1.\" $NetBSD: athn.4,v 1.7 2014/05/06 07:29:30 martin Exp $ 2.\" $OpenBSD: athn.4,v 1.21 2012/09/17 11:04:24 sthen Exp $ 3.\" 4.\" Copyright (c) 2009 Damien Bergamini <damien.bergamini@free.fr>. 5.\" 6.\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any 7.\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above 8.\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies. 9.\" 10.\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES 11.\" WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF 12.\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR 13.\" ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES 14.\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN 15.\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF 16.\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE. 17.\" 18.Dd July 31, 2013 19.Dt ATHN 4 20.Os 21.Sh NAME 22.Nm athn 23.Nd Atheros IEEE 802.11a/g/n wireless network device 24.Sh SYNOPSIS 25.Cd "athn* at cardbus?" 26.Cd "athn* at pci?" 27.Cd "athn* at uhub? port ?" 28.Sh DESCRIPTION 29The 30.Nm 31driver provides support for a wide variety of 32Atheros 802.11n devices, ranging from the AR5008 up to the AR9287. 33.Pp 34The AR5008 (codenamed Owl) is the first generation of 35Atheros 802.11n solutions. 36It consists of two chips, a MAC/Baseband Processor and a Radio-on-a-Chip. 37The MAC/Baseband Processor can be an AR5416 (PCI and CardBus form factors) 38or an AR5418 (PCIe Mini Card form factor). 39The radio can be an AR2122, AR2133, AR5122 or an AR5133 chip. 40The AR2122 chip operates in the 2GHz spectrum and supports up to 2 41transmit paths and 2 receiver paths (2T2R). 42The AR2133 chip operates in the 2GHz spectrum and supports up to 3 43transmit paths and 3 receiver paths (3T3R). 44The AR5122 chip operates in the 2GHz and 5GHz spectra and supports 45up to 2 transmit paths and 2 receiver paths (2T2R). 46The AR5133 chip operates in the 2GHz and 5GHz spectra and supports 47up to 3 transmit paths and 3 receiver paths (3T3R). 48.Pp 49The AR9001 (codenamed Sowl) is a Mini-PCI 802.11n solution. 50It consists of two chips, an AR9160 MAC/Baseband Processor and an 51AR9103 or AR9106 Radio-on-a-Chip. 52The AR9103 chip operates in the 2GHz spectrum and supports up to 3 53transmit paths and 3 receiver paths (3T3R). 54The AR9106 chip operates in the 2GHz and 5GHz spectra and supports 55up to 3 transmit paths and 3 receiver paths (3T3R). 56.Pp 57The AR9220, AR9223 and AR9280 (codenamed Merlin) are the 58first generation of 59Atheros single-chip 802.11n solutions. 60The AR9220 and AR9223 exist in PCI and Mini-PCI form factors. 61The AR9280 exists in PCIe Mini Card (XB92), half Mini Card (HB92) 62and USB 2.0 (AR9280+AR7010) form factors. 63The AR9220 and AR9280 operate in the 2GHz and 5GHz spectra and 64support 2 transmit paths and 2 receiver paths (2T2R). 65The AR9223 operates in the 2GHz spectrum and supports 2 66transmit paths and 2 receiver paths (2T2R). 67.Pp 68The AR9281 is a single-chip PCIe 802.11n solution. 69It exists in PCIe Mini Card (XB91) and half Mini Card (HB91) form 70factors. 71It operates in the 2GHz spectrum and supports 1 transmit path and 722 receiver paths (1T2R). 73.Pp 74The AR9285 (codenamed Kite) is a single-chip PCIe 802.11n solution that 75targets the value PC market. 