[PATCH] hostapd: Add cell_density data rates option

Nick Lowe nick.lowe at gmail.com
Thu Oct 8 04:24:36 EDT 2020


> As briefly mentioned on IRC, I have concerns that this might interfere with
> clients using buggy wireless implementations. I've noticed 802.11g clients
> not connecting / listing networks which do not offer a 6 Mbit/s basic rate.

Yes, completely agree. This setting does have interoperability
implications with some 802.11b and 802.11g clients that have buggy
802.11 stacks.

The notable compatibility issues that I am aware of are:

1) Some 802.11g devices require the original 802.11, prior to 802.11b,
defined data rates to be offered as basic/mandatory, the 1 Mb/s and 2
Mb/s rates, despite them being 802.11g devices. Nintendo specifically
comes to mind here with their older devices.

2) Some 802.11g devices require either the 1 Mb/s and 2 Mb/s rates as
minimum basic/mandatory, or else the 6 Mb/s rate as minimum
basic/mandatory. Aged handheld scanners typically used in warehouses
and some printers specifically come to mind here.

To my knowledge, such clients are not generally encountered, common
devices in use in the present day.

> On the other hand, these kind of clients also show frequent issues when used
> with FT or (god forbid) PSK2-SAE mixed mode.
>
> Therefore I'm in favor of adding a brief notice to this option to LuCI, that
> tampering with this setting might lead to issues with some clients.

Yes, completely agreed. Both the documentation for the new
cell_density setting and the LuCI UI should highlight this.

> That said, the proposed settings and rate sets look sensible to me, given they
> are abstracted from easily explained toggles.

Thank you very much for the review. Do you think this specific patch
could be merged in its present state? If yes, please could you do so?



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