WLAN

Wireless LAN (WLAN) is a technology based on the IEEE 802.11 standard that operates at the physical and data link layers of the OSI model which allows the connection of wireless devices. In OSDX, the WLAN configuration is defined by two elements, Controllers and Interfaces. Controllers model the physical related characteristics of the wireless link while interfaces focus on the logical ones.

Regulatory domains

A regulatory domain defines a set of restrictions applicable to WLAN capable devices. Due to the existing regulations, all OSDX WLAN capable devices are shipped with predefined regulatory domain that cannot be changed through of configuration. The following table shows all the regulatory domains supported by OSDX devices.

Regulatory domain

Default country

Description

etsi

DE

European Telecommunications Standards Institute

fcc

US

Federal Communications Commission

nom

MX

Norma Oficial Mexicana

row

NA

Rest of the world

Note that, for each domain there is a default country. Use the following table to find out the regulatory domain present in your target country.

Country list:

Country code

Country name

Regulatory domain

NA

NAMIBIA

row

AF

AFGHANISTAN

row

AL

ALBANIA

etsi

DZ

ALGERIA

row

AS

AMERICAN SAMOA

row

AI

ANGUILLA

row

AR

ARGENTINA

row

AM

ARMENIA

row

AW

ARUBA

row

AU

AUSTRALIA

row

AT

AUSTRIA

etsi

AZ

AZERBAIJAN

row

BS

BAHAMAS

row

BH

BAHRAIN

row

BD

BANGLADESH

row

BB

BARBADOS

row

BY

BELARUS

row

BE

BELGIUM

etsi

BZ

BELIZE

row

BM

BERMUDA

row

BT

BHUTAN

row

BO

BOLIVIA

row

BA

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

etsi

BR

BRAZIL

row

BN

BRUNEI DARUSSALAM

row

BG

BULGARIA

etsi

BF

BURKINA FASO

row

KH

CAMBODIA

row

CA

CANADA

row

KY

CAYMAN ISLANDS

row

CF

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

row

TD

CHAD

row

CL

CHILE

row

CN

CHINA

row

CX

CHRISTMAS ISLAND

row

CO

COLOMBIA

row

CR

COSTA RICA

row

HR

CROATIA

etsi

CY

CYPRUS

etsi

CZ

CZECHIA

etsi

DK

DENMARK

etsi

DM

DOMINICA

row

DO

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

row

EC

ECUADOR

row

EG

EGYPT

row

SV

EL SALVADOR

row

EE

ESTONIA

etsi

ET

ETHIOPIA

row

FI

FINLAND

etsi

FR

FRANCE

etsi

GF

FRENCH GUIANA

row

PF

FRENCH POLYNESIA

row

GE

GEORGIA

row

DE

GERMANY

etsi

GH

GHANA

row

GI

GIBRALTAR

etsi

GR

GREECE

etsi

GL

GREENLAND

row

GD

GRENADA

row

GP

GUADELOUPE

row

GU

GUAM

row

GT

GUATEMALA

row

GY

GUYANA

row

HT

HAITI

row

HN

HONDURAS

row

HK

HONG KONG

row

HU

HUNGARY

etsi

IS

ICELAND

etsi

IN

INDIA

row

ID

INDONESIA

row

IQ

IRAQ

row

IE

IRELAND

etsi

IL

ISRAEL

row

IT

ITALY

etsi

CI

COTE D'IVOIRE

row

JM

JAMAICA

row

JP

JAPAN

row

JO

JORDAN

row

KZ

KAZAKHSTAN

row

KE

KENYA

row

KR

REPUBLIC OF KOREA

row

KW

KUWAIT

row

LV

LATVIA

etsi

LB

LEBANON

row

LS

LESOTHO

row

LI

LIECHTENSTEIN

etsi

LT

LITHUANIA

etsi

LU

LUXEMBOURG

etsi

MO

MACAU

row

MK

NORTH MACEDONIA

etsi

MW

