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Comparison Draft 802.11s with open80211s
The following table analyzes each section of the 802.11s draft specification with
respect to the open80211s implementation. References to section numbers,
figures or tables in the 802.11s draft are identified by the following shorthand
format: {s,t,f}
<number>. For instance, s3.03:7.0 would represent
Section 7.0 of the 802.11s draft version 3.03. When no version number is
explicitely given, the current version 7.03 is implied. Related section elements
have been grouped and abbreviated as N -M (all sections between N and M) or
P,Q,S (sections P, Q and S).
The version of open80211s used in this review is the one from the
wireless-testing repository, commit id da615f8f710975c90c.
The “Implemented?” column provides the implementation status of each
section and is one of the following: Yes, No, Inherited, Partially or Don’t Know.
Inherited means that the section was not implemented as part of the
open80211s effort but that it is provided by mac80211. The rest are
self-explanatory.
Section
Implemented?
Notes
s7.1.3.1.3
Yes
s7.1.3.1.6
No
s7.1.3.1.7
Inherited
s7.1.3.1.8
Inherited
s7.1.3.5.0a
No
Mesh Control Present needs
to be added.
s7.1.3.5.2
Don’t Know
s7.1.3.5.3
Don’t Know
s7.1.3.5.9
No
Mesh Control Present needs
to be added.
s7.1.3.5.10
No
No Power Management.
s7.1.3.5.11
No
No Power Management.
s7.1.3.6.3
Yes
Mesh Control
Address extesion now uses 3
addresses instead of 3.
s7.2.2.1
Yes
Mesh Control
Address extesion now uses
3 addresses instead of 3. No
Protected Frames.
s7.2.2.2
No
Might be inherited at some
point.
s7.2.3.0a
Partially
No Multihop Action
Frames.
s7.2.3.1
Partially
No TIM. No QoS
Capability.
s7.2.3.6
No
No Authentication Suite for
mesh.
s7.2.3.8
Yes
s7.2.3.9
Partially
No Mesh Awake Window,
Beacon Timing, MCCAOP
Advertisements
nor Mesh Channel Switch
Parameters.
s7.2.3.10
No
No SAE authentication.
s7.3.1.1
No
No SAE authentication.
s7.3.1.4
Yes
s7.3.1.7
Yes
s7.3.1.8
No
s7.3.1.9
No
No SAE.
s7.3.1.11
Partly
Category codes need to be
updated to recent changes
in the draft.
s7.3.1.35-40
No
No SAE.
s7.3.2.1
Yes
s7.3.2.1
Yes
s7.3.2.6
No
No Power Save modes.
s7.3.2.13
Inherited
s7.3.2.20-20a,53
No
Channel Switch not
implemented.
s7.3.2.25.2,4
No
No SAE.
s7.3.2.56.2,5
No
No High Throughput rates
have been tested.
s7.3.2.90
No
No Internetworking
advertisements (emergency
services, etc.)
s7.3.2.96.1
Partially
No Mesh Peering Protocol
Identifier.
s7.3.2.96.2
Yes
s7.3.2.96.3
Yes
s7.3.2.96.4
Yes
s7.3.2.96.5
Yes
s7.3.2.96.6
Yes
s7.3.2.96.7
No
Authenticated Mesh
Peering Exchange Protocol
not implemented.
s7.3.2.96.8
Yes
s7.3.2.96.9
Yes
Only ’Accepting Peerings’
and ’Forwarding’ bits.
s7.3.2.97
Yes
s7.3.2.98
No
s7.3.2.99
No
s7.3.2.100
Partially
The format has changed
and open80211s needs
updating.
s7.3.2.101
No
No Channel Switch.
s7.3.2.101
No
No Channel Switch.
s7.3.2.102-108
No
s7.3.2.109-112
Yes
s7.3.2.113-114
No
No Proxy Updates.
s7.3.2.115-116
No
No Authenticated Mesh
Peering Exchange.
s7.4.1.5
No
No Channel Switch.
s7.4.7.6
No
No Channel Switch.
s7.4.14
No
No 802.11w
support nor Authenticated
Mesh Peering Exchange.
s7.4.15.1
Partially
Formats of action
frames have changed in the
draft and need updating in
open80211s.
s7.4.15.2-3
No
s7.4.15.4
Partially
Functionality
is there, frame formats have
changed slightly.
s7.4.15.5
No
s7.4.15.6
No
s7.4.15.7-11
No
No MCCA.
s7.4.15.7-12-13
No
No beacon adjustments.
s7.4.16.1
No
No Multihop Action
frames.