76It exists in PCIe half Mini Card (HB95) form factor only. 77It operates in the 2GHz spectrum and supports a single stream (1T1R). 78It can be combined with the AR3011 chip to form a combo WiFi/Bluetooth 79device (WB195). 80.Pp 81The AR9271 is a single-chip USB 2.0 802.11n solution. 82It operates in the 2GHz spectrum and supports a single stream (1T1R). 83.Pp 84The AR2427 is a single-chip PCIe 802.11b/g solution similar to the other 85AR9280 solutions but with 802.11n capabilities removed. 86It exists in PCIe Mini Card form factor only. 87It operates in the 2GHz spectrum. 88.Pp 89The AR9227 and AR9287 are single-chip 802.11n solutions that 90target mid-tier PCs. 91The AR9227 exists in PCI and Mini-PCI form factors. 92The AR9287 exists in PCIe half Mini Card (HB97) 93and USB 2.0 (AR9287+AR7010) form factors. 94They operate in the 2GHz spectrum and support 2 transmit paths and 2 95receiver paths (2T2R). 96.Pp 97The following table summarizes the supported chips and their capabilities. 98.Bl -column "AR9001-3NX2 (AR9160+AR9106)" "2GHz/5GHz" "3x3:3" "PCI/CardBus" -offset 6n 99.It Em Chipset Ta Em Spectrum Ta Em TxR:S Ta Em Bus 100.It "AR5008-2NG (AR5416+AR2122)" Ta 2GHz Ta 2x2:2 Ta PCI/CardBus 101.It "AR5008-3NG (AR5416+AR2133)" Ta 2GHz Ta 3x3:2 Ta PCI/CardBus 102.It "AR5008-2NX (AR5416+AR5122)" Ta 2GHz/5GHz Ta 2x2:2 Ta PCI/CardBus 103.It "AR5008-3NX (AR5416+AR5133)" Ta 2GHz/5GHz Ta 3x3:2 Ta PCI/CardBus 104.It "AR5008E-2NG (AR5418+AR2122)" Ta 2GHz Ta 2x2:2 Ta PCIe 105.It "AR5008E-3NG (AR5418+AR2133)" Ta 2GHz Ta 3x3:2 Ta PCIe 106.It "AR5008E-2NX (AR5418+AR5122)" Ta 2GHz/5GHz Ta 2x2:2 Ta PCIe 107.It "AR5008E-3NX (AR5418+AR5133)" Ta 2GHz/5GHz Ta 3x3:2 Ta PCIe 108.It "AR9001-2NG (AR9160+AR9103)" Ta 2GHz Ta 2x2:2 Ta PCI 109.It "AR9001-3NG (AR9160+AR9103)" Ta 2GHz Ta 3x3:2 Ta PCI 110.It "AR9001-3NX2 (AR9160+AR9106)" Ta 2GHz/5GHz Ta 3x3:2 Ta PCI 111.It "AR9220" Ta 2GHz/5GHz Ta 2x2:2 Ta PCI 112.It "AR9223" Ta 2GHz Ta 2x2:2 Ta PCI 113.It "AR9280" Ta 2GHz/5GHz Ta 2x2:2 Ta PCIe 114.It "AR9280+AR7010" Ta 2GHz/5GHz Ta 2x2:2 Ta USB 2.0 115.It "AR9281" Ta 2GHz Ta 1x2:2 Ta PCIe 116.It "AR9285" Ta 2GHz Ta 1x1:1 Ta PCIe 117.It "AR9271" Ta 2GHz Ta 1x1:1 Ta USB 2.0 118.It "AR2427" Ta 2GHz Ta 1x1:1 Ta PCIe 119.It "AR9227" Ta 2GHz Ta 2x2:2 Ta PCI 120.It "AR9287" Ta 2GHz Ta 2x2:2 Ta PCIe 121.It "AR9287+AR7010" Ta 2GHz Ta 2x2:2 Ta USB 2.0 122.El 123.Pp 124These are the modes the 125.Nm 126driver can operate in: 127.Bl -tag -width "IBSS-masterXX" 128.It BSS mode 129Also known as 130.Em infrastructure 131mode, this is used when associating with an access point, through 132which all traffic passes. 133This mode is the default. 134.It Host AP 135In this mode the driver acts as an access point (base station) 136for other cards. 137.It monitor mode 138In this mode the driver is able to receive packets without 139associating with an access point. 140This disables the internal receive filter and enables the card to 141capture packets from networks which it wouldn't normally have access to, 142or to scan for access points. 143.El 144.Pp 145The 146.Nm 147driver can be configured to use 148Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) or 149Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK). 150WPA is the de facto encryption standard for wireless networks. 