ATHN(4)                   OpenBSD Programmer's Manual                  ATHN(4)

NAME
     athn - Atheros IEEE 802.11a/g/n wireless network device

SYNOPSIS
     athn* at cardbus?
     athn* at pci?

DESCRIPTION
     The athn driver provides support for a wide variety of Atheros 802.11n
     devices, ranging from the AR5008 up to the AR9287.

     The AR5008 (codenamed Owl) is the first generation of Atheros 802.11n so-
     lutions.  It consists of two chips, a MAC/Baseband Processor and a Radio-
     on-a-Chip.  The MAC/Baseband Processor can be an AR5416 (PCI and CardBus
     form factors) or an AR5418 (PCIe Mini Card form factor).  The radio can
     be an AR2122, AR2133, AR5122 or an AR5133 chip.  The AR2122 chip operates
     in the 2GHz spectrum and supports up to 2 transmit paths and 2 receiver
     paths (2T2R).  The AR2133 chip operates in the 2GHz spectrum and supports
     up to 3 transmit paths and 3 receiver paths (3T3R).  The AR5122 chip op-
     erates in the 2GHz and 5GHz spectra and supports up to 2 transmit paths
     and 2 receiver paths (2T2R).  The AR5133 chip operates in the 2GHz and
     5GHz spectra and supports up to 3 transmit paths and 3 receiver paths
     (3T3R).

     The AR9001 (codenamed Sowl) is a Mini-PCI 802.11n solution.  It consists
     of two chips, an AR9160 MAC/Baseband Processor and an AR9103 or AR9106
     Radio-on-a-Chip.  The AR9103 chip operates in the 2GHz spectrum and sup-
     ports up to 3 transmit paths and 3 receiver paths (3T3R).  The AR9106
     chip operates in the 2GHz and 5GHz spectra and supports up to 3 transmit
     paths and 3 receiver paths (3T3R).

     The AR9220, AR9223 and AR9280 (codenamed Merlin) are the first generation
     of Atheros single-chip 802.11n solutions.  The AR9220 and AR9223 exist in
     PCI and Mini-PCI form factors.  The AR9280 exists in PCIe Mini Card
     (XB92) and half Mini Card (HB92) form factors.  The AR9220 and AR9280 op-
     erate in the 2GHz and 5GHz spectra and support 2 transmit paths and 2 re-
     ceiver paths (2T2R).  The AR9223 operates in the 2GHz spectrum and sup-
     ports 2 transmit paths and 2 receiver paths (2T2R).

     The AR9281 is a single-chip PCIe 802.11n solution.  It exists in PCIe Mi-
     ni Card (XB91) and half Mini Card (HB91) form factors.  It operates in
     the 2GHz spectrum and supports 1 transmit path and 2 receiver paths
     (1T2R).

     The AR9285 (codenamed Kite) is a single-chip PCIe 802.11n solution that
     targets the value PC market.  It exists in PCIe half Mini Card (HB95)
     form factor only.  It operates in the 2GHz spectrum and supports a single
     stream (1T1R).  It can be combined with the AR3011 chip to form a combo
     WiFi/Bluetooth device (WB195).

     The AR2427 is a single-chip PCIe 802.11b/g solution similar to the other
     AR9280 solutions but with 802.11n capabilities removed.  It exists in
     PCIe Mini Card form factor only.  It operates in the 2GHz spectrum.

     The AR9227 and AR9287 are single-chip 802.11n solutions that target mid-
     tier PCs.  The AR9227 exists in PCI and Mini-PCI form factors.  The
     AR9287 exists in PCIe half Mini Card (HB97) form factor only.  They oper-
     ate in the 2GHz spectrum and support 2 transmit paths and 2 receiver
     paths (2T2R).

     The following table summarizes the supported chips and their capabili-
     ties.

