From owner-freebsd-wireless@FreeBSD.ORG Sun May 6 14:21:57 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-wireless@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 122A21065672 for ; Sun, 6 May 2012 14:21:57 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from ryan@jptech.ca) Received: from mail-qa0-f49.google.com (mail-qa0-f49.google.com [209.85.216.49]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BC3FE8FC0C for ; Sun, 6 May 2012 14:21:56 +0000 (UTC) Received: by qabj40 with SMTP id j40so2464855qab.15 for ; Sun, 06 May 2012 07:21:55 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=jptech.ca; s=google; h=mime-version:date:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type; bh=stfLVxjr95Saj9xe2z2S36QDf2zv7itL78dnxNVPBQs=; b=G9bnqBTThKI8d/n/sJvxXTq3XVMFUEGZzIlLJj6yTPka2BCkkxzNPqfrpgq+GuRnOi 7kYb5lccWDmocgSFghzfvsx/V0Uag5Wpkj/81MOYzYt+tL2jXbaaFp5PCOmYwn3HGkO1 eoUgxx9yN8HKKUUtL8MazwLGQD/5JP6mfw+3I= X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=google.com; s=20120113; h=mime-version:date:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type :x-gm-message-state; bh=stfLVxjr95Saj9xe2z2S36QDf2zv7itL78dnxNVPBQs=; b=DZ5gpHoTHN0hHcFt/38IiswBSZwS4nzTBTIp1CxpuBEGLS7ojii6m8zCfQVZ5k6yqx QnxCirC1TUfsXt9eoaAOMb8kIyYymWtpWXNa5URqrKZfURuhxjuFXhRHFNM+ho9yuLiE Mjgx3Ue02tr/p1LtfSBW5bJxC4V5sNGxNz6yEfjYQao9R9M8Jejnwi6OnCPK+MaIPgcs VyG3/dJt8IKSrQxs4ASOfVwmJ/GyixC5kuGNP94cbpBSRC6Zl95nZqeVdzyPDh7DOHDK u36+xPZI6wjfJUG1zrHVpLSfa5pHRb6hFB6eNtzQii5Sbb33CoiSrhePQiZQnxiTEcSQ qyVA== MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.224.34.9 with SMTP id j9mr13849250qad.14.1336314115219; Sun, 06 May 2012 07:21:55 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.229.213.130 with HTTP; Sun, 6 May 2012 07:21:55 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sun, 6 May 2012 08:21:55 -0600 Message-ID: From: Ryan J To: freebsd-wireless@freebsd.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 X-Gm-Message-State: ALoCoQnaEhXlhxxPunnucArpWhk8rVykr4KWQZ+r2n37QJ1lMLv71/33Vg8UNifPxCdxZXNCF5jA Subject: Where can I find information about the txpower and txpowmax values from ifconfig? X-BeenThere: freebsd-wireless@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Discussions of 802.11 stack, tools device driver development." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 06 May 2012 14:21:57 -0000 I've been having trouble figuring out what the txpower and txmaxpow values shown by ifconfig actually represent. I was asking about them on the pfSense forums previously, but I think this list may be more appropriate now. http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,48814.0.html I have an Atheros (AR2413) card that should max out at 26dBm. Running "ifconfig -v ath0_wlan0" shows "txpowmax 50.0" and "txpower 30" using "regdomain FCC country CA indoor". I'm confused about what those values actually mean. I know they're input in increments of .5dBm and stored (internally) as integers, but the values I have don't make sense. Having a txpowmax of 25dBm (50.0 * .5) would make sense for my card since it has tolerances of +1dBm / -1.5dBm, but I don't understand why txmaxpow would be shown in increments of 2xdBm when txpower appears to be using 1xdBm. Also, why would my card be allowed above 26dBm? I've also seen mailing list posts where people have a value for txpower that is greater than txpowmax. For example: http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-drivers/2008-July/000742.html In that post txpowmax is 18.0 and txpower is 31.5. Since it doesn't make sense to me, I'm guessing txmaxpow and txpower don't mean what I think they do. Would anyone be able to explain what kind of values I should be seeing? Ryan