wiki:802.11/Changelog

802.11 Reference Design: Changelog

1.8 Releases

Download Latest: Mango_802.11_RefDes_v1.8.0.zip

Release Details:

Hardware Release Date Posted SVN Rev. ISE Ver. Arch
WARP v3 1.8.0 21-May-2019 6322 14.4 Dual MB/AXI

Changes in v1.8.0:

PHY and MAC Hardware Changes:

  • Added a software interrupt core that allows code to assert bits in a register to force interrupt events. Code uses this code to handle non-empty queues in the Ethernet portal and wlan_exp

MAC Software Changes:

  • Formalized "peripherals" which act as modules that may be used across multiple platforms if those platforms support the particular hardware they describe.
    • "wlan_axi_ethernet_intr" is a new peripheral that handles all Ethernet actions on the WARP v3 platform. It is used for both wired-wireless portal behaviors as well as wlan_exp communication with a host computer.
    • Other new peripherals include "axi_intc" and "axi_timer"
  • Ethernet changes:
    • Transmissions are no longer blocking. Buffer descriptors are cleaned up on demand when new transmissions are started.
  • Major rewrite of wlan_exp code
    • Significantly cleaner and easier to understand
    • Fixed several race conditions that could have manifested in unexpected bytes in Ethernet payloads
    • Previously, AXI Ethernet behaviors were hardcoded deep in the IP/UDP library. This has been turned inside out so that the IP/UDP library consumes receptions that start with the "wlan_axi_ethernet_intr" peripheral. This creates platform independence for wlan_exp.
    • Ethernet receptions now occur in an interrupt context since they use the same "wlan_axi_ethernet_intr" peripheral as the wired-wireless portal. To keep the impact on wireless behaviors to a minimum, wlan_exp command processing is deferred until a non-interrupt context via a new queue of commands.
    • Better formalized over-the-wire formats with wlan_exp host. Code is now explicit about response packets that contain 32-bit network-ordered words vs. host-ordered arbitrarily-aligned structs and log data
  • Queueing has been significantly generalized and is no longer only meant for outgoing wireless transmissions:
    • Ethernet portal Tx and Rx now have their own queues managed by the MAC High Framework
    • wlan_exp Tx and Rx have their own queues managed by the MAC High Framework
    • Per-station Tx queues no longer rely on an arbitrary AID to QID mapping. Each station is dynamically given a queue when it joins a network.
  • Fixed a bug in all high application projects where the unicast management queue was not being purged.

Python changes:

  • Added support to specify arbitrary MTU for Ethernet interface; jumbo (9014) and non-jumbo (1514) are the defaults
  • Renamed many node methods and arguments to improve overall clarity
  • Restructured over-the-wire messages for Node Info, Station Info, Network Info, now based on well-specified InfoStruct definitions
  • Re-implemented retrieval of Tx/Rx counts to extract counts from the Station Info structs returned by the node (same API, much cleaner code)

1.7 Releases

Download Latest: Mango_802.11_RefDes_v1.7.8.zip

Release Details:

Hardware Release Date Posted SVN Rev. ISE Ver. Arch
WARP v3 1.7.8 30-Nov-2018 6308 14.4 Dual MB/AXI
WARP v3 1.7.7 15-May-2018 6293 14.4 Dual MB/AXI
WARP v3 1.7.6 27-Apr-2018 6291 14.4 Dual MB/AXI
WARP v3 1.7.5 18-Jan-2018 6229 14.4 Dual MB/AXI
WARP v3 1.7.4 6-Dec-2017 6207 14.4 Dual MB/AXI
WARP v3 1.7.2 6-Sep-2017 6147 14.4 Dual MB/AXI
WARP v3 1.7.1 18-Jul-2017 6141 14.4 Dual MB/AXI
WARP v3 1.7.0 16-Jun-2017 6110 14.4 Dual MB/AXI

Changes in v1.7.8:

  • Redesigned Ethernet reception / encapsulation / enqueue to preserve original Ethernet frame until actual wireless transmission
  • Added per-boot seed of software PRNG, derived from node serial number and LSBs of FPGA die temperature
  • Updated STA Ethernet encapsulation for DHCP packets to replace wired address with wireless address
  • Added support for sending CTS and ACK packets via the LTG framework
  • Re-enabled default RXHP mode (RXHP now asserts at AGC reset, de-asserts at AGC start, same as <=v1.7.2 behavior)
  • Added new sw_intr_util core to support software-generated interrupts (currently unused; will be used by MAC software in future version)
  • Updated entry_types.py to not use np.fromiter(), working around change (bug?) in new numpy releases that broke parsing of raw log data
  • Fixed bug which duplicated log entries for RTS transmissions (thanks to forum poster for the bug report)
  • Fixed bug in AP's Rx-to-Tx handling for QOSDATA packets (thanks to forum poster for the bug report)

Changes in v1.7.7:

This release fixes a bug in the C code which prevented logging of transmitted DATA packets when RTS/CTS was enabled (thanks for our forum user for finding the bug).


Changes in v1.7.6:

PHY and MAC Hardware Changes:

  • Added separate register bits to reset TX_ACTIVE and RX_ACTIVE latches in the MAC core
  • Fixed RSSI/rx_gain capture logic to work on all Rx events, whether triggered by auto-correlation pkt det or not
  • Added AGC_DONE bit to Rx PHY STATUS register to capture whether a given reception used AGC
  • Prevented the AGC from running on an LTF-only OFDM detection
  • Connected DSSS_RX_RUNNING to Rx PHY's CCA.BUSY output, so MAC correctly de-asserts IDLE when DSSS receptions (with or without auto-correlation pkt det) start
  • Improved robustness of RX_END and DATA_DONE assertions when Rx PHY is reset mid-reception
  • Improved logic which handles OFDM or DSSS disable during a reception

MAC Software Changes:

  • Re-calibrated MAC IFS to better adhere to the standard and improved the definitions with clearer hardware-specific calibration values
  • Fixed a narrow race condition that can happen at boot in a very active medium
  • Added better comments surrounding the LTG framework to allow users to directly work with LTGs without having to use wlan_exp
  • Fixed a bug in the DCF where a final retransmission's TX_LOW event was not properly logged
  • Renamed wlan_exp_ip_udp.c and fixed a loop iteration error
  • Fixed uninitialized variable error in wlan_exp_node.c

Python changes:

  • Renamed several files to be more clear
  • Removed several a couple of helper methods for adding time values to wlan_exp command arguments

Changes in v1.7.5:

This release includes updated Rx sensitivity characterization results for the OFDM and DSSS receivers. All PHY modes exceed the sensitivity requirements of the 802.11 spec.

PHY and MAC Hardware Changes:

  • Added support for OFDM and DSSS receptions without packet detection. At low SNR the receivers don't require AGC, so there's no need for packet detection before the PHY reception. The OFDM Rx starts on an LTF correlation event; the DSSS Rx starts on a SYNC field detection. If packet detection fires the AGC will be triggered, but this is no longer required before a PHY Rx event.

Python changes:

  • Added require_pkt_det arguments to n.configure_ofdm_pkt_det() and n.configure_dsss_pkt_det() methods to configure whether the Rx PHYs attempt receptions without explicit packet detection.

Changes in v1.7.4:

PHY and MAC Hardware Changes:

  • Redesigned DSSS receiver in Rx PHY core
    • Much more robust detection and decoding of packets at mid and low SNRs
    • Added support for 2Mb (DQPSK) DSSS waveforms; RX_DSSS log entries now encode rate in MCS field (MCS=0 for 1Mbps, MCS=1 for 2Mbps)
    • Dropped support for 802.11-2016 Clause 15 waveforms (i.e. DSSS before 802.11b); all Wi-Fi devices we tested use supported Clause 16 (11b) waveforms
  • Redesigned Rx packet detector logic
    • Separated magnitude calculations for DSSS and OFDM detectors
    • Refined data types for correlation and energy thresholds for better configuration range across SNRs
  • Added registers to independently disable OFDM and DSSS receive pipelines, controlled via n.enable_ofdm_rx(bool) and n.enable_dsss(bool) wlan_exp methods
  • Updated delays through and around AGC DCO filter to fix sample-skipping during AGC settling
  • Added optional AGC mode (disabled by default) to leave RXHP disabled after a reception, re-enabled at pkt detection; default is to re-assert RXHP at RX_END
  • Added inputs to MAC core
    • FORCE_CCA_BUSY: holds CCA busy independent of other MAC state
    • START_POSTRX_TIMER1: starts the PostRx Timer 1, useful to time a SIFS when RX_END is inferred from logic other than the Rx PHY
    • AUX_MAC_HW_STATUS: inputs routed to MAC STATUS register, useful for polling non-MAC status signals in lockstep with other MAC state

Python changes:

  • Refined type checking in many functions to be less arbitrary in requiring specific types
  • Added n.disable_ofdm_rx() method to control whether the OFDM Rx pipeline is enabled
  • Added n.configure_ofdm_pkt_det() and n.configure_dsss_pkt_det() methods to configure Rx packet detection thresholds
  • Added warnings when a node's active scan state machine is running when Python changes the node's channel or association state

C code changes:

  • Updated defaults in wlan_phy_init() for redesigned DSSS Rx PHY and OFDM/DSSS packet detector params
  • Fixed bug in argument handling in IPC message for setting Tx power
  • Updated wlan_exp_ip_udp header struct definitions to properly describe 2-byte padding in transport header, not 2-byte delimiter in IP/UDP header

Changes in v1.7.2:

Release v1.7.2 contains two important software-only fixes to bugs discovered in the previous release:

  • After a transmit packet buffer was used to send an HTMF waveform, the packet buffer would degrade all future NONHT transmissions by corrupting protected bits in the PHY header's SERVICE field. This issue has been fixed in this release.
  • An indexing error caused the MORE_DATA bit in the MAC header's frame control 2 byte to always be asserted. This issue has been fixed in this release.

