\" $NetBSD: wlanctl.8,v 1.9 2017/07/03 21:35:32 wiz Exp $
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Dd July 15, 2004
Dt WLANCTL 8
Os
Sh NAME
Nm wlanctl
Nd examine IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN client/peer table
Sh SYNOPSIS
Nm wlanctl
Op Fl p
Ar interface
Op ...
Nm
Op Fl p
Fl a
Sh DESCRIPTION
Use the
Nm
utility to print node tables from IEEE 802.11 interfaces.
Use the
Fl a
flag to print the nodes for all interfaces, or list one or more
802.11 interfaces to select their tables for examination.
The
Fl p
flag causes only nodes that do not have encryption enabled to be printed.
For example, to examine the node tables for atw0, use:
Pp
Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
wlanctl atw0
Ed
Pp
Nm
may print this node table, for example:
Pp
Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
atw0: mac 00:02:6f:20:f6:2e bss 02:02:6f:20:f6:2e
       node flags 0001<bss>
       ess <netbsd>
       chan 11 freq 2462MHz flags 00a0<cck,2.4GHz>
       capabilities 0022<ibss,short preamble>
       beacon-interval 100 TU tsft 18425852102545544165 us
       rates [1.0] 2.0 5.5 11.0
       assoc-id 0 assoc-failed 0 inactivity 0s
       rssi 161 txseq 10 rxseq 1420
atw0: mac 00:02:2d:2e:3c:f4 bss 02:02:6f:20:f6:2e
       node flags 0000
       ess <netbsd>
       chan 11 freq 2462MHz flags 00a0<cck,2.4GHz>
       capabilities 0002<ibss>
       beacon-interval 100 TU tsft 18425852105450086784 us
       rates [1.0] 2.0 5.5 11.0
       assoc-id 0 assoc-failed 0 inactivity 0s
       rssi 159 txseq 2 rxseq 551
atw0: mac 00:02:6f:20:f6:2e bss 02:02:6f:20:f6:2e
       node flags 0000
       ess <netbsd>
       chan 11 freq 2462MHz flags 00a0<cck,2.4GHz>
       capabilities 0022<ibss,short preamble>
       beacon-interval 100 TU tsft 18425852102558548069 us
       rates [1.0] 2.0 5.5 6.0 9.0 11.0 12.0 18.0 24.0 36.0 48.0 54.0
       assoc-id 0 assoc-failed 0 inactivity 145s
       rssi 163 txseq 9 rxseq 2563
Ed
Pp
This example is taken from a network consisting of three stations
running in ad hoc mode.
The key for interpreting the node print-outs follows:
Bl -tag -width "do_not_adapt" -compact
It Fa mac
In the example node table, the first network node has MAC number
00:02:6f:20:f6:2e.
It Fa bss
The first node belongs to the 802.11 network identified
by Basic Service Set Identifier (BSSID) 02:02:6f:20:f6:2e.
It Fa "node flags"
Only three node flags,
Dq bss ,
Dq sta ,
and
Dq scan ,
are presently defined.
The first node is distinguished from the rest by its node flags:
flag
Dq bss
indicates that the node represents the 802.11 network
that the interface has joined or created.
The MAC number for the node is the same as the MAC number for the
interface.
It Fa ess
the name of the (Extended) Service Set
we have joined.
This is the same as the network name set by
Xr ifconfig 8
with the
Dq ssid
option.
It Fa chan
Nm
prints the channel number, the center frequency in megahertz, and
the channel flags.
The channel flags indicate the frequency band
Po Do 2.4GHz Dc or Do 5GHz Dc Pc ,
modulation
Po Do cck Dc , Do gfsk Dc , Do ofdm Dc , Do turbo Dc , and \
Do dynamic cck-ofdm Dc Pc ,
and operation constraints
Pq Dq passive scan .
Common combinations of band and modulation are these:
Bl -column 2.4GHz "dynamic cck-ofdm" "1-2Mb/s frequency-hopping 802.11"
It Sy Band      Modulation      Description
It 2.4GHz       cck     11Mb/s DSSS 802.11b
It 2.4GHz       gfsk    1-2Mb/s FHSS 802.11
It 2.4GHz       ofdm    54Mb/s 802.11g
It 2.4GHz       dynamic cck-ofdm        mixed 802.11b/g network
It 5GHz ofdm    54Mb/s 802.11a
It 5GHz turbo   108Mb/s 802.11a
El
It Fa capabilities
ad hoc-mode and AP-mode 802.11 stations advertise their capabilities
in 802.11 Beacons and Probe Responses.
Nm
understands these capability flags:
Bl -column "channel agility" "adapt channel to protect licensed services"
It Sy Flag      Description
It ess  infrastructure (access point) network
It ibss ad hoc network (no access point)
It cf pollable  TBD
It request cf poll      TBD
It privacy      WEP encryption
It short preamble       reduce 802.11b overhead
It pbcc 22Mbps ``802.11b+''
It channel agility      change channel for licensed services
It short slot-time      TBD
It rsn  TBD Real Soon Now
It dsss-ofdm    TBD
El
It Fa beacon-interval
In the example, beacons are sent once every 100 Time Units.
A Time Unit (TU) is 1024 microseconds (a
Dq kilo-microsecond
or
Dq kus ) .
Thus 100 TU is about one tenth of a second.
It Fa tsft
802.11 stations keep a Time Synchronization Function Timer (TSFT)
which counts up in microseconds.
Ad hoc-mode stations synchronize time with their peers.
Infrastructure-mode stations synchronize time with their access
point.
Power-saving stations wake and sleep at intervals measured by the
TSF Timer.
The TSF Timer has a role in the coalescence of 802.11 ad hoc networks
Pq Dq IBSS merges .
It Fa rates
802.11 stations indicate the bit-rates they support, in units of
100kb/s in 802.11 Beacons, Probe Responses, and Association Requests.
Nm
prints a station's supported bit-rates in 1Mb/s units.
A station's basic rates are flagged by an asterisk
Pq Sq * .
The last bit-rate at which a packet was sent to the station is
enclosed by square brackets.
It Fa assoc-id
In an infrastructure network, the access point assigns each client
an Association Identifier which is used to indicate traffic for
power-saving stations.
It Fa assoc-failed
The number of times the station tried and failed to associate
with its access point.
Only
It Fa inactivity
Seconds elapsed since a packet was last received from the station.
When this value reaches net.link.ieee80211.maxinact, the station
is eligible to be purged from the node table.
See
Xr sysctl 8 .
It Fa rssi
Unitless Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI).
Higher numbers indicate stronger signals.
Zero is the lowest possible RSSI.
On a hostap- or adhoc-mode interface, the node with
Fa "node flag"
Dq bss
set uses
Fa rssi
to indicate the signal strength for the last packet received from
a station that does not belong to the network.
On an infrastructure-mode station, the node with
Fa "node flag"
Dq bss
set indicates the strength of packets from the access point.
It Fa txseq
The next 802.11 packet sent to this station will carry this transmit
sequence number.
The 802.11 MAC uses the transmit sequence number to detect duplicate
packets.
It Fa rxseq
The last packet received from this station carried this transmit
sequence number.
El
Sh SEE ALSO
Xr sysctl 8
Sh HISTORY
Nm
first appeared in
Nx 3.0 .
Sh AUTHORS
An David Young Aq Mt [email protected]