151It is strongly recommended that WEP 152not be used as the sole mechanism 153to secure wireless communication, 154due to serious weaknesses in it. 155The 156.Nm 157driver relies on the software 802.11 stack for both encryption and decryption 158of data frames. 159.\" driver offloads encryption and decryption to the hardware for the WEP40, 160.\" WEP104, TKIP(+MIC) and CCMP ciphers. 161.Pp 162The transmit speed is user-selectable or can be adapted automatically by the 163driver depending on the number of hardware transmission retries. 164.Sh FILES 165For USB devices, the driver needs at least version 1.1 of the following 166firmware files, which are loaded when an interface is attached: 167.Pp 168.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact 169.It /libdata/firmware/athn-ar7010 170.It /libdata/firmware/athn-ar7010-11 171.It /libdata/firmware/athn-ar9271 172.El 173.\".Pp 174.\"A prepackaged version of the firmware can be installed using 175.\".Xr fw_update 1 . 176.Sh EXAMPLES 177The following 178.Xr ifconfig.if 5 179example configures athn0 to join whatever network is available on boot, 180using WEP key 181.Dq 0x1deadbeef1 , 182channel 11, obtaining an IP address using DHCP: 183.Bd -literal -offset indent 184dhcp NONE NONE NONE nwkey 0x1deadbeef1 chan 11 185.Ed 186.Pp 187The following 188.Xr ifconfig.if 5 189example creates a host-based access point on boot: 190.Bd -literal -offset indent 191inet 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0 NONE media autoselect \e 192 mediaopt hostap nwid my_net chan 11 193.Ed 194.Pp 195Join an existing BSS network, 196.Dq my_net : 197.Bd -literal -offset indent 198# ifconfig athn0 192.168.1.1 netmask 0xffffff00 nwid my_net 199.Ed 200.Sh DIAGNOSTICS 201.Bl -diag 202.It "athn%d: device timeout" 203A frame dispatched to the hardware for transmission did not complete in time. 204The driver will reset the hardware. 205This should not happen. 206.It "athn%d: radio is disabled by hardware switch" 207The radio transmitter is off and thus no packet can go out. 208The driver will reset the hardware. 209Make sure the laptop radio switch is on. 210.It "athn%d: radio switch turned off" 211The radio switch has been turned off while the interface was up and running. 212The driver will turn the interface down. 213.It "athn%d: error %d, could not read firmware %s" 214For some reason, the driver was unable to read the firmware file from the 215filesystem. 216The file might be missing or corrupted. 217.El 218.Sh SEE ALSO 219.Xr arp 4 , 220.Xr cardbus 4 , 221.Xr ifmedia 4 , 222.Xr intro 4 , 223.Xr netintro 4 , 224.Xr pci 4 , 225.Xr usb 4 , 226.Xr ifconfig.if 5 , 227.Xr ifconfig 8 228.Sh HISTORY 229The 230.Nm 231driver first appeared in 232.Ox 4.7 . 233Support for USB 2.0 devices first appeared in 234.Ox 4.9 . 235It was later ported to 236.Nx 7.0 . 237.Sh AUTHORS 238The 239.Nm 240driver was written by 241.An Damien Bergamini Aq Mt damien@openbsd.org 242based on source code licensed under the ISC released in 2008 by 243Atheros Communications for Linux. 244.Sh CAVEATS 245The 246.Nm 247driver does not support any of the 802.11n capabilities offered by 248the adapters. 249Additional work is required in 250.Xr ieee80211 9 251before those features can be supported. 252