Changes in v1.7.1:

Release v1.7.1 is a minor update to fix a few bugs:

  • Fixed RTS/CTS handshake when using HTMF (11n) waveforms. Thanks to wckim on the forums for notifying us of the issue.
  • Updated Tx power for RTS transmissions to use same Tx power as other control packets (CTS, ACK)
  • Re-enabled physical carrier sensing by default
  • Fixed how the min_dur (minimum duration) parameter is handled by the autocorrelation packet detector. The min_dur value is now properly interpreted as sample periods (not clock cycles), restoring the packet detectors false-positive performance at mid-to-low SNR

Changes in v1.7.0:

Release v1.7 of the 802.11 Reference Design reflects months of "under the hood" improvements to the C code. These improvements include many new features (described below). Equally important, this work lays the foundation for many new extensions that are planned for the near future.

Code Organization:
The v1.7 code base has been reorganized to better isolate platform-agnostic (framework) and platform-dependent (platform) code. The code base now consists of:

  • MAC Frameworks - platform-agnostic code:
    • wlan_mac_high_framework: code common to all MAC applications in CPU High, includes Tx queues, BSS network state maintenance, associated station tracking, and wlan_exp frameworks
    • wlan_mac_common_framework: code common to MAC applications in both CPUs, including inter-processor communication via the mailbox/mutex and Tx/Rx packet buffer state maintenance
    • wlan_mac_low_framework: code common to MAC applications in CPU Low, including MAC/PHY hardware control
  • WARP v3 Platform Code:
    • wlan_w3_high: peripheral interface support for CPU High applications, including ETH A and B, DRAM, and UART
    • wlan_w3_common: peripheral interface support shared by applications in both CPUs, including user I/O and MAC Time
    • wlan_w3_low: peripheral interface support for CPU Low applications, including MAC/PHY register maps, EEPROM, and RF interfaces
  • MAC Applications:
    • wlan_mac_high_ap, wlan_mac_high_sta, wlan_mac_high_ibss: AP, STA and IBSS applications for CPU High
    • wlan_mac_low_dcf and wlan_mac_low_nomac: DCF and NoMAC applications for CPU Low

A CPU High application must use the high and common framework and platform code. A CPU Low application must use the low and common framework and platform code.

The SDK Workspace in the reference design archive reflects this new organization and includes references to all required platform/framework code for each of the MAC application projects.

Other high level code improvements:

  • Removed (nearly) all cases of header files including other headers, greatly simplifying include hierarchy and reducing chances of unintentional and circular includes
  • Removed any library dependencies in the BSPs
    • Migrated wlan_exp_ip_udp library into MAC High Framework source; library no longer required via BSP
    • Deprecated WARP_HW_VER library
  • Moved linker scripts from application source folders to high/low platform source folders; applications for same CPU now share a single linker script.
  • Removed dead code throughout design
  • Adopted tagged struct typedefs and forward declarations of struct types throughout to reduce complexity of include hierarchies
  • Simplified struct type definitions for almost-identical structs between MAC framework and wlan_exp

Improvements to station_info framework:
The MAC High Framework uses a data structure called station_info_t to track information about devices in the wireless network. The station_info structure has been greatly improved in v1.7.

The framework now maintains a flat list of station_info instances, with one station_info for every MAC address from which the nodes receives a packet or to which it transmits a packet. This list of station_info structs includes all associated stations and all devices from which the nodes "overhears" receptions. The AP uses a subset of the station_info list as its member_list, reflecting which stations are members of the AP's BSS. The full station_info list (including the Tx/Rx counts for each device) can be retrieved with the wlan_exp method node.get_station_info_list().

Other station_info changes:

  • Added creation of station_info entries for multicast MAC addresses. As a result wlan_exp can now observe how many packets have been transmitted to the broadcast address (not possible in previous releases).
  • Added num_queued_packets field to station_info struct to assist MAC framework and applications in tracking which station_info entries are safe to remove when the list gets too long.
  • Moved maintenance of default Tx parameters (power, rate, PHY mode, antenna selection) to the MAC framework. The MAC application can modify and re-apply the framework's default Tx params for each combination of (unicast/multicast) and (data/management). The framework uses the default Tx param structs when creating new station_info entries. The MAC application can also modify the Tx params for each station_info independently. These modifications will be preserved even if the device represented by a station_info changes association state. For example, the framework will remember MCS selection for a node that associates, de-associations, then re-associates. Per-station Tx params can be manipulated by MAC C code and from wlan_exp.
  • Updated wlan_exp methods for manipulating default and per-station Tx params (listed below). The device_list argument selects which station_info entries to modify. The new update_default_ flags inform C code whether to overwrite the framework's default Tx params. These arguments replace the old curr_assoc and new_assoc arguments in previous releases.
    • set_tx_power_data(power, device_list, update_default_unicast, update_default_multicast)
    • set_tx_power_mgmt(power, device_list, update_default_unicast, update_default_multicast)

Other Code Changes:

  • Simplified the definition of entries in the Tx queues. Previous releases kept a full tx_frame_info_t in each queue entry, implying each queue entry was a full packet. As of v1.7 each queue entry is a logical payload which can be used to construct a packet at dequeue time, and the tx_frame_info for each packet is created in the Tx packet buffer at dequeue time.
  • Extended the definition of the doubly-linked list entry (dl_entry) for the station_info list to include the station's MAC address in BRAM, greatly speeding up searches for a given MAC address in the list
  • Redesigned the InfoStruct class in info.py to support hierarchical field sets shared by multiple structs
  • Deprecated bss_info_t, formalized network_info_t vs bss_config_t. A network_info includes a bss_config plus other information learned about the network from wireless activity. The updated wlan_exp methods are:
    • n.get_bss_config(): retrieves the BSS configuration of the node
    • n.get_network_info(): retrieves information about the node's current wireless network, including its BSS configuration
    • n.get_network_info_list(): retrieves information about all wireless networks the node has observed
    • n.get_bss_info(): Deprecated - use methods above instead
  • Removed unnecessary callback for handling mailbox IPC receptions in High Framework
  • Improved clarity of AP's UART prints when stations change association state
  • Moved all updates of user IO outputs (LEDs, hex displays) to central wlan_platform_userio_disp_status() functions in high/low platform code
  • Enabled wrapping of the wlan_exp event log by default; wrapping can still be enabled/disabled from C or Python
  • Merged RX_OFDM log entry fields u8 bb_gain and u8 rf_gain into single u8 rx_gain_index field (rf_gain is 2 MSB, bb_gain is 5 LSB)

Linker Script Change:
The linker script for CPU High has been updated to use a single 256kB memory area for the ILMB/DLMB. In hardware this 256kB area is implemented as two 128kB blocks. Due to an unfortunate limitation of the XPS->SDK flow it is now necessary to modify the system.bmm file written by XPS before using the hardware design in the SDK.

The system.bmm file in the reference design archive's SDK workspace is already modified and ready to use. If you modify the hardware design in XPS and re-export to the SDK you must manually edit system.bmm. Refer to the user guide for details.