MALAWI

row

MY

MALAYSIA

row

MV

MALDIVES

row

MT

MALTA

etsi

MH

MARSHALL ISLANDS

row

MQ

MARTINIQUE

row

MR

MAURITANIA

row

MU

MAURITIUS

row

YT

MAYOTTE

row

MX

MEXICO

nom

FM

FEDERATED STATES OF MICRONESIA

row

MD

REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA

etsi

MC

MONACO

etsi

MN

MONGOLIA

row

ME

MONTENEGRO

etsi

MA

MOROCCO

row

NP

NEPAL

row

NL

NETHERLANDS

etsi

NZ

NEW ZEALAND

row

NI

NICARAGUA

row

NG

NIGERIA

row

NO

NORWAY

etsi

MP

NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS

row

OM

OMAN

row

PK

PAKISTAN

row

PW

PALAU

row

PA

PANAMA

row

PG

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

row

PY

PARAGUAY

row

PE

PERU

row

PH

PHILIPPINES

row

PL

POLAND

etsi

PT

PORTUGAL

etsi

PR

PUERTO RICO

row

QA

QATAR

row

RE

REUNION

row

RO

ROMANIA

etsi

RU

RUSSIA FEDERATION

row

RW

RWANDA

row

BL

SAINT BARTHELEMY

row

KN

SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS

row

LC

SAINT LUCIA

row

MF

SAINT MARTIN

row

PM

SAINT PIERRE AND MIQUELON

row

VC

SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES

row

WS

SAMOA

row

SA

SAUDI ARABIA

row

SN

SENEGAL

row

RS

SERBIA

etsi

SG

SINGAPORE

row

SK

SLOVAKIA

etsi

SI

SLOVENIA

etsi

ZA

SOUTH AFRICA

row

ES

SPAIN

etsi

LK

SRI LANKA

row

SR

SURINAME

row

SE

SWEDEN

etsi

CH

SWITZERLAND

etsi

TW

TAIWAN

row

TZ

TANZANIA

row

TG

TOGO

row

TH

THAILAND

row

TT

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

row

TN

TUNISIA

row

TR

TURKEY

etsi

TC

TURKS AND CAICOS

row

UG

UGANDA

row

UA

UKRAINE

row

AE

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

row

GB

UNITED KINGDOM

etsi

US

UNITED STATES

row

UY

URUGUAY

row

UZ

UZBEKISTAN

row

VU

VANUATU

row

VE

VENEZUELA

row

VN

VIETNAM

row

VI

VIRGIN ISLANDS

row

WF

WALLIS AND FUTUNA

row

YE

YEMEN

row

ZW

ZIMBABWE

row

Controllers

Physical-related parameters and common interface ones are configured by mean of the WLAN controllers. All WLAN controllers are pre-allocated during boot-up, meaning the creation and deletion actions are not supported. Depending on the characteristics of the associated radio module, some parameters will only accept a specific set values. OSDX provides a command that lists all the relevant information from the CLI.

admin@Kaio$ controllers wlan show capabilities

Phy: wifi0
        modes: 802.11ax,802.11g,802.11n
        stations: 512
        bandwidths: 20MHz,40MHz
        bands: 2.4GHz
        tx-power: 11,10,13,12,15,14,17,16,19,18,5,8,7,6,9,20
        vht-capabilities: [SU-BEAMFORMEE][RXLDPC][BF-ANTENNA-4][TX-STBC-2BY1][MU-BEAMFORMER][SOUNDING-DIMENSION-4][SU-BEAMFORMER][MAX-MPDU-11454][RX-ANTENNA-PATTERN][TX-ANTENNA-PATTERN][RX-STBC-1][MAX-A-MPDU-LEN-EXP7]
        supported-channels: 11,10,13,12,14,1,3,2,5,4,7,6,9,8
        vaps: 16
        spatial-streams: 1,3,2,4
        ht-capabilities: [DSSS_CCK-40][LDPC][TX-STBC][MAX-AMSDU-7935][RX-STBC1][SMPS-DYNAMIC]
        max-tx-power: 20

