Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 15:32:49 GMT From: Mohammad Ikram <ikram@wideband.com.pk> To: freebsd-gnats-submit@FreeBSD.org Subject: i386/126214: txpower problem with Atheros wifi card Message-ID: <200808031532.m73FWn7E097660@www.freebsd.org> Resent-Message-ID: <200808031540.m73Fe226042621@freefall.freebsd.org>
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>Number: 126214
>Category: i386
>Synopsis: txpower problem with Atheros wifi card
>Confidential: no
>Severity: serious
>Priority: medium
>Responsible: freebsd-i386
>State: open
>Quarter:
>Keywords:
>Date-Required:
>Class: sw-bug
>Submitter-Id: current-users
>Arrival-Date: Sun Aug 03 15:40:02 UTC 2008
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator: Mohammad Ikram
>Release: 7.0
>Organization:
WIDEBAND
>Environment:
FreeBSD WIDEBAND-AP.wideand.com.pk 7.0-RELEASE FreeBSD 7.0-RELEASE #0: Sun Feb 24 19:59:52 UTC 2008 root@logan.cse.buffalo.edu:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC i386 (date and time are not set on the machine)
>Description:
I am using a wireless card. EPI-EN360S1 with Atheros chipset. The card has a reported ouput power of 27dBm.
WIDEBAND-AP# ifconfig -v ath0
ath0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
ether 00:02:6f:4c:83:bd
inet 192.168.20.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.20.255
media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect mode 11b <hostap>
status: associated
ssid WIDEBAND-ATH channel 2 (2417 Mhz 11b) bssid 00:02:6f:4c:83:bd
authmode OPEN privacy OFF deftxkey UNDEF powersavemode OFF
powersavesleep 100 txpower 31.5 txpowmax 18.0 rtsthreshold 2346
fragthreshold 2346 bmiss 7 scanvalid 60 bgscan bgscanintvl 300
bgscanidle 250 roam:rssi11a 7 roam:rate11a 12 roam:rssi11b 7
roam:rate11b 1 roam:rssi11g 7 roam:rate11g 5 -pureg protmode RTSCTS
-ht -htcompat -ampdu ampdulimit 8k ampdudensity - -amsdu -shortgi
htprotmode RTSCTS -puren -wme burst -ff -dturbo -hidessid apbridge
dtimperiod 1 doth inact bintval 100
FreeBSD is only able to raise its power to 18dBm as shown by 'ifconfig -v ath0'
I tried it on a Linux Machine (madwifi 0.9.4) with same results maximum 18dBm.
when i used the latest ath9k drivers on a linux machine it took the power to 27dBm. I tried the commercial Router OS (Mikrotik) which suggested that it has take power level to 27dBm. Now after searching the mailing lists some people had suggested that whatever the ifconfig suggests is incorrect and the txpower is up to it's full.
I do not have any spectrum analyzer to measure the output power, but the results the with ROUTER OS were much much better ( at the distance of 1.2 Km i was able to establish a link of 4 Mbps with ROUTER OS & with Freebsd a sloppy 256 Kbps (AP ROUTER OS & FreeBSD with omni/client Windows Dell D505 Laptop).
I tried PFSense but with same results.
I tried many different parameters (antenna, diversity, tpc etc)with sysctl, but just could not get any close to what ROUTER OS was able to perform, here is the ouput from
WIDEBAND-AP# sysctl -a | grep ath
kern.clockrate: { hz = 1000, tick = 1000, profhz = 666, stathz = 133 }
kern.init_path: /sbin/init:/sbin/oinit:/sbin/init.bak:/rescue/init:/stand/sysinstall
kern.module_path: /boot/kernel;/boot/modules
vfs.nfs.diskless_rootpath:
vfs.cache.numfullpathfound: 45
vfs.cache.numfullpathfail4: 0
vfs.cache.numfullpathfail2: 0
vfs.cache.numfullpathfail1: 0
vfs.cache.numfullpathcalls: 45
vfs.nfsrv.gatherdelay_v3: 0
vfs.nfsrv.gatherdelay: 10000
net.inet.tcp.path_mtu_discovery: 1
net.inet.sctp.path_rtx_max: 5
net.wlan.0.%parent: ath0
debug.disablefullpath: 0
hw.ath.hal.swba_backoff: 0
hw.ath.hal.sw_brt: 10
hw.ath.hal.dma_brt: 2
hw.ath.hal.version: 0.9.20.3
hw.ath.txbuf: 200
hw.ath.rxbuf: 40
hw.ath.regdomain: 0
hw.ath.countrycode: 0
hw.ath.xchanmode: 1
hw.ath.outdoor: 1
hw.ath.calibrate: 30
user.cs_path: /usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:
dev.npx.0.%desc: math processor
dev.ath.0.%desc: Atheros 5212
dev.ath.0.%driver: ath
dev.ath.0.%location: slot=1 function=0
dev.ath.0.%pnpinfo: vendor=0x168c device=0x0013 subvendor=0x168c subdevice=0x2051 class=0x020000
dev.ath.0.%parent: pci4
dev.ath.0.smoothing_rate: 95
dev.ath.0.sample_rate: 10
dev.ath.0.countrycode: 0
dev.ath.0.regdomain: 55
dev.ath.0.slottime: 9
dev.ath.0.acktimeout: 48
dev.ath.0.ctstimeout: 48
dev.ath.0.softled: 0
dev.ath.0.ledpin: 0
dev.ath.0.ledon: 0
dev.ath.0.ledidle: 2700
dev.ath.0.txantenna: 0
dev.ath.0.rxantenna: 1
dev.ath.0.diversity: 1
dev.ath.0.txintrperiod: 5
dev.ath.0.diag: 0
dev.ath.0.tpscale: 0
dev.ath.0.tpc: 0
dev.ath.0.tpack: 63
dev.ath.0.tpcts: 63
dev.ath.0.fftxqmin: 2
dev.ath.0.fftxqmax: 50
dev.ath.0.monpass: 24
WIDEBAND-AP#
>How-To-Repeat:
Just add a high power PCI Atheros based Card
>Fix:
Maximum txpower should be ablel to be achived.
>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted:
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