         Chipset                        Spectrum     Tx/Rx  Bus
         AR5008-2NG (AR5416+AR2122)     2GHz         2x2    PCI/CardBus
         AR5008-3NG (AR5416+AR2133)     2GHz         3x3    PCI/CardBus
         AR5008-2NX (AR5416+AR5122)     2GHz/5GHz    2x2    PCI/CardBus
         AR5008-3NX (AR5416+AR5133)     2GHz/5GHz    3x3    PCI/CardBus
         AR5008E-2NG (AR5418+AR2122)    2GHz         2x2    PCIe
         AR5008E-3NG (AR5418+AR2133)    2GHz         3x3    PCIe
         AR5008E-2NX (AR5418+AR5122)    2GHz/5GHz    2x2    PCIe
         AR5008E-3NX (AR5418+AR5133)    2GHz/5GHz    3x3    PCIe
         AR9001-2NG (AR9160+AR9103)     2GHz         2x2    PCI
         AR9001-3NG (AR9160+AR9103)     2GHz         3x3    PCI
         AR9001-3NX2 (AR9160+AR9106)    2GHz/5GHz    3x3    PCI
         AR9220                         2GHz/5GHz    2x2    PCI
         AR9223                         2GHz         2x2    PCI
         AR9280                         2GHz/5GHz    2x2    PCIe
         AR9281                         2GHz         1x2    PCIe
         AR9285                         2GHz         1x1    PCIe
         AR2427                         2GHz         1x1    PCIe
         AR9227                         2GHz         2x2    PCI
         AR9287                         2GHz         2x2    PCIe

     These are the modes the athn driver can operate in:

     BSS mode       Also known as infrastructure mode, this is used when asso-
                    ciating with an access point, through which all traffic
                    passes.  This mode is the default.

     monitor mode   In this mode the driver is able to receive packets without
                    associating with an access point.  This disables the in-
                    ternal receive filter and enables the card to capture
                    packets from networks which it wouldn't normally have ac-
                    cess to, or to scan for access points.

     The athn driver can be configured to use Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP)
     or Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK).  WPA is the de facto
     encryption standard for wireless networks.  It is strongly recommended
     that WEP not be used as the sole mechanism to secure wireless communica-
     tion, due to serious weaknesses in it.  The athn driver relies on the
     software 802.11 stack for both encryption and decryption of data frames.

     The transmit speed is user-selectable or can be adapted automatically by
     the driver depending on the number of hardware transmission retries.

EXAMPLES
     The following hostname.if(5) example configures athn0 to join whatever
     network is available on boot, using WEP key ``0x1deadbeef1'', channel 11,
     obtaining an IP address using DHCP:

           dhcp NONE NONE NONE nwkey 0x1deadbeef1 chan 11

     Configure athn0 to join network ``my_net'' using WPA-PSK with passphrase
     ``my_passphrase'':

           # ifconfig athn0 nwid my_net wpa wpapsk \
                   `wpa-psk my_net my_passphrase`

     Return athn0 to its default settings:

           # ifconfig athn0 -bssid -chan media autoselect \
                   nwid "" -nwkey -wpa -wpapsk

     Join an existing BSS network, ``my_net'':

           # ifconfig athn0 192.168.1.1 netmask 0xffffff00 nwid my_net

DIAGNOSTICS
     athn%d: device timeout  A frame dispatched to the hardware for transmis-
     sion did not complete in time.  The driver will reset the hardware.  This
     should not happen.

     athn%d: radio is disabled by hardware switch  The radio transmitter is
     off and thus no packet can go out.  The driver will reset the hardware.
     Make sure the laptop radio switch is on.

     athn%d: radio switch turned off  The radio switch has been turned off
     while the interface was up and running.  The driver will turn the inter-
     face down.

SEE ALSO
     arp(4), cardbus(4), ifmedia(4), intro(4), netintro(4), pci(4),
     hostname.if(5), ifconfig(8), wpa-psk(8)

     Atheros Communications Bulletins: http://www.atheros.com/pt/bulletins/

HISTORY
     The athn driver first appeared in OpenBSD 4.7.

AUTHORS
     The athn driver was written by Damien Bergamini <damien@openbsd.org>
     based on source code licensed under the ISC released in 2008 by Atheros
     Communications for Linux.

CAVEATS
     The athn driver does not support any of the 802.11n capabilities offered
     by the adapters.  Additional work is required in ieee80211(9) before
     those features can be supported.

OpenBSD 4.7                    February 8, 2010                              3
