VIRTUAL INTERFACE CONCURRENCY CAPABILITIES(9)

🎀 Virtual interface / concurrency capabilities 🎀

okay bestie, welcome to Virtual inte...capabilities(9) — straight out of the Kernel API Manual, section 9. this is the group-chat recap of how virtual interfaces and concurrency capabilities actually work. no cap. 💅

✨ NAME ✨

Virtual interface / concurrency capabilities — the whole "can this device have multiple virtual interfaces at once, and what combos are allowed?" vibe check. 🦋

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

okay so first things first: some devices can operate with virtual MACs; they can have more than one virtual interface. iconic. but the capability handling for this is a bit complex, because there may be a number of restrictions on the types of concurrency that are supported.

To start with, each device supports the interface types listed in the NL80211_ATTR_SUPPORTED_IFTYPES attribute. but just because a type is listed there does not imply concurrency. lowkey important. 👑

Once concurrency is desired, more attributes must be observed: to start with, since some interface types are purely managed in software — like the AP-VLAN type in mac80211, for example — there's an additional list of these. they can be added at any time and are only restricted by some semantic restrictions (e.g. AP-VLAN cannot be added without a corresponding AP interface). this list is exported in the NL80211_ATTR_SOFTWARE_IFTYPES attribute. 💖

Further, the list of supported combinations is exported. this is in the NL80211_ATTR_INTERFACE_COMBINATIONS attribute. basically, it exports a list of "groups", and at any point in time the interfaces that are currently active must fall into any one of the advertised groups. within each group, there are restrictions on the number of interfaces of different types that are supported and also the number of different channels, along with potentially some other restrictions. see enum nl80211_if_combination_attrs. ✨

All together, these attributes define the concurrency of virtual interfaces that a given device supports. periodt. 🔥

💅 SEE ALSO 💅

okay this list is giving "iconic reference dump", so here's every single one, no skips:

