>> G6, Magdalen Centre, Robert Robinson Avenue
>>>>> Oxford OX4 4GA -  United Kingdom
>>>>>
>>>>> Tel:       +44 (0) 870 4959169     Mob: +44 (0)7802 425581
>>>>> Email:   stephen@cablefree.net  Skype:  stephenjpatrick       Google:
>>>>> cablefree.stephen
>>>>>
>>>>> [image: Facebook] <https://www.facebook.com/cablefree>;   [image:
>>>>> Linkedin] <http://www.linkedin.com/company/wireless-excellence>;   [image:
>>>>> RSS] <http://www.cablefree.co.uk/blog>;   [image: Youtube]
>>>>> <https://www.youtube.com/user/cablefreenet>;   [image: Flickr]
>>>>> <http://www.flickr.com/photos/cablefree>;   [image: Twitter]
>>>>> <http://twitter.com/#!/cablefreeltd>;
>>>>>
>>>>> CAUTION - This message is confidential and may contain privileged
>>>>> information intended only for the use of the addressee named above. If you
>>>>> are not the intended recipient of this message you are hereby notified that
>>>>> any use, dissemination, distribution or reproduction of this message is
>>>>> prohibited. If you have received this message in error please notify
>>>>> Wireless Excellence immediately. Any views expressed in this message are
>>>>> those of the individual sender and may not necessarily reflect the views of
>>>>> Wireless Excellence Ltd.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>> *Stephen Patrick*
>>>
>>> *Director*
>>> <http://www.cablefree.net/>;
>>>
>>> Wireless Excellence Limited
>>> The Oxford Science Park
>>> G6, Magdalen Centre, Robert Robinson Avenue
>>> Oxford OX4 4GA -  United Kingdom
>>>
>>> Tel:       +44 (0) 870 4959169     Mob: +44 (0)7802 425581
>>> Email:   stephen@cablefree.net  Skype:  stephenjpatrick       Google:
>>> cablefree.stephen
>>>
>>> [image: Facebook] <https://www.facebook.com/cablefree>;   [image:
>>> Linkedin] <http://www.linkedin.com/company/wireless-excellence>;   [image:
>>> RSS] <http://www.cablefree.co.uk/blog>;   [image: Youtube]
>>> <https://www.youtube.com/user/cablefreenet>;   [image: Flickr]
>>> <http://www.flickr.com/photos/cablefree>;   [image: Twitter]
>>> <http://twitter.com/#!/cablefreeltd>;
>>>
>>> CAUTION - This message is confidential and may contain privileged
>>> information intended only for the use of the addressee named above. If you
>>> are not the intended recipient of this message you are hereby notified that
>>> any use, dissemination, distribution or reproduction of this message is
>>> prohibited. If you have received this message in error please notify
>>> Wireless Excellence immediately. Any views expressed in this message are
>>> those of the individual sender and may not necessarily reflect the views of
>>> Wireless Excellence Ltd.
>>>
>>
>
> --
>
> *Stephen Patrick*
>
> *Director*
> <http://www.cablefree.net/>;
>
> Wireless Excellence Limited
> The Oxford Science Park
> G6, Magdalen Centre, Robert Robinson Avenue
> Oxford OX4 4GA -  United Kingdom
>
> Tel:       +44 (0) 870 4959169     Mob: +44 (0)7802 425581
> Email:   stephen@cablefree.net  Skype:  stephenjpatrick       Google:
> cablefree.stephen
>
> [image: Facebook] <https://www.facebook.com/cablefree>;   [image: Linkedin]
> <http://www.linkedin.com/company/wireless-excellence>;   [image: RSS]
> <http://www.cablefree.co.uk/blog>;   [image: Youtube]
> <https://www.youtube.com/user/cablefreenet>;   [image: Flickr]
> <http://www.flickr.com/photos/cablefree>;   [image: Twitter]
> <http://twitter.com/#!/cablefreeltd>;
>
> CAUTION - This message is confidential and may contain privileged
> information intended only for the use of the addressee named above. If you
> are not the intended recipient of this message you are hereby notified that
> any use, dissemination, distribution or reproduction of this message is
> prohibited. If you have received this message in error please notify
> Wireless Excellence immediately. Any views expressed in this message are
> those of the individual sender and may not necessarily reflect the views of
> Wireless Excellence Ltd.
>



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?CAJ-Vmo=KLJ5Xsaoi52EYMpMYNqx7=QDjSOdgfvoZYvvJDHwE-w>