Phy: wifi1
        modes: 802.11a,802.11ax,802.11ac,802.11n
        stations: 512
        bandwidths: 20MHz,80MHz,40MHz
        bands: 5GHz
        tx-power: 11,10,13,12,15,14,17,16,19,18,22,21,5,8,7,6,9,20,23
        vht-capabilities: [SU-BEAMFORMEE][RXLDPC][TX-STBC-2BY1][MU-BEAMFORMER][SOUNDING-DIMENSION-4][SU-BEAMFORMER][MAX-MPDU-11454][RX-ANTENNA-PATTERN][TX-ANTENNA-PATTERN][RX-STBC-1][MAX-A-MPDU-LEN-EXP7]
        supported-channels: 153,157,60,132,116,64,136,112,177,173,48,44,40,144,140,149,120,108,124,169,128,165,100,161,104,56,36,52
        vaps: 16
        spatial-streams: 1,3,2,4
        ht-capabilities: [DSSS_CCK-40][LDPC][TX-STBC][MAX-AMSDU-7935][RX-STBC1][SMPS-DYNAMIC]
        max-tx-power: 23

Default values may apply if a parameter is not configured.

Warning

Note that, regardless of the default values, at least one controller parameter must be set to consider the configuration valid.

Wlan Channels

Channel selection depends on several factors: regulatory domain, band and bandwidth. The following tables can be used to know which channels will be available on the selected band. Note that depending on the configured bandwidth, some channels will not be available since some of the frequencies could fall out of the spectrum.

2.4GHz band

Frequency

Channel

Regulatory Domains

2412

1

etsi fcc nom row

2417

2

etsi fcc nom row

2422

3

etsi fcc nom row

2427

4

etsi fcc nom row

2432

5

etsi fcc nom row

2437

6

etsi fcc nom row

2442

7

etsi fcc nom row

2447

8

etsi fcc nom row

2452

9

etsi fcc nom row

2457

10

etsi fcc nom row

2462

11

etsi fcc nom row

2467

12

etsi nom row

2472

13

etsi nom row

2484

14

row

5GHz band

Frequency

Channel

Installation

CAC

Regulatory domains

5180

36

indoor (etsi)

etsi fcc nom row

5200

40

indoor (etsi)

etsi fcc nom row

5220

44

indoor (etsi)

etsi fcc nom row

5240

48

indoor (etsi)

etsi fcc nom row

5260

52

indoor (etsi)

1 min

etsi fcc nom row

5280

56

indoor (etsi)

1 min

etsi fcc nom row

5300

60

indoor (etsi)

1 min

etsi fcc nom row

5320

64

indoor (etsi)

1 min

etsi fcc nom row

5500

100

indoor/outdoor (etsi)

1 min

etsi fcc nom row

5520

104

indoor/outdoor (etsi)

1 min

etsi fcc nom row

5540

108

indoor/outdoor (etsi)

1 min

etsi fcc nom row

5560

112

indoor/outdoor (etsi)

1 min

etsi fcc nom row

5580

116

indoor/outdoor (etsi)

1 min

etsi fcc nom row

5600

120

indoor/outdoor (etsi)

10 mins

etsi fcc row

5620

124

indoor/outdoor (etsi)

10 mins

etsi fcc row

5640

128

indoor/outdoor (etsi)

10 mins

etsi fcc row

5660

132

indoor/outdoor (etsi)

1 min

etsi fcc nom row

5680

136

indoor/outdoor (etsi)

1 min

etsi fcc nom row

5700

140

indoor/outdoor (etsi)

1 min

etsi fcc nom row

5720

144

1 min

fcc nom row

5745

149

1 min

fcc nom row

5765

153

1 min

fcc nom row

5785

157

1 min

fcc nom row

5805

161

1 min

fcc nom row

5825

165

1 min

fcc nom row

Interfaces

Network-specific parameters are configured under the interface wlan section, with phy and type being mandatory. The maximum number of interfaces allowed depends on the platform and can be checked using the show capabilities command described in the Controllers section.

