brcm80211

brcm80211 is a completely FOSS wireless driver for BCM4313, BCM43224, BCM43225 chipsets.

Overview

• Completely open source host driver, no binary object files

• Features Broadcom's OneDriver architecture (single source base for supported chips and architectures)

• On-chip firmware loaded using standard request_firmware()
• Support for BCM43224, BCM43225, BCM4313 (PCIe NIC)
• Framework for supporting new chips, including mac80211-aware embedded chips
• Does not support older PCI/PCIe chips with SSB backplane
• Driver includes BMAC interface for transparent dongle support
• Uses minstrel_ht rate algorithm
• HW based encryption not enabled yet

Whats Done

• initial 'rough' port supports STA mode.
• N phy code for 43225/43225
• LCN phy code for 4313
• Infrastructure for future phys.
• AMPDU support
• 4313 is stable
• many software, ucode and phy/radio counters available.

To Be Done

• 43224/5 has a locking issue, stable with maxcpus=1, can crash otherwise after random period.
• Debugability is poor: Debugfs/tracing is needed. Need a way to get access to counters.
• Only minimal mac80211 interface is implemented, Callbacks need to be filled in more.
• Features to be added: AP mode, powersave, IBSS, 40 Mhz channels ...
• Code needs to be optimized for linux:
  • wl_xxx vs wlc_xxx separation needs to be collapsed and eliminated
  • private utility routines and headers need to be replaced with standard kernel routines and headers.

Supported Chips

Get the code

The driver is currently available in staging-next git tree, available at:

git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/gregkh/staging-next-2.6.git