s7.4.16.2-3
No
No Proxy Updates.
s8
No
No Security.
s9.1
No
No
Mesh Coordinated Channel
Access.
s9.6
No
No MCS (High
Throughput) rates.
s9.9-9a
No
No MCCA.
s9.13
Inherited (maybe)
No HT support, but MCS
rates from mac80211 are
probably usable.
s9.22.2.1
Yes
s9.22.2.2
Yes
s9.22.2.3
Yes
s9.22.2.4
Yes
Except for Multihop
Management Frames.
s9.22.2.5
Yes
Except that the
Recently Received Cache is
only applied to broadcast
frames.
s9.22.2.6
No
No
support for non-forwarding
mesh nodes.
s9.22.3
No
No support for Mesh Gates.
s11.1.0a
No
No clock synchronization.
s11.1.3.2.1
Partially
Probe responses are sent
even if Mesh IDs don’t
match.
s11.3.3
Inherited
s11.8
Inherited
TPC is probably inherited
from IBSS. Not tested.
s11.9
Inherited
DFS is probably inherited
from mac80211. Not tested.
s11.9.7.2a
No
No channel switching.
s11.9a
No
No extended channel
switching.
s11.23
No
No Internetworking
services.
s11A
No
No SAE.
s11C.1
No
No dot11[[MeshActivated]]:
we can join or leave a mesh,
but not activate/deactivate.
s11C.2.1
Yes
s11C.2.2
Yes
s11C.2.3
Partially
Mesh profile lacks Mesh
Peering Protocol Identifier.
s11C.2.4
Partially
Mesh configuration checks
don’t include HT and MCS
rates.
s11C.2.5
Yes
s11C.2.6
Partially
Scanning does not check
Mesh ID.
s11C.2.7
Yes
s11C.2.8
Yes
s11C.3.1
Partially
No security (no AMPE).
f11C-1
Partially
Only the ’Security
Enabled:N’ branch.
s11C.3.2
Yes
s11C.3.3
Yes
s11C.4.1
Partially
No AID assignment and no
TIM.
s11C.4.2
Partially
No AMPE support.
s11C.4.3
Partially
No AMPE support.
s11C.4.4
Yes
Except no peer link ID
check on peer link close to
prevent allow reconnections
after a node loses state.
s11C.5
No
No AMPE support.
s11C.6
No
No Group Key handshake.
s11C.7
Yes
Only HWMP is supported
today, but recent patches
are in their way upstream to
allow vendor specific path
selection algorithms.
s11C.8
Yes
Airtime Link metric
depends on traffic statistics
and on transmission rates.
The formare are provided
by the driver and change
from vendor to vendor. The
latter are computed by the
rate adaptation algorithm
in use, which is configurable
and also can change from
vendor to vendor.
s11C.9.1
Yes
s11C.9.2
Yes
s11C.9.3
Yes
s11C.9.4
Yes
s11C.9.5
Inherited
Using the kernel’s bridging
support.
s11C.9.6-12
Yes
s11C.9.13
No
s11C.10.1
Partially
Mesh gates have limited
functionality and are not
advertised into the mesh.
s11C.9.10.2
No
No Gate announcement
protocol.
s11C.9.10.3.1
Yes
s11C.9.10.3.2
Yes
s11C.9.10.3.3
Partially
Clauses (a) and (d) are not
implemented. Clauses (b)
and (c) are.
s11C.9.10.4
No
No Proxy protocol.
s11C.10.5
Inherited
Policy enforced by
mac80211.
s11C.11
No
No intra-mesh congestion
control.
s11C.12.1-2
No
No synchronization.
s11C.12.3.1
Yes
Beaconing is highly
dependent on hardware and
driver.
s11C.12.3.2
No
Timing information on
beacons is unused.
s11C.12.4
No
No Mesh Beacon Collision
Avoidance.
s11C.13
No
No Power save in MBSS.
7.1 High Level Feature Summary
This section provides a high level summary of the implemented and missing
features in open80211s. These are listed in Figures 1 and 2 respectively.
- Frame Formats (Data and Management)
- Frame Forwarding
- Beaconing
- Mesh Peering
- Path Selection (HWMP and Vendor Specific)
- Link Metric (Airtime and Vendor Specific)
- External-to-external proxying
- Bridging
Figure 1: Implemented features
- Security (Simultaneous Authentication of Equals)
- Synchronization
- Contention-free access (Mesh Coordinated Channel Access)
- Beacon Collision Avoidance
- Gate Announcement Protocol
- External-to-internal proxying
- Proxy Protocol
- Power Save
- High Throughput rates
Figure 2: Missing features