ieee80211_get_buffered_bc(9)

📦 version 7.3.1, in nixpkgs unstable

💖 NAME 💖

ieee80211_get_buffered_bc — ok so this is the function for accessing buffered broadcast and multicast frames ✨ welcome to the Kernel API Manual bestie, this one's about grabbing frames out of the buffer 🫶

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

struct sk_buff * ieee80211_get_buffered_bc (struct ieee80211_hw *hw ,
struct ieee80211_vif *vif );

🎀 ARGUMENTS 🎀

  • hw — pointer as obtained from ieee80211_alloc_hw 💫 like, the one you already got from there, no cap.
  • vif — a struct ieee80211_vif pointer from the add_interface callback 🦋

🧚 DESCRIPTION 🧚

Okay so picture this: this is the function for accessing buffered broadcast and multicast frames 👑 If the hardware/firmware doesn't implement buffering of broadcast/multicast frames when power saving is used, the 802.11 code buffers them in the host memory 💾✨ And the low-level driver uses this function to fetch the next buffered frame, iykyk.

In most cases, this is used when generating beacon frame 🔥 literally the main character of beacon generation ngl.

⭐ RETURN ⭐

A pointer to the next buffered skb 💖 or NULL if no more buffered frames are available 😭 that's the whole vibe check.

💅 NOTE 💅

bestie pls read this one, it's important 🙈

Buffered frames are returned only after DTIM beacon frame was generated with ieee80211_beacon_get 📡 and the low-level driver must thus call ieee80211_beacon_get first, fr fr.

ieee80211_get_buffered_bc returns NULL if the previous generated beacon was not DTIM 💀 so the low-level driver does not need to check for DTIM beacons separately and should be able to use common code for all beacons 🌈 slay, that's convenient.

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

Kernel file ./include/net/mac80211.h 💾 and like, so many friends:

okay that's the whole page bestie, you ate that 💅✨ and just so you have the receipts — this came out of ./include/net, dated October 2026, and it's the ieee80211_get_buffered_bc(9) page from the Kernel API Manual 🎀🦋 go fetch those frames, periodt 💖

📦 where this page comes from