WI(4)							   BSD Kernel Interfaces Manual 						     WI(4)

NAME

     wi -- WaveLAN/IEEE and PRISM-II 802.11 wireless network driver

SYNOPSIS

     wi* at pcmcia? function ?
     wi* at pci? dev ? function ?

DESCRIPTION

     The wi driver provides support for Lucent Technologies WaveLAN/IEEE PCCARD adapters (also known as WaveLAN II cards) and various
     PCI/MiniPCI/PCCARD adapters which use Intersil PRISM-II and PRISM-2.5 chipsets.  Note that while Lucent sells both ISA and PCMCIA Wave-
     LAN/IEEE devices, the ISA product is actually a PCMCIA card in an ISA to PCMCIA bridge adapter.  Consequently, the wi driver is required for
     both the ISA and PCMCIA NICs.  Also note that some of the PRISM-II adapters works only at 3.3V, hence cardbus(4) support is required for
     those cards to set VCC correctly, even though they are 16-bit cards.

     The core of the WaveLAN/IEEE is the Lucent Hermes controller.  All host/device interaction is via programmed I/O with the Hermes.	The Hermes
     supports 802.11 and 802.3 frames, power management, BSS, WDS and ad-hoc operation modes.  The Silver and the Gold cards of the WaveLAN/IEEE
     also support WEP.	Unlike the other IEEE 802.11 network cards, the WaveLAN Gold cards accept 104 bits key (13 characters) for WEP encryption.
     The Intersil PRISM-II controller supports WEP as well.

     The wi driver encapsulates all traffic as 802.11 frames, however it can receive either 802.11 or 802.3 frames.  Transmit speed is selectable
     between 1Mbps fixed, 2Mbps fixed or 2Mbps with auto fallback.  For WaveLAN/IEEE Turbo adapters, speeds up to 6Mbps are available.	For Wave-
     LAN/IEEE Turbo 11Mbps adapters and PRISM-II adapters, speeds up to 11Mbps are available.

     The wi driver supports configuration of Lucent cards for special ad-hoc operation.  In this mode, the nwid is ignored and stations can commu-
     nicate among each other without the aid of an access point.  Note that this mode is specific to Lucent chips, and not in the IEEE 802.11
     specification.  Due to changes in the implementation of this special ad-hoc mode, Lucent-based cards with different firmware revisions may
     not interoperate in this mode.  This mode is no longer the default and must be selected using the ifconfig(8) (media option ``adhoc,flag0'')
     utility.

     Recent versions of Lucent and PRISM-II firmware support IBSS creation.  IBSS is the standard IEEE 802.11 ad-hoc mode.  In this mode, the nwid
     should be specified.  At least one node must be able to create IBSS.  The IBSS mode is enabled by ``adhoc'' or ``ibss'' media option.  IBSS
     creation is automatically enabled if supported.

     The wi driver defaults to infrastructure mode (i.e., using an access point).

     Recent versions of PRISM-II firmware support operating as an 802.11 Access Point.	In this mode, the Access Point station should set the
     nwid.  This will create a standard 802.11 network, and the Access Point station will show up in an Access Point scan.  This mode is enabled
     using the ``hostap'' media option.

     For more information on configuring this device, see ifconfig(8) and ifmedia(4).

HARDWARE

     Cards supported by the wi driver include:

	   Alvarion BreezeNET
	   Lucent WaveLAN/IEEE 2.0Mb Bronze
	   Lucent WaveLAN/IEEE 2.0Mb Silver
	   Lucent WaveLAN/IEEE Turbo
	   Lucent WaveLAN/IEEE Turbo 11Mbps
	   Melco AIR CONNECT WLI-PCM-L11, WLI-PCM-L11G
	   Melco AIR CONNECT WLI-CF-S11G
	   Compaq WL100 11Mbps Wireless
	   Corega Wireless LAN PCC-11, PCCA_11, PCCB_11
	   DEC/Cabletron RoamAbout 802.11 DS High Rate
	   D-Link DWL-520 11Mbps PCI Card, Revs. A1,A2,B1,B2
	   D-Link DWL-520 11Mbps PCI Card, Rev. C1 not supported, see atw(4)
	   D-Link DWL-520 11Mbps PCI Card, Rev. D not supported, see rtw(4)
	   D-Link DWL-650 11Mbps WLAN Card
	   D-Link DWL-650 11Mbps WLAN Card, Rev. P not supported (Prism 3 chipset)
	   D-Link DCF-650W CF Card
	   ELECOM Air@Hawk LD-WL11
	   ELSA AirLancer MC-11
	   Ericsson Wireless LAN
	   Farallon Skyline 11Mbps Wireless
	   Intel PRO/Wireless 2011 LAN PC Card
	   ICOM SL-1100
	   IO-DATA WN-B11/PCM
	   Intersil PRISM Mini-PCI
	   Linksys Group, Inc. Instant Wireless Network PC Card, CF Card
	   Linksys Group, Inc. Instant Wireless Network WMP11 PCI Card
	   Linksys Group, Inc. Instant Wireless Network WMP11v4 PCI Card not supported
	   NCR WaveLAN/IEEE
	   NEC Wireless Card CMZ-RT-WP, PK-WL001, PC-WL/11C
	   PLANEX GeoWave/GW-NS110
	   Symbol Spectrum24 Wireless Networker PC Card, CF Card
	   TDK LAK-CD011WL
	   SMC EZ Connect 11M Wireless CF Card SMC2642W
	   SMC EliteConnect Wireless Adapter PC Card SMC2531W-B
	   Z-Com XI-626 PCI Card

     The original PRISM-I chipset is supported by the awi(4) driver.

DIAGNOSTICS

     wi%d: init failed	The WaveLAN failed to come ready after an initialization command was issued.

     wi%d: failed to allocate %d bytes on NIC  The driver was unable to allocate memory for transmit frames in the NIC's on-board RAM.

     wi%d: device timeout  The WaveLAN failed to generate an interrupt to acknowledge a transmit command.

SEE ALSO

     arp(4), ifmedia(4), netintro(4), pci(4), pcmcia(4), ifconfig(8), wiconfig(8)

     HCF Light programming specification, http://www.wavelan.com.

HISTORY

     The wi device driver first appeared in NetBSD 1.5.

AUTHORS

     The wi driver was written by Bill Paul <wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu>.

BUGS

     The execution of wiconfig(8) while the interface is down can produce some error messages.

BSD
								   July 6, 2005 							       BSD