Re: WiFi on NetBSD

[Andrew Ball <asbatwrk%gmail.com@localhost>]

Hello Michael,

  MvE> This is, mostly, not just a matter of drivers, as part of the
     > functionality is in generic device-independent code.  Updating
     > that part is work in progress and unfortunately also requires
     > to rework all existing wifi drivers, which is the main reason
     > why it wasn't done for a long time.

Ah, I can see why that might take a good while.

  MvE> There is one exception, there are wifi interfaces that handle
     > even higher protocol details themselves in firmware.  The Wifi
     > interfaces that come with some Raspberry Pi models are of this
     > sort.

Perhaps those will become more common over time.

  MvE> E.g. this is a RPI4 connecting to a 802.11ac network:
     >
     > bwfm0: flags=0x8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
     > ssid XXXXXXXX nwkey *****
     > powersave off
     > bssid xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx chan 36
     > address: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
     > media: IEEE802.11 autoselect (VHT mode 11ac)
     > status: active

    That's great!  I wonder whether those are available as plug-in
network interfaces for other platforms.

  MvE> Doesn't mean the interface is really fast then.  The hardware
     > supports only a single stream, and our SDIO driver adds
     > overhead.
     >
     > iperf3 reports about 40-50Mbit/s receiving and 20-30Mbit/s
     > sending.  Linux on the same hardware gets 80-90Mbit/s receiving
     > and 60-70Mbit/s sending.
     >
     > Still better than with 802.11g.

    Have you tested on an 802.11a network?  I wonder whether that
involves less overhead for the "higher protocol details" you
mentioned.  I hadn't realised that the WiFi chip on a 4B was connected
via SDIO.  That's interesting.

Thanks,
  -Andy Ball