wiki:802.11/FAQ

802.11 Reference Design: Frequently Asked Questions

If you have questions about the 802.11 Reference Design that aren't addressed below or elsewhere in this user guide, please post to the forums and we'll answer as quickly as possible.

What is the Mango 802.11 Reference Design?

The Mango 802.11 Reference Design is an FPGA implementation of the DCF MAC and OFDM PHY from IEEE 802.11-2012. The designs runs in real-time on Mango WARP v3 hardware.

What is this design good for?

We hope this design will be a valuable starting point for wireless researchers looking to explore and extend the 802.11 MAC and PHY and evaluate their extensions experimentally.

What hardware is supported?

The WARP 802.11 Reference Design is supported on Mango WARP v3 hardware.

Previous generations of WARP hardware are not supported, as the design requires tools and FPGA features which preclude porting to Virtex-II Pro or Virtex-4 FPGAs.

What parts of the 802.11 standard are implemented?

Our implementation focuses on the SISO OFDM PHY and DCF MAC specified in IEEE 802.11-2012. We tried to choose a subset of these specifications which are feasible to implement and provide the most utility to wireless networking researchers. The current design will inter-operate with commercial 802.11g-compatible equipment in real-time.

The specifics of the current implementation are discussed in the PHY and MAC pages of this user guide.

We plan to continue developing the design in the coming months. Feedback is welcome on which features in the standard would be most useful in future releases.

How is the WARP 802.11 Reference Design licensed?

The source code and models for the 802.11 Reference Design are distributed at no cost under the terms of the Mango Reference Design License.

It is our intention that users should be free to do the following with the 802.11 Reference Design:

  • Use the Reference Design on Mango hardware for teaching and research
  • Modify the Reference Design MAC and PHY source code
  • Publish results from experiments using the Reference Design
  • Share customized versions of our MAC and PHY with other users of the Reference Design

Please note that the license requires this design only be used on hardware manufactured by Mango Communications. We recognize this requirement diverges from true open source. It is the only approach we can conceive that justifies the significant investment of resources to develop and support a complex design distributed at no cost. We want to provide hardware and reference designs that enable great research. We can't do this as suppliers of free IP for competing platforms.

For any questions about the license terms please contact Mango Communications directly.

Is the WARP 802.11 Reference Design Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™?

No.

Wi-Fi® is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance, an industry association which seeks to ensure compliance and inter-operability of wireless networking equipment. Our design is intended to be a starting point for researchers, not a wireless device for end-users. The point of this design is to enable experiments with extensions to the standard MAC/PHY. Pursuit of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ status doesn't facilitate this.

Other Questions?

Please post any questions to the forums - we'll answer as quickly as possible.

Last modified 9 years ago Last modified on Jan 21, 2015, 12:15:21 PM