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.\" $FreeBSD: release/9.1.0/share/man/man9/ieee80211_beacon.9 197300 2009-09-18 00:33:47Z brueffer $
.\"
.Dd August 4, 2009
.Dt IEEE80211_BEACON 9
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm ieee80211_beacon
.Nd 802.11 beacon support
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.In net80211/ieee80211_var.h
.Pp
.Ft "struct mbuf *"
.Fo ieee80211_beacon_alloc
.Fa "struct ieee80211_node *"
.Fa "struct ieee80211_beacon_offsets *"
.Fc
.\"
.Ft int
.Fo ieee80211_beacon_update
.Fa "struct ieee80211_node *"
.Fa "struct ieee80211_beacon_offsets *"
.Fa "struct mbuf *"
.Fa "int mcast"
.Fc
.\"
.Ft void
.Fn ieee80211_beacon_notify "struct ieee80211vap *" "int what"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm net80211
software layer provides a support framework for drivers that includes
a template-based mechanism for dynamic update of beacon frames transmit
in hostap, adhoc, and mesh operating modes.
Drivers should use
.Fn ieee80211_beacon_alloc
to create an initial beacon frame.
The
.Vt ieee80211_beacon_offsets
structure holds information about the beacon contents that is used
to optimize updates done with
.Fn ieee80211_beacon_update .
.Pp
Update calls should only be done when something changes that
affects the contents of the beacon frame.
When this happens the
.Dv iv_update_beacon
method is invoked and a driver-supplied routine must do the right thing.
For devices that involve the host to transmit each
beacon frame this work may be as simple as marking a bit in the
.Vt ieee80211_beacon_offsets
structure:
.Bd -literal
static void
ath_beacon_update(struct ieee80211vap *vap, int item)
{
        struct ieee80211_beacon_offsets *bo = &ATH_VAP(vap)->av_boff;
	setbit(bo->bo_flags, item);
}
.Ed
.Pp
with the
.Fn ieee80211_beacon_update
call done before the next beacon is to be sent.
.Pp
Devices that off-load beacon generation may instead choose to use
this callback to push updates immediately to the device.
Exactly how that is accomplished is unspecified.
One possibility is to update the beacon frame contents and extract
the appropriate information element, but other scenarios are possible.
.Sh MULTI-VAP BEACON SCHEDULING
Drivers that support multiple vaps that can each beacon need to consider
how to schedule beacon frames.
There are two possibilities at the moment:
.Em burst
all beacons at TBTT or
.Em stagger beacons
over the beacon interval.
Bursting beacon frames may result in aperiodic delivery that can affect
power save operation of associated stations.
Applying some jitter (e.g. by randomly ordering burst frames) may be
sufficient to combat this and typically this is not an issue unless
stations are using aggressive power save techniques
such as U-APSD (sometimes employed by VoIP phones).
Staggering frames requires more interrupts and device support that
may not be available.
Staggering beacon frames is usually superior to bursting frames, up to
about eight vaps, at which point the overhead becomes significant and
the channel becomes noticeably busy anyway.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr ieee80211 9