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#1 2016-Aug-17 21:55:53

loho2027
Member
Registered: 2016-Aug-16
Posts: 45

disable AP temporarily while retaining ethernet reception

Hi,

Is it possible to temporarily disable the AP while being able to receive Ethernet packets in 802.11 Reference Design 1.5.2?

It needs to be able be enabled again later on.

How would I do this?

Regards,
loho2027

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#2 2016-Aug-17 22:47:04

murphpo
Administrator
From: Mango Communications
Registered: 2006-Jul-03
Posts: 5159

Re: disable AP temporarily while retaining ethernet reception

Can you describe what you mean by "disable"? Do you just want to stop beacon transmissions? Stop new associations? Remove current associations? The AP implements lots of functions. Each can be disabled, some with wlan_exp, others with C code changes.

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#3 2016-Aug-17 23:04:57

loho2027
Member
Registered: 2016-Aug-16
Posts: 45

Re: disable AP temporarily while retaining ethernet reception

I think if I am able to stop the beacon transmission, so that the SSID does not get advertised, it will be fine for now. I'd like to do this in the C code, if possible.

Also, I'd like to be able to reenable it later on.

Regards,
Loho2027

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#4 2016-Aug-18 08:36:26

chunter
Administrator
From: Mango Communications
Registered: 2006-Aug-24
Posts: 1212

Re: disable AP temporarily while retaining ethernet reception

You can disable beacon transmissions by calling the configure_bss() function. Specifically, you'll want to call it with a bss_config_t argument whose "beacon_interval" field is BEACON_INTERVAL_NO_BEACON_TX and whose "update_mask" field is BSS_FIELD_MASK_BEACON_INTERVAL.

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#5 2016-Aug-18 19:02:18

loho2027
Member
Registered: 2016-Aug-16
Posts: 45

Re: disable AP temporarily while retaining ethernet reception

Hi,

I did the following:

bss_config_t      bss_config;

bss_config.beacon_interval     = BEACON_INTERVAL_NO_BEACON_TX;
bss_config.update_mask = BSS_FIELD_MASK_BEACON_INTERVAL;
configure_bss(&bss_config);

It says on the terminal "Beacon Interval: No Beacon Tx", however I can still see the "WARP-AP" SSID from my mobile device WiFi list.

Is this because the mobile sends a probe request? What could be the reason behind this?

Regards,
loho2027

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#6 2016-Aug-18 19:23:43

loho2027
Member
Registered: 2016-Aug-16
Posts: 45

Re: disable AP temporarily while retaining ethernet reception

So I disabled the probe response and the mobile no longer sees the "WARP-AP" SSID.

Thanks for the help.

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#7 2016-Aug-18 20:45:34

murphpo
Administrator
From: Mango Communications
Registered: 2006-Jul-03
Posts: 5159

Re: disable AP temporarily while retaining ethernet reception

That makes sense. Most Wi-Fi clients search for networks 3 ways:
-Passive scan - listening for beacons
-Active scan for wildcard SSID - node sends Probe Request with empty SSID, soliciting Probe Response from any available networks
-Active scan for specific SSID - many clients transmit Probe Requests for previously known SSIDs

As you found our AP implementation answers Probe Requests by default, even when beacon transmissions are disabled.

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