Hardware Design Changes

  • CFO estimate value is now explicitly reset between Rx events, so the CFO correction DDS always starts at phase=0 for each Rx. This change won't affect performance but does improve reproducibility of hardware vs simulation Rx for a given waveform.
  • Added pipeline registers in Tx PHY packet buffer -> encoder logic, breaking up long combinational path

Bug fixes:

  • Explicitly asserted XIN_SVC_ALL_ISRS_OPTION option for interrupt controller to ensure all asserted interrupt sources are serviced per processor interrupt, not just the highest-priority one (never actually a problem for WARP v3 design given the interrupt priorities and assertion rates in hardware)
  • Rearranged post-Rx/post-Tx processing in DCF to achieve zero-slot Tx following ACK reception, now with ~700nsec slack
  • Seeded PNRG in CPU High with node serial number, avoids race when two IBSS nodes boot simultaneously, scan for existing BSS for "random" duration before creating new BSS
  • Fixed bug in write_phy_preamble() that calculated L-SIG.LENGTH value too large by 3 for some rates/lengths of HTMF transmissions
  • Fixed latest_rx_timestamp and latest_txrx_timestamp to use same System Time value when updating both timestamps from same event
  • Fixed bug when DTIM Multicast Buffering was enabled or disabled while CPU Low was actively transmitting multicast frame. Now CPU Low properly handles reorganization of its Tx lists independent of current Tx activity.
  • Fixed potential deadlock where CPU High might stop dequeuing new Tx packets after CPU Low reboots (such as when re-loading the CPU Low application from the debugger)
  • Fixed potential bogus value for beacon_txrx_config.dtim_period if wlan_exp configures BSS to transmit beacons but doesn't explicitly set DTIM period
  • Fixed missing enforcement of MAX_NUM_ASSOC limit on number of associations at AP; now properly applies to associations created from wlan_exp or via wireless association handshake
  • Fixed bug in accessing TIM bit fields when length of the network's SSID string changes
  • Fixed a few cases of checking for NULL value after accessing pointer variable
  • Fixed a few unlikely-but-possible NULL pointer dereferences
  • Fixed wlan_exp to permit setting DCF minimum contention window exponent to 0 (was previously limited to 1 for no good reason)
  • Fixed missing poll_tx_queues() following reception of a reception from a previously-dozing STA. Should improve performance when communicating with power-savings clients in a lightly-loaded network.

1.6 Releases

Download Latest: Mango_802.11_RefDes_v1.6.2.zip

Release Details:

Hardware Release Date Posted SVN Rev. ISE Ver. Arch
WARP v3 1.6.2 21-Feb-2017 5883 14.4 Dual MB/AXI
WARP v3 1.6.1 15-Feb-2017 5859 14.4 Dual MB/AXI
WARP v3 1.6.0 13-Jan-2017 5743 14.4 Dual MB/AXI

Changes in v1.6.2:

MAC Software Changes:

  • Fixed bug in handling of Tx queue polling that could result in corrupted Aux. BRAM data and bogus transmissions.
  • Fixed bug in the MAC Low Framework that left Rx packet buffers unlocked. This bug had no adverse effects but would have produced errors if the automatically generated XPAR_CPU_ID became nonzero.
  • Fixed calls to sizeof() that passed a pointer rather than a type or array.
  • AP now checks to make sure the underlying MAC supports DTIM multicast buffering before assuming that it does. Previously, using NOMAC to transmit multicast frames from the AP would not work until DTIM multicast buffering was explicitly disabled.
  • Added new optional compiler warnings to each project and fixed the warnings that result from the inclusion of the new flags. From the gcc docs we added:
    • -Wclobbered
    • -Wempty-body
    • -Wmissing-field-initializers
    • -Wmissing-parameter-type
    • -Wold-style-declaration
    • -Woverride-init
    • -Wsign-compare
    • -Wtype-limits
    • -Wuninitialized
    • -Wunused-but-set-parameter
    • -Wformat
    • -Wstrict-aliasing
    • -Wshadow

Changes in v1.6.1:

This release requires an updated edk_user_repository - update your local repository before using the v1.6.1 design.

Hardware Changes:

  • Updated to latest w3_ad_bridge, resolves occasional per-boot issue using RF B
  • Doubled size of CPU Low instruction/data memory (ILMB/DLMB) to 128 kB

MAC Software Changes:

  • Fixed bug that broke multicast Tx when DTIM multicast buffering was disabled
  • Added WLAN_SW_CONFIG_ENABLE_ETH_BRIDGE option to disable all code for Ethernet bridging at compile time
  • Fixed bug in NoMAC that left the low_tx_details.tx_details_type field uninitialized when reporting Tx events to CPU High, leading to occasional bogus RTS log entries
  • Updated lower MAC framework to allow leaving the RX_STARTED latch asserted after the frame_receive() returns, permitting MAC application's to implement Rx processing across multiple functions
  • Updated Rx log entry creation logic in high framework to ignore packet type filter for bad FCS receptions

App Note:

  • Added new FDD-NoMAC app note demonstrating how to build a simple FDD link with the 802.11 Ref Design

Changes in v1.6.0:

PHY Hardware Changes:

  • Re-designed LTS correlation decision logic. New design requires correlation peaks separated by known time (63, 64 or 65 sample periods). This helps reject false positive correlation events at low SNR and for waveforms from multi-antenna devices using CDD for SISO waveforms.
  • Fixed quantization error in demodulator that reduced benefit of soft-decision decoder
  • Better pipelining in critical Rx PHY paths for easier timing closure
  • Expanded to 16 Tx packet buffers, required for DCF implementation of DTIM multicast buffering

MAC Hardware Changes:

  • Added Tx Controller D state machine to handle DTIM multicast transmissions - see MAC core docs for details
  • Removed unused cores and bus connections to simplify XPS hardware design
  • Extended TU Target logic to use full 54-bit TU time values; previous designs used 32-bit TU values which could behave badly when wrapping
  • Updated Tx controllers A, C and D to support pausing FSM state even when current backoff count is 0

MAC Software Changes:

  • Implemented proper DTIM Multicast behavior. The DCF now buffers multicast transmissions until immediately after the transmission of a beacon. This DTIM buffering behavior, described in 802.11-2012 10.2.1.4, permits dozing clients to wake at the right time to receive all buffered multicast frames. The updated behavior should improve performance when using our AP with battery-powered clients.
  • Updated the DCF code to poll the IPC mailbox during Tx and Rx processing, allowing better pipelining of Tx/Rx events. The DCF now maintains a list of ready-to-transmit packets from MPDU_READY messages received from CPU High.
  • Updated beacon timestamp processing to implement the spec's definition of when the timestamp is captured (802.11-2012 10.21.1)
  • Updated handling of Tx Done events in CPU Low and CPU High. Now CPU Low sends a new TX_PHY_REPORT message after each PHY transmission for a given MPDU. After the last transmission CPU Low sends an MPDU_DONE message. This allows an arbitrary number of re-transmissions to be properly logged in CPU High without overflowing the IPC mailbox.
  • Fixed bug in IBSS that treated received Probe Responses like beacons
  • Removed INIT_BRAM instance by:
    • Explicit initialization of all global variables in .data section
    • Programmatic init-to-default of malloc data strutures on boot
  • Renamed usleep() to wlan_usleep()
  • Removed LTG control from UART menu to avoid conflicts with wlan_exp

wlan_exp Changes:

  • Simplified TX_HIGH log entries
  • Fixed errors in configure_bss() when user-supplied params are invalid
  • Fixed bug node.configure_pkt_det_min_power() that mis-interpreted power level
  • Associations created by n_ap.add_association() are now flagged to never time out
  • Devices represented by WlanDevice instances now flagged as HT-capable

1.5 Releases

Download Latest: Mango_802.11_RefDes_v1.5.4.zip

Release Details:

Hardware Release Date Posted SVN Rev. ISE Ver. Arch
WARP v3 1.5.4 3-Nov-2016 see notes 14.4 Dual MB/AXI
WARP v3 1.5.3 19-Aug-2016 5607 14.4 Dual MB/AXI
WARP v3 1.5.2 1-July-2016 5562 14.4 Dual MB/AXI
WARP v3 1.5.1 26-April-2016 5490 14.4 Dual MB/AXI
WARP v3 1.5.0 19-April-2016 5484 14.4 Dual MB/AXI

Changes in v1.5.4:

This is a minor release that (we hope) resolves an issue with the Rx PHY getting stuck when receiving packets with corrupt PHY headers. This release is based on the v1.5.3 project with a few modifications. Unfortunately the code in this release does not represent a single svn revision. The minor changes and related svn changesets are listed below.

PHY / MAC Hardware:

  • Updated Rx PHY RX_END processing to better handle cases of valid-but-incorrect SIGNAL/L-SIG and HT-SIG fields. Many thanks to horace for his invaluable feedback on this bug.

MAC Software Changes:

Python Changes:


Changes in v1.5.3:

Important: The v1.5.3 hardware design uses updated hardware support cores. You must update your edk_user_repository to build the v1.5.3 hardware or software projects.

Release v1.5.3 contains both hardware and software improvements.

PHY / MAC Hardware Changes:

  • None - same PHY and MAC cores as v1.5.2.

MAC Software Changes:

  • Added high framework hooks to enable/disable bridging ETH A with the wireless interface, used by wlan_exp (see below)
  • Fixed time units bug in implementation of Random Schedule LTG (changeset 5564).
  • Fixed bug when Python called enable_DTIM_multicast_buffering() when beacons are already disabled. This sequence caused substantial heap churn in previous releases, eventually crashing the node when the heap couldn't accommodate new allocations elsewhere in the code (changeset 5563).
  • Fixed uninitialized pointer bug in creation of association responses - thanks to kirchhof for the bug report (changeset 5566).
  • Fixed null pointer bugs in upper MAC framework/apps - thanks to kirchhof for the bug reports 1, 2 (changeset 5570).
  • Updated bss_info code to only parse multicast or unicast-to-me management packets. Previous releases updated local bss_info entries using any FCS-good receptions. This change avoids any bogus bss_info data resulting from AP's transmitting special tagged parameters in unicast packets to other nodes (changeset 5575).
  • Fixed logging of phy_mode for control packet transmissions. In v1.5.2 TX_LOW entries for RTS, CTS, ACK packets copied the phy_mode from the related DATA packet, even though the actual RTS/CTS/ACK waveforms were always (correctly) transmitted as NONHT waveforms (changeset 5596).

