WDS speed issues revisited

Dave dave at cc0.net
Tue Apr 8 22:23:52 EDT 2003


Still working on WDS/Repeater speed issues.

I physically set two hostap boxes on my workbench about 5 feet apart,
installed two brand new radios, rebuilt hostap from the latest release and
installed/configured...no luck on a successful, stable 11Mbps WDS link.

When in Ad-Hoc mode I can move 11Mbps between the boxes both ways no
problem. When in Repeater/WDS mode I sometimes get 11Mbps one way and 2Mbps
the other way and sometimes vice versa, but never (other than the first day
new release came out) can I get 11Mbps both ways....don't know what the deal
was with that but it had me happy for about 6 hours...;)

Both cards are identical make/model (Senao 200mW), Kernel is 2.4.20,
Wireless Tools version 26 and using WE16.

I think I understand correctly that in modes not Repeater mode (Ad-Hoc,
Master, Managed), beacons are included which provide signal details and
speed details to the other side of a link. I think I also understand that in
Repeater mode these beacons are not present which would prevent correctly
adjusting TX rates based on conditions....is this correct?

So if these beacons are not present in WDS/Repeater mode...why would the TX
rate of a certain side of the link change to anything but the initially
configured rate? What causes the TX rate to change if not the beacon stats?

I even dug into the driver code a little bit trying to hack a fix...but no
luck....I was looking into the new add_sta functions....

And now I see Jouni hard at work with some new WDS fixes a few minutes
ago...;)

Off to try CVS now...


-Dave




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