Router capable devices, like the Teldat M2 and M10 models have pre-allocated WLAN interfaces that only accept a specific phy and type when configured:

Interface

Phy

Type

wlan0

wifi0

station

wlan1

wifi0

access-point

wlan2

wifi0

access-point

wlan3

wifi1

station

wlan4

wifi1

access-point

wlan5

wifi1

access-point

There are two types of WLAN interfaces supported by all wireless capable devices: access-point and station. An additional mode, called monitor, is also supported by the APs. These three types are described in the following sections.

Interfaces and controllers

Once the device has at least one interface configured on top of a controller, the status of the device can be check using the show status command.

admin@osdx# run controllers wlan show status

Phy: wifi0
        Status: up
        Band: 2.4GHz
        Channel: 13
        Bandwidth: 20MHz
        Tx-Power: 15dBm

Phy: wifi1
        Status: cac (13 seconds remaining)

Access-point

This type implements the infrastructure mode where wireless devices connect to an access-point that forwards the packets between the connected stations and the wired network. Note that the access-point is the center point for all communications (unlike what happens with the ad-hoc mode, where connections between stations are point-to-point).

Security

All OSDX WLAN capable devices support the following security modes for the access-point role:

mode

akms

security framework

unicast ciphers

pmf

none

WPA personal

psk

wpav1

tkip aes-ccmp

WPA2 personal

psk ft-psk

rsn

tkip aes-ccmp

WPA/WPA2 personal

psk ft-psk

wpav1 rsn

tkip aes-ccmp

WPA3 personal

psk-256 sae ft-sae owe

rsn

aes-ccmp aes-ccmp-256 aes-gcmp aes-gcmp-256

pmf required

WPA2/WPA3 personal

psk psk-256 ft-psk sae ft-sae owe-transition

rsn

aes-ccmp aes-ccmp-256 aes-gcmp aes-gcmp-256

pmf optional / pmf required (owe-transition)

WPA enterprise

dot1x

wpav1

tkip aes-ccmp

WPA2 enterprise

dot1x ft-dot1x

rsn

tkip aes-ccmp

WPA/WPA2 enterprise

dot1x ft-dot1x

wpav1 rsn

tkip aes-ccmp

WPA3 enterprise

dot1x-256 cnsa

rsn

aes-ccmp aes-ccmp-256 aes-gcmp aes-gcmp-256 (cnsa)

pmf required

WPA2/WPA3 enterprise

dot1x dot1x-256 ft-dot1x

rsn

aes-ccmp aes-ccmp-256 aes-gcmp aes-gcmp-256

pmf optional

Note that some security modes may call for additional parameters to be configured. On such cases, the CLI will report an error message to inform the user about the problem.

For example, the following lines show how to configure an access-point interface in WPA3 personal mode:

set interfaces wlan wlan0 bridge-group bridge br0
set interfaces wlan wlan0 phy wifi1
set interfaces wlan wlan0 type access-point security akm sae
set interfaces wlan wlan0 type access-point security psk-passphrase 1234567890
set interfaces wlan wlan0 type access-point security pairwise-ciphers aes-ccmp
set interfaces wlan wlan0 type access-point security pmf required
set interfaces wlan wlan0 type access-point ssid test_network

Note that the security framework is automatically configured based on the values set under akm, pairwise-ciphers and wpav1 pairwise-ciphers.

Station

This type implements the station or client mode where the interface connects to an access point operating in infrastructure mode to provide connectivity through the air.

Client mode is configured via networks. A network is just a set of rules that is evaluated when looking for a valid target so the first valid one with the highest priority is used. The network priority is identified by mean of the index and is evaluated in descending order (1 being the highest priority and 16 the lowest). This configuration method gives the administrator a lot of flexibility when working in complex deployments allowing the interface to connect to different networks based on many conditions.

Warning

Note that only 1 interface in station mode per radio is supported in OSDX.