• Kernel file ./include/uapi/linux/nl80211.h
• Station handling(9)
• Frame transmission/registration support(9)
• packet coalesce support(9)
• WPA/WPA2 EAPOL handshake offload(9)
• FILS shared key authentication offload(9)
• SAE authentication offload(9)
• VLAN offload support for setting group keys and binding STAs to VLANs(9)
• TID configuration(9)
• FILS shared key crypto offload(9)
• Multi-Link Operation(9)
• OWE DH IE handling offload(9)
• enum nl80211_commands(9)
• enum nl80211_attrs(9)
• enum nl80211_iftype(9)
• enum nl80211_sta_flags(9)
• enum nl80211_sta_p2p_ps_status(9)
• struct nl80211_sta_flag_update(9)
• enum nl80211_he_gi(9)
• enum nl80211_he_ltf(9)
• enum nl80211_he_ru_alloc(9)
• enum nl80211_eht_gi(9)
• enum nl80211_eht_ltf(9)
• enum nl80211_eht_ru_alloc(9)
• enum nl80211_rate_info(9)
• enum nl80211_sta_bss_param(9)
• enum nl80211_sta_info(9)
• enum nl80211_tid_stats(9)
• enum nl80211_txq_stats(9)
• enum nl80211_mpath_flags(9)
• enum nl80211_mpath_info(9)
• enum nl80211_band_iftype_attr(9)
• enum nl80211_band_attr(9)
• enum nl80211_nan_phy_cap_attr(9)
• enum nl80211_wmm_rule(9)
• enum nl80211_frequency_attr(9)
• enum nl80211_bitrate_attr(9)
• enum nl80211_reg_initiator(9)
• enum nl80211_reg_type(9)
• enum nl80211_reg_rule_attr(9)
• enum nl80211_sched_scan_match_attr(9)
• enum nl80211_reg_rule_flags(9)
• enum nl80211_dfs_regions(9)
• enum nl80211_user_reg_hint_type(9)
• enum nl80211_survey_info(9)
• enum nl80211_mntr_flags(9)
• enum nl80211_mesh_power_mode(9)
• enum nl80211_meshconf_params(9)
• enum nl80211_mesh_setup_params(9)
• enum nl80211_txq_attr(9)
• enum nl80211_channel_type(9)
• enum nl80211_key_mode(9)
• enum nl80211_chan_width(9)
• enum nl80211_bss_scan_width(9)
• enum nl80211_bss_use_for(9)
• enum nl80211_bss_cannot_use_reasons(9)
• enum nl80211_bss(9)
• enum nl80211_bss_status(9)
• enum nl80211_auth_type(9)
• enum nl80211_key_type(9)
• enum nl80211_mfp(9)
• enum nl80211_key_default_types(9)
• enum nl80211_key_attributes(9)
• enum nl80211_tx_rate_attributes(9)
• struct nl80211_txrate_vht(9)
• struct nl80211_txrate_he(9)
• struct nl80211_txrate_eht(9)
• enum nl80211_band(9)
• enum nl80211_ps_state(9)
• enum nl80211_attr_cqm(9)
• enum nl80211_cqm_rssi_threshold_event(9)
• enum nl80211_tx_power_setting(9)
• enum nl80211_tid_config(9)
• enum nl80211_packet_pattern_attr(9)
• struct nl80211_pattern_support(9)
• enum nl80211_wowlan_triggers(9)
• TCP connection wakeup(9)
• struct nl80211_wowlan_tcp_data_seq(9)
• struct nl80211_wowlan_tcp_data_token(9)
• struct nl80211_wowlan_tcp_data_token_feature(9)
• enum nl80211_wowlan_tcp_attrs(9)
• struct nl80211_coalesce_rule_support(9)
• enum nl80211_attr_coalesce_rule(9)
• enum nl80211_coalesce_condition(9)
• enum nl80211_iface_limit_attrs(9)
• enum nl80211_if_combination_attrs(9)
• enum nl80211_plink_state(9)
• enum nl80211_plink_action(9)
• enum nl80211_rekey_data(9)
• enum nl80211_hidden_ssid(9)
• enum nl80211_sta_wme_attr(9)
• enum nl80211_pmksa_candidate_attr(9)
• enum nl80211_tdls_operation(9)
• enum nl80211_ap_sme_features(9)
• enum nl80211_feature_flags(9)
• enum nl80211_ext_feature_index(9)
• enum nl80211_probe_resp_offload_support_attr(9)
• enum nl80211_connect_failed_reason(9)
• enum nl80211_timeout_reason(9)
• enum nl80211_scan_flags(9)
• enum nl80211_acl_policy(9)
• enum nl80211_smps_mode(9)
• enum nl80211_radar_event(9)
• enum nl80211_dfs_state(9)
• enum nl80211_protocol_features(9)
• enum nl80211_crit_proto_id(9)
• enum nl80211_rxmgmt_flags(9)
• struct nl80211_vendor_cmd_info(9)
• enum nl80211_tdls_peer_capability(9)
• enum nl80211_sched_scan_plan(9)
• struct nl80211_bss_select_rssi_adjust(9)
• enum nl80211_bss_select_attr(9)
• enum nl80211_nan_function_type(9)
• enum nl80211_nan_publish_type(9)
• enum nl80211_nan_func_term_reason(9)
• enum nl80211_nan_func_attributes(9)
• enum nl80211_nan_srf_attributes(9)
• enum nl80211_nan_match_attributes(9)
• enum nl80211_nan_band_conf_attributes(9)
• enum nl80211_nan_conf_attributes(9)
• enum nl80211_external_auth_action(9)
• enum nl80211_ftm_responder_attributes(9)
• enum nl80211_preamble(9)
• enum nl80211_peer_measurement_type(9)
• enum nl80211_peer_measurement_status(9)
• enum nl80211_peer_measurement_req(9)
• enum nl80211_peer_measurement_resp(9)
• enum nl80211_peer_measurement_ftm_req_type(9)
• enum nl80211_peer_measurement_peer_attrs(9)
• enum nl80211_peer_measurement_attrs(9)
• enum nl80211_peer_measurement_ftm_capa(9)
• enum nl80211_peer_measurement_ftm_type_capa(9)
• enum nl80211_peer_measurement_ftm_req(9)
• enum nl80211_peer_measurement_ftm_failure_reasons(9)
• enum nl80211_peer_measurement_ftm_resp(9)
• enum nl80211_obss_pd_attributes(9)
• enum nl80211_bss_color_attributes(9)
• enum nl80211_iftype_akm_attributes(9)
• enum nl80211_fils_discovery_attributes(9)
• enum nl80211_unsol_bcast_probe_resp_attributes(9)
• enum nl80211_sae_pwe_mechanism(9)
• enum nl80211_sar_type(9)
• enum nl80211_sar_attrs(9)
• enum nl80211_sar_specs_attrs(9)
• enum nl80211_mbssid_config_attributes(9)
• enum nl80211_ap_settings_flags(9)
• enum nl80211_wiphy_radio_attrs(9)
• enum nl80211_wiphy_radio_freq_range(9)
• enum nl80211_s1g_short_beacon_attrs(9)
• enum nl80211_nan_capabilities(9)
• enum nl80211_nan_peer_map_attrs(9)

and that's the tea ☕ — this cutie lives at source/version ./include/uapi/linux, dated October 2026, and yeah, the footer tags it as Virtual inte...capabilities(9). mwah 💋