Experiments Framework Changes:

  • Added C code compilation timestamp strings to NODE_INFO log entry and to node object properties cpu_low_compilation_date, cpu_low_compilation_time, cpu_high_compilation_date, cpu_high_compilation_time. These timestamps use the compiler's __DATE__ and __TIME__ macros in the top-level applications (AP, STA, IBSS, DCF, and NoMAC) and are the same timestamps printed to the UART by each CPU on boot.
  • Added enable_ethernet_portal(bool) node method that controls whether the high-level MAC implements the wired-wireless bridge between the ETH A interface and the wireless interface. It is good practice to disable the Ethernet portal when running LTG-based experiments. This helps avoid issues with unaccounted for Tx/Rx events due to stray Ethernet packets on the wired network. See the updated log_capture_two_node_two_flow.py script for an example.
  • Removed unnecessary np.squeeze() calls from log processing examples, fixes errors when log data contains single entries of a given type (changeset 5597).

Misc Hardware Changes:

  • Reworked the debug header IO using the updated w3_userio core. Now both CPUs can read and write debug pins. Individual pins can be configured as hardware-controlled (for MAC/PHY status signals) or software-contollled (for C code benchmarking). See the updated Debug Header user guide page for details.

Release v1.5.2 contains both hardware and software improvements.

Changes in v1.5.2:

PHY / MAC Hardware Changes:

  • Separated RX_END and DATA_DONE events in Rx PHY and MAC core control logic. Rx PHY can now continue writing payload after RX_END, allowing shorter Rx extension durations. FCS Result now latched on DATA_DONE

MAC Software Changes:

  • Tx/Rx logging and Tx/Rx counts update moved out of the AP/STA/IBSS applications and into the MAC High Framework.
  • Merged counts_txrx_t into the station_info_t structure
  • Moved the location of station_info_t storage from the heap to DRAM. One advantage of advantage of the reduced heap usage is that networks with a larger number of associations can now be supported (though still soft-limited to 10 associations in C for this release).
  • Updated the MAC High Framework's scheduler so that scheduled events can be temporarily suspended without being removed entirely. The Ethernet Rx handling uses this feature to considerably reduce heap "churn." This should improve stability for long experiments where heap fragmentation might be an issue.
  • Fixed a bug in beacon TX_LOW log entries where flags were note being properly set to 0, yielding stale values in logs.
  • Added wlan_mac_high_sw_config.h to control SW configuration. Parts of the design can now be safely compiled out if they are not needed and extra code space is needed.
  • Fixed small (~2 sample periods) per-boot differences in Rx-to-Tx turnaruond times. Now Rx-to-Tx turnaround time is accurate to 1 sample period across boots.
  • Thanks to forum user dvanhook for pointing out a bug in handling unicast probe requests. This has been fixed in the 1.5.2 release
  • dvanhook also found an error in SSID comparisons. This has been fixed in the 1.5.2 release.
  • Forum user vick found a bug in the handling of the "join" state of a STA when controlled via UART. As of 1.5.2, "s" has been added as a UART input to separately control the scan functionality from the join functionality.
  • Adjusted the Rx extension to align our SIFS duration with the SIFS durations measured with other (non-WARP) clients.

Experiments Framework Changes:

  • Enforced minimum of Python version 2.7.5, required for wlan_exp use of struct.unpack. Version 2.7.5 or later has always been required; now wlan_exp throws a helpful error if Python is too old instead of throwing cryptic unpack errors.
  • Added wlan_exp.log.util.calc_tx_time_log(tx_low_entries) method to simplify Tx durations from TX_LOW log data. The actual duration calculation is still implemented in calc_tx_time().

Misc Hardware Changes:

  • Software-controlled pins on debug header now handled by new logic in w3_userio_axi core. Both CPUs use new macros wlan_mac_set_dbg_hdr_out(x) and wlan_mac_set_dbg_hdr_out(x) to control debug header pins 12 to 15. Pins can also be set as inputs with wlan_mac_set_dbg_hdr_dir().

Release v1.5.1 is a software-only update. You can upgrade an existing v1.5.0 SDK Workspace by replacing the SDK_Workspace/svn_src folder with the one from the v1.5.1 archive. The XPS project and SDK Workspace hw_platform project are unchanged from v1.5.0. You must also update your PYTHONPATH to reference the v1.5.1 Python code to use the v1.5.1 wlan_exp package.

Changes from v1.5.0 to v1.5.1:

Known Issues in v1.5.1:

  • The flags field in TX_LOW log entries for Beacon transmissions is incorrect. The CPU Low code should set flags = 0. However in v1.5.1 the code does not set flags, resulting in bogus values in the TX_LOW['flags'] field in the log. The flags field for Beacon TX_LOW entries should be ignored in v1.5.0 and v1.5.1. This will be fixed in v1.5.2.
  • uniq_seq (unique sequence number) values are not being properly recorded in TX_LOW and TX_LOW_LTG log entries. This will be fixed in v1.5.2. To apply the fix to v1.5.1, add the following line to wlan_mac_low.c : wlan_mac_low_proc_pkt_buf():
    // Insert sequence number here
    tx_80211_header->sequence_control = ((tx_80211_header->sequence_control) & 0xF) | ( (unique_seq&0xFFF)<<4 );
    
    /*** START: uniq_seq fix for v1.5.1 - Add these lines ***/
    // Insert unique sequence into tx_frame_info
    tx_frame_info->unique_seq = unique_seq;
    /*** END: uniq_seq fix for v1.5.1 ***/
    


Highlights in Release 1.5:

  • Added 11n Tx/Rx support
  • Overhauled wlan_exp documentation
  • Simplified Network Scan and Network Join state machines
  • Fixed Rx MAC/PHY deadlocks when handing certain corrupted HT waveforms
  • Added porting guide for updating pre-v1.5 wlan_exp scripts

PHY Hardware Changes:

  • Redesigned Tx PHY
    • Much more efficient interleaver
    • Cleaner control logic for triggering new OFDM symbol generation
    • Reworked Tx PHY init script for easier control of simulation params (see tx_sim struct in wlan_phy_tx_init.m
  • Added support for 11n (IEEE 802.11-2012 Clause 20 PHY)
    • Tx and Rx PHY now support the "HT Mixed Format (HTMF)" waveform
    • Supports MCS 0 (6.5 Mbps) through 7 (65 Mbps)
    • Waveform type (11a NONHT or 11n HTMF) controlled per Tx by MAC code
    • Rx PHY automatically detects waveform type per reception
  • Added flexible sampling rate support
    • 10, 20 and 40 MSps modes implemented by default
    • 10 MSps mode implements 802.11p
    • 20 MSps mode is standard 11a/11n 20 MHz channel bandwidth
    • 40 MSps mode is double-clocked-20, 64 subcarriers in 40 MHz
  • Redesigned PHY/MAC RX_START, RX_END, RX_ERROR handling to fix various "stuck" states when receiving corrupt 11n waveforms. Thanks to users horrace and christian for helping debug these states. Apologies to other users who encountered these states in v1.4.
  • Fixed bug in pilot phase tracking that improves PER at high SNR
  • Added register to capture Rx CFO estimate, now logged per packet

MAC Hardware Changes:

  • Added fractional values for TX_START and RX_START microsecond timestamps. Fractional value captures sub-µsec sample index of TX/RX start events and is stored in Tx/Rx log entries.
  • Improved determinism of Rx-to-Tx turnaround timing. Previous releases were well within 802.11 SIFS timing spec. New design is even better, always accurate to 1 sample period.
  • Added Tx Controller C state machine to handle beacon transmissions
  • Removed RX_END latches that blocked Rx PHY. Now there's a single RX_STARTED latch that blocks future receptions. MAC software can clear the RX_STARTED latch anytime (even before the current Rx finishes) to release the Rx PHY for the next reception.