The security configuration is almost the same as the one described under the Access-point section. The only difference is that the owe-transition mode is not allowed, since it doesn’t make sense in station mode. For example, the following excerpt shows how to configure an interface in station mode using WPA3 personal security:

set interfaces wlan wlan0 phy wifi1
set interfaces wlan wlan0 type station network 1 security akm sae
set interfaces wlan wlan0 type station network 1 security pmf required
set interfaces wlan wlan0 type station network 1 security psk-passphrase 1234567890
set interfaces wlan wlan0 type station network 1 ssid test_24ghz

Eap methods MSCHAPv2, TTL, TTLS (with MD5, MSCHAPv2 and TTL) and PEAP (with MD5 with MSCHAPv2) are also supported. On the next example, a station will try to connect to a network with WPA3 Enterprise security using the TTLS-TTL EAP method (that is, a TTL tunnel with certificates). Make sure the device has the ca.pem, client.pem and client.key certificates in the /config/auth/certificates folder.

set interfaces wlan wlan0 phy wifi0
set interfaces wlan wlan0 type station network 1 security akm cnsa
set interfaces wlan wlan0 type station network 1 security ca-certificate 'running://auth/certificates/ca.pem'
set interfaces wlan wlan0 type station network 1 security client-certificate 'running://auth/certificates/client.pem'
set interfaces wlan wlan0 type station network 1 security client-private-key 'running://auth/certificates/client.key'
set interfaces wlan wlan0 type station network 1 security client-private-password whatever
set interfaces wlan wlan0 type station network 1 security eap-method ttls inner-method tls
set interfaces wlan wlan0 type station network 1 security framework rsn
set interfaces wlan wlan0 type station network 1 security identity user
set interfaces wlan wlan0 type station network 1 security pmf required
set interfaces wlan wlan0 type station network 1 ssid test_radius

Monitor

In monitor mode, the interface is able to capture the traffic on the configured channel without being connected to the target network.

Warning

Monitor mode is only supported by the APs. Only 1 interface in monitor mode per radio is supported in OSDX.

For example, the following configuration shows how to set an AP to capture the traffic on channel 36 of the 5GHz band.

set controllers wlan installation indoor
set controllers wlan radios wifi1 channel 36
set interfaces wlan wlan0 phy wifi1
set interfaces wlan wlan0 type monitor

The traffic can be later analyzed with the traffic dump tool with the wlan0 interface as filter.

admin@osdx$ traffic dump monitor interface wlan0
tcpdump: verbose output suppressed, use -v or -vv for full protocol decode
listening on wlan0, link-type IEEE802_11_RADIO (802.11 plus radiotap header), capture size 262144 bytes
03:33:52.448859 8198636505us tsft bad-fcs 12.0 Mb/s 5180 MHz 11a -98dBm signal 0dBm noise antenna 0 unknown 802.11 ctrl frame subtype (5)
03:33:52.466432 8198654122us tsft 6.0 Mb/s 5180 MHz 11a -98dBm signal 0dBm noise antenna 0 Beacon (SSID) [6.0* 9.0 12.0* 18.0 24.0* 36.0 48.0 54.0 Mbit] ESS CH: 36, PRIVACY
03:33:52.467060 8198654767us tsft 6.0 Mb/s 5180 MHz 11a -99dBm signal 0dBm noise antenna 0 Beacon () [6.0* 9.0 12.0* 18.0 24.0* 36.0 48.0 54.0 Mbit] ESS CH: 36, PRIVACY
03:33:52.568841 8198756521us tsft 6.0 Mb/s 5180 MHz 11a -99dBm signal 0dBm noise antenna 0 Beacon (SSID) [6.0* 9.0 12.0* 18.0 24.0* 36.0 48.0 54.0 Mbit] ESS CH: 36, PRIVACY
03:33:52.569468 8198757166us tsft 6.0 Mb/s 5180 MHz 11a -100dBm signal 0dBm noise antenna 0 Beacon () [6.0* 9.0 12.0* 18.0 24.0* 36.0 48.0 54.0 Mbit] ESS CH: 36, PRIVACY
03:33:52.569742 8198757433us tsft 6.0 Mb/s 5180 MHz 11a -99dBm signal 0dBm noise antenna 0 Data IV:ed72 Pad 20 KeyID 1

Examples

Here, you can find different examples of these options.

Command Summary

Configuration commands

Operational commands