#20114: RFE: Obey wifi channel settings
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Reporter: valentt | Owner: developers
Type: enhancement | Status: new
Priority: normal | Milestone: Chaos Calmer (trunk)
Component: base system | Version: Trunk
Keywords: |
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OpenWrt in repeater mode has one know issue; if STA (wifi client)
interface looses connection to upstream AP then both wifi interfaces on
OpenWrt router go down.
Most of you probably experienced this issue. Why does this happen?
I have tracked down this issue and communicated with OpenWrt developers
regarding this issue.
It seams that currently OpenWrt stack ignores channel settings in wireless
config file (for example option channel '1') if STA mode is also enabled.
It just searches for AP by it's SSID and uses which ever channel upstream
AP is set to.
To confirm this I changed channel in OpenWrt settings from "1" to "2" and
OpenWrt device would still connected to upstream AP which is using channel
1.
Benefit of how currently OpenWrt works is that if for any reason upstream
AP changes channel then OpenWrt station will follow it to new channel.
Upstream channel could be changed manually or automatically if upstream AP
has "auto channel" option enabled.
But what happens if upstream AP goes out of range and drops connection?
Then AP interface on OpenWrt device also goes down. This happens because
channel setting is not being read from config file but from upstream AP
channel. And if there is no link to upstream AP then the AP interface is
also missing information which channel it should use and it goes down.
But if you use OpenWrt devices in repeater mode then you would expect that
AP inteface is always up and available. Other wifi vendors who offer
similar repeater functionality don't have this issue and keep local AP
interface always up and runnung.
What would be a solution to this issue?
Maybe an config option that says "obey wifi channel settings" so that both
station and AP channel is set OpenWrt config file and not from upstream
AP.
Other solution would be to have channel in wireless config as fallback, so
it doesn't go down when STA interface goes down.
Third option is to use last know wifi channel that upstream AP so that
local AP interface doensn't go down.
Any other suggestion?
Currenty there is a workaround for this issue - this script [1] which
checks via ubus if STA interface, if it is not connected then it enables
AP interface only. Script is quite badly written and if needed I'll
rewrite it.
[1] http://vonger.cn/?p=1778
--
Ticket URL: <https://dev.openwrt.org/ticket/20114>
OpenWrt <http://openwrt.org>
Opensource Wireless Router Technology
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