MAC Software Changes:

  • Moved Beacon Tx to DCF code in CPU Low for more reliable intra-retransmit beaconing
    • Change allowed for much improved IBSS beaconing where nodes cancel one another's beacon transmissions
  • Updated Tx packet buffer ping/pong handling to use 3 buffers for better pipelining of pre-Tx and post-Tx processing (see Packet Flow)
  • Formalized handling of Tx and Rx packet buffers at boot for more robust behavior when debugger resets one CPU
  • Redesigned handling of Ethernet receptions to avoid long processing times for Eth Rx burst
  • Improve robustness of scheduler framework in cases where scheduled callback adds/modifies/removes other scheduled events
  • Updated interpretation of DIP switch bit to control at-boot association - see AP, STA, IBSS docs for details
  • Moved maintenance of a node's uniq_seq counter to CPU Low, required to have correct sequence numbers in beacon Tx
  • Added uniq_seq value to TX_LOW entries for ACK packets sent in response to LTG data receptions, simplifies matching Tx and Rx entries for LTG flows
  • Fixed a long-standing race condition during the frame_receive() context of the DCF (see discussion here)

Experiments Framework Changes:

  • Overhauled wlan_exp documentation
  • Simplified methods for configuring BSS state
    • New node.configure_bss() method safely manipulates all BSS state at a node
    • Simplified other BSS state methods (sta.join_network(), node.is_associated(), etc)
  • Simplified methods for setting antenna modes
    • Antenna mode methods now use simple string arguments (i.e. n.set_tx_antenna_mode('RF_A'))
    • New node.set_tx_antenna_mode(ant_mode) helper method to set Tx ant mode for all destinations and packet types
  • Simplified methods for setting Tx rates
    • Tx rate now specified by MCS (0 to 7) and PHY mode (NONHT for 11a, HTMF for 11n)
  • Reduced extraneous UART output for normal wlan_exp operations
  • Renamed TX log entry type to TX_HIGH
  • Defined new container for "magic" constants per log entry type
  • New util.test_bss_membership(node_list) tool to check all nodes agree on their association states

Misc Hardware Changes:

  • Moved w3_iic_eeprom core to shared interconnect, now accessible by both CPUs
  • Updated debug header pins with 4th software-controlled bit, replacing external pkt det input

1.4 Release

Download: Mango_802.11_RefDes_v1.4.0.zip

Release Details:

Hardware Release Date Posted SVN Rev. ISE Ver. Arch
WARP v3 1.4.0 17-Dec-2015 4982 14.4 Dual MB/AXI

PHY/MAC Hardware Changes:

  • Added software-control of resets for MAC core Tx state machines; now possible to terminate a pending Tx without clearing all MAC state
  • Moved microsecond timer to dedicated wlan_mac_time core. New core has two microsecond counters, MAC Time and System Time (see below for details)
  • Added pipeline registers in multiple PHY/AGC nets that are commonly critical timing paths

MAC Software Changes:

  • Moved beacon transmissions in the AP to the fine scheduler. This provides greater flexibility for modifying the beacon interval since the minimum resolution is no longer bound to the coarse scheduler resolution.
  • Reduced coarse scheduler resolution from 102.4ms to 200.0ms.
  • Used new wlan_mac_time_hw core to simplify handling of timestamps throughout design
    • MAC Time used for MAC TSF (timestamps in Tx beacons, timestamp updated from Rx beacons) and for all log entry timestamps. Code can change MAC Time with set_mac_time_usec(u64 new_time) or apply a time delta with apply_mac_time_delta_usec(s64 time_delta). These functions are supported in both CPUs.
    • System Time is a new 64-bit microsecond counter that cannot be changed from code. The counter starts after the FPGA is configured and runs continuously, even across CPU resets. The System Time is useful where a timer with guaranteed monotonicity is required. The MAC High Framework scheduler and the AP's node activity timeouts now use the System Time. The System Time can be recorded in the node's event log via TIME_INFO entries.
  • Fixed bug with logging of channel in Rx log entries. Previously RX_OFDM and RX_DSSS entries used CPU High's last-known channel. They now use the accurate channel value included in the rx_frame_info data supplied by CPU Low
  • Added Tx queue occupancy logging; current occupancy of the Tx queue is recorded in the tx_frame_info of each packet as it is enqueued. This value is eventually logged in the corresponding TX log entry.
  • Renamed "Tx/Rx stats" to "Tx/Rx counts" throughout the code
  • Used new per-FSM resets in wlan_mac_hw to better handle cancellation of pending Tx events. Previous version cleared all MAC state to cancel a pending Tx.
  • Improved safety when iterating over doubly-linked lists (dl_list instances) when handling wlan_exp commands; traversing dl_list instances now limits the number of iterations to the length of the list, avoiding potential infinite loops when list contents change in mid-traversal ISRs

wlan_exp Framework Changes:

  • Simplified process for extending wlan_exp C and Python with custom commands. More details in the user guide.
  • Updated wlan_exp to use new WARP_ip_udp stack, replacing WARPxilnet
  • Updated definitions of BSS Info, Station Info and Tx/Rx Counts structures to not rely on numpy when used outside the context of log entries
  • Added support for jumbo Ethernet frames in the C and Python; larger frames are especially beneficial when retrieving large logs
  • Updates to log entry types:
    • NODE_INFO
      • Field wn_ver was removed
      • Field wlan_exp_ver was renamed to version
    • WN_CMD_INFO type was renamed to CMD_INFO
    • TIME_INFO
      • Field new_time was changed to mac_timestamp
      • Field abs_time was changed to host_timestamp
      • Field system_timestamp was added
    • TX and TX_LTG
      • Field queue_id was changed from a uint8 to a uint16
      • Field queue_occupancy was added
    • TXRX_STATS type was renamed to TXRX_COUNTS

Other Changes:

  • Updated ETH_B to use axi_dma, now with support for jumbo frames. This allows significantly faster retrieval of log data. Refer to the new FPGA Architecture page for details on the updated interconnect design.

1.3 Release

Download: Mango_802.11_RefDes_v1.3.0.zip

Release Details:

Hardware Release Date Posted SVN Rev. ISE Ver. Arch
WARP v3 1.3.0 19-June-2015 4628 14.4 Dual MB/AXI

PHY/MAC Hardware Changes:

  • Enabled SISO 802.11n support to Rx PHY. Note: 802.11n is not currently enabled at the MAC. This, along with Tx support, will be added in a future release.
  • Generalized the MAC Hardware Core to be less DCF-centric
    • Tx Controller A is used for MPDU & RTS transmissions
    • Tx Controller B is used for ACK & CTS transmissions
    • New documentation available here
  • Fixed hardcoded sizes in the PHY that prevented very large frame transmission and receptions

MAC Software Changes:

  • Added full RTS/CTS support. See the retransmissions wiki docs for details on this behavior
    • Added a new app note that uses RTS/CTS to study a hidden node topology
  • Added channel 40 to the list of supported channels (5200 MHz)
  • Fixed a potential bad state that could occur when frame_receive() processing in CPU_LOW occurs "late" (e.g, after a reception had been completed by the PHY Rx)
  • STA now defaults to automatic timestamp updates from beacon receptions. This behavior can still be enabled or disabled from wlan_exp
  • IBSS now uses a more limited reset of the MAC hardware core to terminate previously-running backoffs prior to starting an explicit pre-beacon backoff

wlan_exp Framework Changes:

  • Added log entries for transmitted control frames (ACK and CTS)
  • Added DCF control over:
    • set_dcf_rts_thresh: Transmissions of suitable frames with size larger than the RTS threshold will employ the new RTS mechanisms. Frames smaller than this threshold will use the traditional basic access from prior releases
    • set_dcf_short_retry_limit: The Short Retry Limit is a parameter that affects when a node terminates retransmission attempts on short frames
    • set_dcf_long_retry_limit: The Long Retry Limit is a parameter that affects when a node terminates retransmission attempts on long frames
  • Added new arguments to log_configure to support disabling/enabling control frames independently from MPDUs.
  • By default, logs now contain entries for all frame receptions and transmissions. Previously, the default behavior only logged non-control frames by default.
  • Reduced numpy dependencies to only the functions that truly need it
  • Small edits to existing wlan_exp examples:
    • Arguments to FlowConfigCBR are named instead of relying on position in argument list
    • Added explicit filters to log processing examples to ensure processing of non-duplicate, good FCS, and appropriately typed entries
  • Disabled Eth PHY auto-negotiation

Other Changes:

  • New clock_controller and EEPROM cores that mirror the connections in WARPLab 7.5.1
  • New radio_controller
    • Fixed issue with tuning to 5200 MHz
    • Fixed issue with tuning to higher 5 GHz frequencies

1.2 Release

Download: Mango_802.11_RefDes_v1.2.0.zip

Release Details:

Hardware Release Date Posted SVN Rev. ISE Ver. Arch
WARP v3 1.2.0 14-January-2015 4282 14.4 Dual MB/AXI

PHY/MAC Hardware Changes:

  • Fixed a transmitter scaling issue with the 64-QAM rates. Outer symbols of the constellation were previously clipped and were therefore more prone to symbol errors. The fix improves Tx EVM for these rates by several dB.
  • Added a new register to prevent the PHY receiver from wrapping the address it uses to write bytes to the packet buffer. This prevents the PHY from overwriting early bytes in a packet when receiving packets longer than allocated space in the packet buffer.
  • Added an optional minimum packet detection power threshold. Details available here.
  • Extended the duration of PHY debug outputs like LTS_Timeout and FCS_Good so they can be seen on a scope when zoomed out.
  • Fixed an issue with the Rx "Coded Bit Counter." Issue was identified in this forum thread.
  • Fixed bug in AGC configuration that reduced PER performance at higher rates

