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[RFC] Wireless extensions rethink

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Subject: [RFC] Wireless extensions rethink
From: "Feldman, Scott" <scott.feldman@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 7 Jun 2004 11:33:10 -0700
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Thread-topic: [RFC] Wireless extensions rethink
Jeff suggested in an earlier post that there is an opportunity to
totally rethink the wireless extensions now that we have wireless-2.6.

Let's get rid of the iotcl and /proc interfaces as Jeff suggests:

1) iw_handler API goes away and is replaced by struct 
   net_device::wireless_ops (ala ethtool_ops).
2) sysfs get/set mapping for wireless_ops.
3) iw_statistics just becomes one of the wireless_ops.
4) Remove /proc/net/wireless support from wireless.c.  (Already
   have sysfs support for the same :)
5) No private handler support.  If you need private support,
   pass it in some other way (custom sysfs of modparam).  Or, 
   better yet, make a case that others could benefit and move
   into wireless_ops as standard.
6) Convert drivers from iw_handler and iw_statistics to
   wireless_ops.
7) Rewrite iw* tools to use sysfs interface rather than ioctl.
   (scriptable tools?)
8) [Optional] Remove iotcl interface.  May want to keep for
   backward compat with legacy tools?  Easy to map between
   ioctl and wireless_ops in wireless.c.
9) [Open] What to do about wireless events?  Any ideas?

Proposed sysfs layout:

        class/
        `-- net
            |-- eth[x]
                |-- wireless
                    |-- statistics
                    |   |-- beacon
                        |   |-- crypt
                    |   `-- ...
                    `-- control
                        |-- commit
                        |-- name
                        |-- network_id
                        |-- freq
                        `-- ...

Is someone already working on this???

Comments?

-scott


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