On Thu, Mar 05, 2015 at 11:05:26AM -0700, T. Jameson Little wrote: > I honestly just want 5GHz to work at minimum speeds in AP mode on a usb > wireless dongle. I run into interference on 2.4GHz because it's far too > common. I imagine that once this works, adding additional modulation > and coding schemes would be much easier.
And 11a is really not good enough for now? > Since USB 2.0 has a maximum throughput of 480Mbit/s, anything higher > than 300Mbit/s is not particularly important, and many consumer devices > only support 150Mbit/s anyway. 72Mbit/s is completely fine for an > initial implementation. Yes, it would be a good first step forward. > Well, I'm much more capable of fixing existing drivers to make it work > well than building something from scratch, and I imagine the same is > true for many developers, because you work on whatever affects you. FreeBSD and Linux wireless drivers could serve as source of inspiration, and given licence compatibility perhaps even some code. > So, last question, where exactly does 11n support sit in the list of > features to be added to OpenBSD? Well, it is a huge project no matter which way you look at it. Huge projects need a different kind of commitment than small ones. It's all about someone able to do the work making that commmitment. Most active OpenBSD wireless hackers (which you can count on one hand) are working on this in their spare time and are also busy with other important parts of the code base. They work on it for their own personal needs (as was the case with e.g. iwm(4) found in several machines used by developers) or because it's a fun learning experience (at least in my case). I started making small improvements to net80211 in 2012 to fix stability issues with my home AP. Since then I've been focusing on improving support for new wifi devices or existing drivers in a/b/g mode because that kind of work can be done in small chunks on weekends. Nobody cares if I drop it for a while and pick it up again later. At a given time I have about 3 to 4 driver projects to work on and nobody demands more of my time than I can give, ignoring the occasional nagging request for this or that wifi device I get in private mail, mostly from users with unsupported built-in cards who are somehow unable or unwilling to obtain a supported device. I can ignore them with no consequences. Every release has since seen small incremental improvements in wifi drivers, but no revolutionary changes. I believe the dynamics and drain on my (or anyone's) time would be a very different if the goal was 11n. Shipping a new and popular feature like 11n in a half-broken state for release is obviously not acceptable. There would also be fairly wide disappointment if it gets delayed (relative to a single driver that stays in a broken state it has always been in). I cannot afford to let that interfere with my dayjob, and my sanity. I also have other hobbies and a girlfriend and family to spend time with. This is my personal take on it. I don't speak for others or the project as a whole. > I understand that there are many worthy projects that require ongoing > work (e.g. LibreSSL, OpenNTPD, OpenSSH, etc), and I also understand > that many people don't need 11n support. If 11n really isn't a > priority, then I'll probably use FreeBSD as my AP until it becomes a > larger priority (I'd really prefer OpenBSD, but I can still use it as > a router). I'm moving my home network to 5GHz only because of > interference issues, and I may do the same soon at work if it works > out well. Of course, if you really need 11n now, FreeBSD is an option. Note that their wireless developers work (or used to work?) for Atheros. That makes a crucial difference. And Linux has in-house developers writing drivers at every major wifi vendor by now. So no surprise you have 11n there.