MAC Software Changes:

  • Reordered statistics processing in the AP/STA/IBSS projects so that stats are updated even for frames that are not addressed to the node that received the frame.
  • Fixed an IBSS issue that would populate the bcast MAC address into the list of associated stations.
  • Fixed an IBSS issue where a node would ignore the capabilities field in received beacons. This led to a problem where an IBSS node would mistake an infrastructure BSS (i.e. an AP) as a BSS it could join.
  • Fixed an issue in the DCF that prevented the MAC from sending ACK frames on the correct RF interface when receiving MPDUs on interfaces other than RFA.
  • Parameterized the PHY CCA threshold so it can be specified in terms of dBm. Previously this was a hardcoded "magic number" in terms of 10-bit RSSI.

wlan_exp Framework Changes:

  • Changed the API to set_tx_power and get_tx_power.
  • Added new command for configure_pkt_det_min_power.
  • Fixed an issue with reading promiscuous statistics from a node when providing a specific MAC address. Previously, the board would only look for this MAC address within the list of associated stations instead of all promiscuous statistics.
  • Fixed an issue with the implementation of set_tx_rate_unicast and set_tx_ant_mode_unicast when using the curr_assoc=True argument. The node will now correctly loop through all associated stations and make the necessary adjustment to the transmission parameters.
  • Adjusted the definition of "wlan_rx_ant_mode" in Python and C to better align to the active Rx antenna reported in logs. RFA now has an index of 0 instead of 1, and all other interface definitions were adjusted accordingly.

Other Changes:


1.1 Release

Download: Mango_802.11_RefDes_v1.1.0.zip

Release Details:

Hardware Release Date Posted SVN Rev. ISE Ver. Arch
WARP v3 1.1.0 12-December-2014 4223 14.4 Dual MB/AXI

PHY/MAC Hardware Changes:

  • Updated supported Tx power range to [-9,21] dBm
  • Updated default Tx radio settings after thorough characterization; Tx EVM and power characterization use the new defaults
  • Reduced Rx PHY RSSI averaging to 4 samples (from 8) for faster Rx power estimates. RSSI averaging in the AGC is unchanged.
  • Added new packet detection logic that can require a minimum RSSI for all detections (can be used to realize configurable Rx sensitivity - disabled by default)
  • Changed the precision of the energy_thresh register in the auto correlation packet detector (now UFix14_4, was UFix14_8)
    • Correspondingly, the default energy_thresh is now 9 (0.5626 in UFix14_4) vs 150 (0.5859 in UFix14_18) is previous releases

MAC Software Changes:

  • Added 16-bit averaged RSSI value to rx_frame_info; this supplements the existing 8-bit Rx power estimate derived from the averaged RSSI
  • Fixed a capitalization issue in a few includes that would cause errors on case-sensitive filesystems
  • Raised default Tx power in all top-level projects to 15 dBm (previously 13 dBm)
  • Added a calibration value to the IPC_MBOX_SET_TIME mailbox command to account for latency in executing the command iteself
  • Replaced RSSI-to-Rx-power calculation with lookup table derived from Rx power calibration experiments
  • Replaced Tx-power-to-Tx-VGA-gain mapping function with lookup table derived from Tx power calibration experiments

wlan_exp Framework Changes:

  • Fixed node.stats_get_txrx method to accept MAC address for un-associated device, allowing retrieval of promiscuous Tx/Rx stats for specific addresses
  • Fixed an IBSS issue where Tx parameters (e.g. rate) would be ignored for stations that had not yet been added the station_info list at the IBSS node.

Other Changes:

  • Added new Tx and Rx Characterizations. We're pleased to report that the Mango 802.11 Reference Design's transmitter and receiver exceed the Tx modulation accuracy and Rx sensitivity requirements in the 802.11a/g standard.

1.0 Release

Download: Mango_802.11_RefDes_v1.0.0.zip

Release Details:

Hardware Release Date Posted SVN Rev. ISE Ver. Arch
WARP v3 1.0.0 24-October-2014 4151 14.4 Dual MB/AXI

PHY/MAC Hardware Changes:

  • Increased maximum number of backoff slots to 65k (was 2047 in previous releases)
  • Reduced the size of the Tx and Rx packet buffers. There are now 8 4KB Tx buffers and 8 4KB Rx buffers (previously 16 each). The reference code only uses 3 Tx buffers; the remaining Tx buffers are free for customizations. The reference code cycles through all Rx buffers, though only 2 contain unprocessed packets at any given (assuming CPU High keeps pace with receptions by CPU Low).
  • Updated w3_clock_controller to version 3.01.b
  • Cleaned Tx and Rx PHY init scripts. Updated Tx init script simplifies creation of new waveform files for Rx simulation.
  • Added new waveform files for simulating the Rx PHY (in /wlan_phy_rx_pmd/rx_sigs). Each waveform represents a valid 802.11 frame with various packet contents and modulation/coding rates.

MAC Software Changes:

  • Assigned left-most DIP switch to disable all auto-association behaviors at boot; when asserted AP will reject associations, STA will not active-scan and IBSS will not create BSS
  • Reworked handshake between CPU High and Low for new transmissions, removing the IPC_MBOX_TX_MPDU_ACCEPT message. See the Packet Flow page for details.
  • Updated wlan_mac_low.c to explicitly write the MAC core's auto-inserted timestamp value to the Tx pkt buffer after transmitting a beacon, so the packet payload in the log matches the transmitted payload (rev 3981)
  • Updated contract for queue_checkout_list() to return number of successfully checked-out queue entries (rev 3968)
  • Updated definition of "length" across the codebase to ensure any length which includes the MAC header (typically 24 bytes) also includes the FCS (4 bytes), consistent with the standard's definition
  • Added new packet type code PKT_TYPE_DATA_PROTECTED for distinguishing received packets with protected (encrypted) payloads; these were previously incorrectly treated as unencrypted, potentially leading to mis-interpreting payloads as valid LLC headers
  • Moved all #define for assigning space in DRAM and AUX BRAM to wlan_mac_high.h (svn rev 4035)
  • Fixed rare (but not impossible) race condition in LTG creation (svn rev 3980)
  • Added utility functions to stop and restore the en/disable state of the interrupt controller and updated application and framework code to use new functions throughout. Application code can pause interrupts as needed, restoring the previous state when finished:
    interrupt_state_t prev_interrupt_state; 
    prev_interrupt_state = wlan_mac_high_interrupt_stop();
    
    //Do Non-Interrupt Safe Stuff Here
    
    wlan_mac_high_interrupt_restore_state(prev_interrupt_state); 
    

wlan_exp Framework Changes:

  • Extensive documentation of Python classes and methods. wlan_exp docs now available at warpproject.org/docs/mango-wlan-exp and in the /python/docs directory of the reference design .zip archive
  • Fixed retrieval of Tx/Rx stats from IBSS node for unknown partner node; a valid stats struct is now returned with all zero values
  • Updated example scripts to better handle unexpected log contents
  • Updated log entry types docs to include convenience fields (Tx/Rx addr1, addr2, addr3, seq_num) calculated during numpy array generation
  • Cleaned up density and formatting of UART prints when processing wlan_exp commands
  • Updated examples to use explicit association control from Python, instead of relying on auto-association at boot

Other Changes:


0.96 Beta Release

Download: Mango_802.11_RefDes_v0.96_beta.zip

Release Details:

Hardware Release Date Posted SVN Rev. ISE Ver. Arch
WARP v3 0.96 Beta 01-October-2014 3905 14.4 Dual MB/AXI

Changes in 0.96 Beta:

MAC Software Changes:

  • Added a third primary software project alongside AP/STA: the Independent Basic Service Set (IBSS). This is also known as 'ad hoc'
  • Added support for 802.11 power save mode in the AP. Specifically, the AP will honor clients' notifications that they will go to sleep. During that time, the AP will queue traffic for them and tell them traffic is available in the traffic indication map (TIM) of beacons.
  • Added new CPU_LOW project: wlan_mac_low_nomac. This very simple project is an alternative to the DCF and all it does it send packets it receives from CPU_HIGH and passes all packets it receives to CPU_HIGH. This is useful for research and education applications where the complexity of the 802.11 DCF may not be needed.
  • Added new active scan and join state machines to STA/IBSS.
  • Fixed old bug in the scheduler that resulted in poor NULL handling if a scheduled callback tried to remove the schedule that called it. This is now a safe operation.
  • Beacon intervals are now in terms of Time Unit (TU), where 1TU = 1024µs
  • Formalized information about basic service sets into the bss_info part of the high framework
  • Added check for bug introduced in 14.7 tools identified in this thread.
  • Fixed potential dead lock in IPC write by disabling interrupts for the duration of the write
  • Fixed potential race condition in 'frame_transmit' of the DCF implementation

wlan_exp Framework Changes:

  • Added control for new IBSS node types
  • Added control over association state machines in STA/IBSS. Python can now tell WARP STA/IBSS nodes to join existing networks
  • Tweaked behavior of 'reset_all' command. Previously, this command did not reset a node's association state. It now resets the node fully and brings it back to the same state it was in at the time of booting. This behavior may potentially break compatibility with existing scripts if 'reset_all' ever occurred after setting up an association. In these cases, the reset command should be used instead for fine grained control over what is reset
  • Added verbose reporting mode to log index filter

0.95 Beta Release

Download: Mango_802.11_RefDes_v0.95_beta.zip

Release Details:

Hardware Release Date Posted SVN Rev. ISE Ver. Arch
WARP v3 0.95 Beta 18-July-2014 3763 14.4 Dual MB/AXI

Changes in 0.95 Beta:

Hardware Changes:

  • PHY changes:
    • Added dedicated DSSS packet detection subsystem, using similar architecture as OFDM auto-correlation detector, tuned for 20-sample periodicity
    • Added more aggressive timeout for DSSS packet detections, to more quickly reject false positives
    • Made SIGNAL field logic for Tx and Rx max packet lengths programmable in increments of 1kB (default is 2kB)
    • Added minimum packet length requirement for DSSS receptions, to discard rare false "good" SIGNAL fields for tiny packets
  • MAC hardware changes:
    • Fixed bug that would cause CPU Low to process one PHY Rx twice, using the new SIGNAL rate/length but wrong packet buffer (block Rx PHY only when RX_ERROR == 0)
    • Separate Tx_Gain values per RF interface, routed like other Tx params through MAC core to PHY Tx and radio_controller
    • MAC core now captures TX_START time when PHY Tx starts, drives this to gateway out so Tx PHY can insert the accurate timestamp in beacon and probe response frames; eliminates errors from software-captured pre-deferral timestamps
  • Shuffled debug pin map (see design usage page for current map)
  • Added support for sharing RF reference and sampling clocks between nodes via CM-MMCX modules

MAC Software Changes:

  • STA code now updates the local MAC timestamp value to match the timestamp field in beacons received from the AP (required by the standard, also very useful for aligning log entries)
  • Fixed bug where mac_payload_log_len value in Tx/Rx log entries was sometimes wrong
  • Elevated sequence number generation to framework; now uses internal u64 value as 'uniq_seq' in log, the 12 LSB of which are used as sequence number in Tx packets. This enables much easier parsing of log files with >4096 Tx packets per node
  • Formalized BSS descriptions for AP and STA. Framework now maintains information about BSS and association table dl_list is a member of this description.
  • Redesigned active scan state machine in STA (see wlan_mac_sta_scan_fsm.c), using new BSS description subsystem
  • Redesigned association state machine in STA (see wlan_mac_sta_join_fsm.c), using new BSS description subsystem
  • Added preliminary 802.11a 5GHz support for a subset of 5GHz channels
  • NAV is now cleared on channel change. This is a requirement in the standard.
  • Updated AP and STA hex display usage (see design usage page for current LED use)

wlan_exp Framework Changes:

  • Added "forced" association commands; allows association of WARP AP with WARP STA without any wireless packet handshakes (includes example: Python_Reference/examples/set_node_association_state.py)
  • Added authentication address filter support to allow/block associations at AP by MAC address (includes example: Python_Reference/examples/configure_authentication_address_filter.py)
  • Added new log entry types for LTG Tx/Rx events with LTG flow ID and LTG pkt ID (previously uniq_seq was only available for Tx events)
  • Fixed log index generation to gracefully handle case of unknown entry type IDs in merge/include_only lists that aren't actually needed to parse a log
  • New command to en/disable STA timestamp updates from beacons
  • Improvements to WARPnet network configuration for flexibility when using multiple subnets. NOTE: This change requires a small change to existing scripts.

0.93 Beta Release

Download: Mango_802.11_RefDes_v0.93_beta.zip

Release Details:

Hardware Release Date Posted SVN Rev. ISE Ver. Arch
WARP v3 0.93 Beta 2-May-2014 3518 14.4 Dual MB/AXI

Changes in 0.93 Beta:

  • Fixed low-level MAC bug where some outgoing ACK transmissions were corrupted mid-transmission by an antenna mode switch in the construction of the next transmitted packet. Antenna mode is now set by the Tx MAC state machine core
  • Fixed rare post-Tx packet detection bug. On occasion, when switching back to a receive mode, a node could detect the end of its own transmission. This would manifest as an early detection for the next Rx ACK, causing it to be lost.
  • Fixed slow memory leak when configuring LTGs via the WLAN Exp framework
  • As stated in 802.11-2012, a channel change now resets NAV state
  • Added register for manually resetting current backoff deferral

0.92 Beta Release

Download: Mango_802.11_RefDes_v0.92_beta.zip

Release Details:

Hardware Release Date Posted SVN Rev. ISE Ver. Arch
WARP v3 0.92 Beta 26-April-2014 3478 14.4 Dual MB/AXI

Changes in 0.92 Beta:

  • Significant improvements in reliability of reading log data from boards
  • Updated physical carrier sensing threshold to ~60 dBm (was unintentionally too high in earlier v0.9 releases)
  • Improved reporting of wlan_exp version errors
  • HDF5 improvements
    • Support for continual log writing
    • Enforces numpy ASCII type for user string attributes
  • Added WLAN device class for non-WARP WLAN devices
  • Simplified NODE_INFO log entry
  • Changed WARPnet command IDs to be sparsely packed to allow easier user additions
  • Added WARPnet command for reading / writing arbitrary memory addresses in the design

0.91 Beta Release

Download: Mango_802.11_RefDes_v0.91_beta.zip

Release Details:

Hardware Release Date Posted SVN Rev. ISE Ver. Arch
WARP v3 0.91 Beta 15-April-2014 3408 14.4 Dual MB/AXI

Changes in 0.91 Beta:

  • Minor updates to Python_Reference to match examples
  • No changes to C code
  • No changes to FPGA hardware

0.9 Beta Release

Download: Mango_802.11_RefDes_v0.9_beta.zip

Release Details:

Hardware Release Date Posted SVN Rev. ISE Ver. Arch
WARP v3 0.9 Beta 11-April-2014 3400 14.4 Dual MB/AXI

Changes in 0.9 Beta:

  • Significantly expanded capabilities of experiments framework
    • Added new wlan_exp examples
    • Detailed event log at each node
      • Includes every Tx/Rx event in CPU High and CPU Low
        • Rx events capture OFDM channel estimates
        • Tx Low events capture per-retransmission rate, contention window and backoff values
      • Includes association state changes at AP and STA
      • Python tools to retrieve log data, parse into numpy structured arrays
    • New wlan_exp Python control of:
      • Per-node, per-destination locally generated traffic (LTG)
      • Tx rate and Tx power per-node, per-destination
      • Retrieval / reset of Tx/Rx stats
      • Node microsecond timestamp - node timers can be synchronized with broadcast Ethernet packet
  • Added duration for LTG schedules; traffic flows can now auto-terminate
  • Unified structures for all doubly-linked lists (LTG, scheduler, Tx queue, association table)
  • Reserved 16MB of DRAM for user scratch space (DDR3_SCRATCH_SIZE bytes starting at DDR3_SCRATCH_BASEADDR)
  • Updated to latest hardware support cores (radio_controller, w3_ad_controller)
  • MAC/PHY core updates
    • Added logic to MAC to capture timestamp of each Tx start
    • Added logic to Tx to automatically insert current microsecond timestamp (for beacon frames)
    • Added Tx gain param for MPDUO Tx and auto Tx control paths
    • Added more pipeline registers to debug outputs in all cores, for easier timing closure
  • Added basic floorplanning to UCF in XPS project, for more consistent timing closure

0.8 Beta Release

Download: Mango_802.11_RefDes_v0.8_beta.zip

Release Details:

Hardware Release Date Posted SVN Rev. ISE Ver. Arch
WARP v3 0.8 Beta 13-February-2014 2800 14.4 Dual MB/AXI

Changes in 0.8 Beta:

  • Brand-new WARPnet framework for control and measurement of experiments: WARPNet Framework
  • Restructured CPU_LOW in the SDK workspace to create a MAC Low Framework
  • Added optional address filtering to allow associations with whitelisted MAC addresses only
  • Improved transmit queue structure in AP
    • Management frames have their own high-priority queue and don't have to wait behind other queued packets
  • AP scans traffic for DHCP hostnames and prints these name strings in the association table for easier client identification
  • Added promiscuous statistics gathering at both AP and STA
  • Continued the ongoing documentation/comments push
  • Added multi-antenna reception diversity
  • Added a register to read current NAV
  • Added RFC and RFD to all PHY cores for 4-antenna selection support
    • Reference hardware project does not connect RFC/RFD to FMC slot
    • Users must modify MHS/UCF files for 4-antenna support; refer to _4RF MHS/UCF files for guidance
  • Better pipelining in PHY cores for easier timing closure
  • Important note: the software projects for CPU High require >128K code space. This version of the ref design includes two LMB memory blocks, each 128K. A custom linker script is required to split the large code section across both memory blocks. The GUI linker script editor cannot create a valid file for this design. Please use the lscript.ld files included in the AP and STA src directories.

