Return-path: Received: from mail-wg0-f44.google.com ([74.125.82.44]:43801 "EHLO mail-wg0-f44.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1754081Ab2DCNyv (ORCPT ); Tue, 3 Apr 2012 09:54:51 -0400 Received: by wgbdr13 with SMTP id dr13so3766266wgb.1 for ; Tue, 03 Apr 2012 06:54:50 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: References: Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2012 08:54:49 -0500 Message-ID: (sfid-20120403_155454_679348_9347F5FA) Subject: Re: Dual-band support for AP mode for AR9280? From: Harshal Chhaya To: Adrian Chadd Cc: linux-wireless Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Sender: linux-wireless-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: Adrian, Thanks for your response. On Fri, Mar 30, 2012 at 9:01 PM, Adrian Chadd wrote: > On 30 March 2012 14:04, Harshal Chhaya wrote: >> Hello, >> >> The 'ath9k' project page >> (http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/ath9k) mentions that '2x2 >> DB 11n' operation is supported for AR9280. A later section says that >> 'AP mode' is supported. > > These are both true. Good - thanks for the confirmation. Does ath9k already support DFS? >> Does the AP mode support full 11n features in a dual-band >> configuration? Is there a hard limit to the number of clients when the >> AR9280 is used as an AP? I am currently using an AR9170 (using >> carl9170 - thanks, Christian) as an AP and found that I had to switch >> to software encryption to scale beyond 32 clients because of the >> number of key slots on the chip. > > Yes. It's a dual band chip, but you only get to choose one band at a time. That's good to know - concurrent dual-band operation isn't a very important feature for me so this isn't a big problem. > Yes, there are limited keycache slot chips. I don't remember if the > hardware limit is 32 or 64 clients. Do you know if I can disable hw encryption and do only s/w encryption with ath9k? I realize that there may be a performance impact but I am willing to sacrifice some performance if I can support more clients. >> And are the numbers in the 'power consumption' analysis >> (http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/ath9k/power-consumption) >> for STA mode or AP mode? The 'PS On' configuration implies that this >> is for an STA mode but I wanted to confirm. > > You should always do your own power consumption tests. It differs > based on operating mode, environment, TX rate selection/power, what > kind of amplifiers and other circuitry are on the NIC, etc. Good point - we will certainly do the power measurements on our own board but I was curious about the power numbers published on the website. Since our design is power-constrained I wanted to check if AR9280 is even an option before we start designing boards. Thanks for the help. Regards, - Harshal > Adrian