[Question] Does the WF200 and its driver support "Channel Switch Announcement" as host?

[sbithinx]

Hi, we are using the WF200 in our project and need the optional Wifi feature "Channel Switch Announcement", as described here:

Invoking Genuine Channel Switch-Announcements in 802.11 Networks

Does the WF200 and its driver support "Channel Switch Announcement" as host in the AP mode?

Greetings Sebastian

[silabs-JulienT]

Hi Sebastian,

We don't support the feature through our Full-MAC driver. However, the WF200 supports it through its Low-MAC driver (cf. https://github.com/SiliconLabs/wfx-linux-driver)

Post-edit: In the Low-MAC case: No CSA support (requiring HW/FW changes) is implemented. WF200 is robust to a channel switch in STA mode in the sense that it will detect the absence of the BSS, and the above layers will trigger a join on the new channel. Following this, communication will be restored without any user interaction. This takes at least a couple beacon duration (n*102 ms) and is not as fast and seamless as a true CSA (where channel switching can be done in ~1ms)._

Regards, Julien

[sbithinx]

Thanks for the support and quick reply. :-)

Greetings Sebastian

[sbithinx]

Sorry to reopen the ticket, but apparently your official support answered something contrary, as one my colleagues contact them earlier:

Original Case Details:

Case #: 00296249
Subject: Channel Switch Announcement

In SoftAP mode, WF200 doesn't support Channel Switch Announcement, and there is no plan to implement this in the future with WF200. In STA mode, the STA should follow the external AP announcements.

And apparently, if iw phy is executed on our device running yocto, it does not report back, that it is supporting channel_switch:

root@*:/run# iw phy
Wiphy phy0
    ...
    Supported commands:
         * new_interface
         * set_interface
         * new_key
         * start_ap
         * new_station
         * set_bss
         * authenticate
         * associate
         * deauthenticate
         * disassociate
         * join_ibss
         * remain_on_channel
         * set_tx_bitrate_mask
         * frame
         * frame_wait_cancel
         * set_wiphy_netns
         * set_channel
         * set_wds_peer
         * tdls_mgmt
         * tdls_oper
         * probe_client
         * set_noack_map
         * register_beacons
         * start_p2p_device
         * set_mcast_rate
         * connect
         * disconnect
         * set_qos_map
         * set_multicast_to_unicast

Could you please explain and maybe give link to the related documentation or source code?

Greetings Sebastian

[MarcDorval]

I post-edited the initial reply with the following text (in order for readers to get the information directly):

In the Low-MAC case: No CSA support (requiring HW/FW changes) is implemented. WF200 is robust to a channel switch in STA mode in the sense that it will detect the absence of the BSS, and the above layers will trigger a join on the new channel. Following this, communication will be restored without any user interaction. This takes at least a couple beacon duration (n*102 ms) and is not as fast and seamless as a true CSA (where channel switching can be done in ~1ms).