0.71 Beta Release

Download: Mango_802.11_RefDes_v0.71_beta.zip

Release Details:

Hardware Release Date Posted SVN Rev. ISE Ver. Arch
WARP v3 0.71 Beta 14-January-2014 n/a 14.4 Dual MB/AXI

Changes in 0.71 Beta:

  • Fixed a bug in Ethernet reception handling identified in this forum thread.
  • Fixed a driver issue in BSPs. Initial release used a temporary customized driver for the mailbox core. This has been replaced with the standard driver.

0.7 Beta Release:

Download: Mango_802.11_RefDes_v0.7_beta.zip

Release Details:

Hardware Release Date Posted SVN Rev. ISE Ver. Arch
WARP v3 0.7 Beta 9-January-2014 2520 14.4 Dual MB/AXI

Changes in 0.7 Beta:

  • Updated data type for auto-correlation pkt det energy threshold (now UFix14_8, was UFix12_0) for better detection of low-SNR receptions
  • Updated LTS correlator control logic for flexible sample rate support
  • Reworked PHY Tx output logic to reduce chances of bad states at boot
  • Fixed bug in Rx descrambler that caused very rare FCS errors
  • Updated LTS, AGC and pkt detection thresholds for better performance at high and low SNR
  • Added periodic active scan to STA implementation
  • Redesigned association table in AP implementation to support arbitrary number of stations
  • Removed statistics from station_info structure to separate optional statistics from state-critical station information
  • Redesigned scheduler around doubly-linked list framework
    • Added support for repeated calls to a user-provided callback
    • Added ability to cancel previously scheduled event
  • Safer wrapping of malloc/realloc/calloc/free for use throughout the code
  • Substantial cleaning of MAC code (ongoing - more cleaning underway for future releases)
    • Abstracted all uses of doubly-linked lists to use common code
    • Renamed MAC util files for more consistent division of framework vs. high-level MAC role
    • Extended and cleaned comments throughout
    • Started adoption of doxygen-style inline docs

0.6 Beta Release:

Download: Mango_802.11_RefDes_v0.6_beta.zip

Release Details:

Hardware Release Date Posted SVN Rev. ISE Ver. Arch
WARP v3 0.6 Beta 18-November-2013 2410 14.4 Dual MB/AXI

Changes in 0.6 Beta:

  • Fixed a PHY bug in the FFT reset logic that caused Rx FCS errors for some combinations of rate and length.
  • Fixed a PHY bug where the last sample of the transmitted preamble was zero - thanks to sadiaq on the forums.
  • Reduced default Tx queue size significantly (from up to 1000 packets enqueued per station to 150 packets enqueued per station). The extremely large queues caused significant performance issues in TCP (i.e. bufferbloat).
  • Aligned SIFS/DIFS/Slot MAC timing values with commercial 802.11 devices. These updated parameters are also parameterized better in terms of what the 802.11 standard indicates along with hardware-specific latency corrections.
  • Per-subcarrier channel estimates from the PHY have been added to the metadata at the front of every received packet.

Known issues:

  • Under very rare circumstances the board will boot up in a state where all transmitted packets have invalid signal fields. A software reset will not fix this, but a redownload/reprogram of the board will. We have never seen the design slip into this state once it is up and running -- it is purely a boot problem. An official fix will be provided in the next release.

0.5 Beta Release:

Download: Mango_802.11_RefDes_v0.5_beta.zip

Release Details:

Hardware Release Date Posted SVN Rev. ISE Ver. Arch
WARP v3 0.5 Beta 11-October-2013 2270 14.4 Dual MB/AXI

Changes in 0.5 Beta:

  • Added station implementation that can associate with either a WARP AP or a commercial AP (provided security is disabled). To use the station, a computer can be directly connected via Ethernet to ETH_A. The 802.11 station implementation will bridge that Ethernet link to the wireless link. The UART menu can be used to perform an active scan and attempt to join nearby APs. Otherwise, the station implementation will at boot attempt to join an AP whose SSID is specified in the top of the wlan_mac_sta.c file (default "WARP-AP").
  • Split the ILMB and DLMB memories to increase code space. DLMB is now in a new 64K BRAM leaving the existing 128K BRAM exclusively for instructions.
  • Enhanced UART menu for both AP and STA
  • Adjusted AGC threshold to allow receptions of higher-power packets. In previous designs, transmitters that were too close (a few feet) to a WARP 802.11 AP would fail to communicate. These high power receptions have been addressed.

0.4 Beta Release:

Download: Mango_802.11_RefDes_v0.4_beta.zip

Release Details:

Hardware Release Date Posted SVN Rev. ISE Ver. Arch
WARP v3 0.4 Beta 25-September-2013 2242 14.4 Dual MB/AXI

Changes in 0.4 Beta:

  • Added 64-QAM rates to PHY Tx and Rx (48Mbps and 54Mbps)
  • Increased traceback depth in decoder for improved performance
  • Moved to interrupts for all events in top-level MAC / CPU High
  • New SDK workspace organization for easier code sharing between top-level projects
  • Fixed an issue with software resets when using malloc/realloc/free. This issue is described in Xilinx AR# 30878, but our fix is slightly different. We have instantiated an extra BRAM (4K size) that holds the default state of the .data section. On software reset, the project will overwrite it's .data with the original .data section that is in this extra BRAM if it exists.

0.3 Beta Release:

Download: Mango_802.11_RefDes_v0.3_beta.zip

Release Details:

Hardware Release Date Posted SVN Rev. ISE Ver. Arch
WARP v3 0.3 Beta 20-August-2013 2164 14.4 Dual MB/AXI

Changes in 0.3 Beta:

  • Many MAC/PHY bug fixes
    • Resolved rare deadlock in Rx PHY following late pkt det events
    • Updated LTS correlator (fixed offset-by-1 bug, increased dynamic range of stored coefficients)
    • Added high/low SNR thresholds for LTS correlation
    • Fixed bug related to asynchronous resets in decoder
    • Re-designed phase error correction system to apply pilot-derived phase estimates in same symbol period
  • Added 16-QAM rates to PHY Tx and Rx (24Mbps and 36Mbps)
  • Re-designed Ethernet I/O to use scatter-gather DMA (replaces Ethernet FIFO)
  • Completely redesigned wireless transmit queue
    • Much better handling of bursty Ethernet receptions
    • Use Ethernet DMA to minimize copies (new payloads are DMA'd to queue in DRAM, then copied to PHY pkt buffer immediately before Tx)
    • Per-associated-station queueing of MPDUs awaiting transmission
    • Uses DDR3 SO-DIMM (if present) for large queues (up to 3000 packets)
  • Added UI for changing AP parameters over UART (after downloading design press Esc key to see menu)
  • Added support to en/disable new associates at run-time via the top push button (to avoid unwanted associations during experiments)

0.2 Beta Release:

Download: Mango_802.11_RefDes_v0.2_beta.zip

Release Details:

Hardware Release Date Posted SVN Rev. ISE Ver. Arch
WARP v3 0.2 Beta 30-July-2013 2115 14.4 Dual MB/AXI

Changes in 0.2 Beta:

  • Many MAC/PHY bug fixes
  • Better default thresholds for packet detection and Rx correlations
  • Added queue to CPU High Tx packet processing, to reduce chances of dropped packets during bursts at Ethernet Rx
  • Added support for disassociation and re-association handshakes in wlan_mac_ap.c
  • Stubbed out code for setting per-station, per-packet rates in wlan_mac_ap.c (ready for custom rate adaptation schemes)

Known issues:

  • Under very rare circumstances a deadlock can occur when RSSI-based packet detection is enabled. RSSI-based packet detection is disabled by default (in our tests the alternative auto-correlation packet detection is sufficient by itself).
  • Bursts of Ethernet receptions can cause dropped packets at the Ethernet MAC, due to the Rx buffer filling faster than the wireless Tx can process new packets. This manifests as a slight asymmetry between downlink and uplink throughput when using TCP. A faster Ethernet Rx -> wireless Tx queueing scheme is in the works which should address this.

0.1 Beta Release:

Download: Mango_802.11_RefDes_v0.1_beta.zip

Release Details:

Hardware Release Date Posted SVN Rev. ISE Ver. Arch
WARP v3 0.1 Beta 23-July-2013 2086 14.4 Dual MB/AXI
  • Initial beta release of 802.11 Reference Design
  • Compiling the 802.11 Reference Design requires an edk_user_repository of revision 2086 or later. Update your local edk_user_repository working copy to the latest version.
Last modified 5 years ago Last modified on May 21, 2019, 3:38:36 PM