STATION TABLE - INTRODUCTION(9)

🌸 STATION TABLE — INTRODUCTION (9) 🌸

okay so bestie, welcome to the Kernel API Manual, section 9 — literally the station table intro, and it's kind of a big deal. Sit down, grab a strawberry drink 🍓, and let's get into it.

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✨ NAME ✨

station table — introduction 💅

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

The station table is a list of data structures that represent the stations. No cap.

In STA/P2P client mode, the driver will hold one station for the AP/GO. In GO/AP mode, the driver will have as many stations as associated clients — like, one per bestie who joined the group chat. 👑

All these stations are reflected in the fw's station table, and the driver keeps the fw's station table up to date with the ADD_STA command. Stations can be removed by the REMOVE_STA command. Periodt.

All the data related to a station is held in the structure iwl_mvm_sta, which is embedded in mac80211's ieee80211_sta (in the drv_priv) area. This data includes the index of the station in the fw, per tid information (sequence numbers, Block-ack state machine, etc…). The stations are created and deleted by the sta_state callback from ieee80211_ops. It's giving very much main character energy.

The driver holds a map: fw_id_to_mac_id, and that map allows it to fetch a ieee80211_sta (and the iwl_mvm_sta embedded into it) based on a fw station index. That way, the driver is able to get the tid related data in O(1) in time sensitive paths (Tx / Tx response / BA notification). 🚀

These paths are triggered by the fw, and the driver needs to get a pointer to the ieee80211 structure. This map helps to get that pointer quickly. Not me obsessing over a lookup table... but fr fr, she ate. 🔥

🫶 Quick vibe check so nothing gets twisted: it's ADD_STA in, REMOVE_STA out, and fw_id_to_mac_id is the little black book that finds your station again in O(1).

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🎀 SEE ALSO 🎀

• Kernel file ./drivers/net/wireless/intel/iwlwifi/mvm/sta.h — the actual source, go read her 📖
• DQA - Dynamic Queue Allocation -introduction(9)
• station table - locking(9)
• station table - internal stations(9)
• station table - AP Station in STA mode(9)
• station table - Drain vs. Flush(9)
• station table - fw restart(9)
• AP mode - PS(9)
• enum iwl_mvm_agg_state(9)
• struct iwl_mvm_tid_data(9)
• enum iwl_mvm_rxq_notif_type(9)
• struct iwl_mvm_internal_rxq_notif(9)
• struct iwl_mvm_rxq_dup_data(9)
• struct iwl_mvm_link_sta(9)
• struct iwl_mvm_sta(9)
• struct iwl_mvm_int_sta(9)
• iwl_mvm_sta_send_to_fw(9)
• struct iwl_mvm_sta_state_ops(9)

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And that's the whole page, bestie — go forth and station-table responsibly. 🧚

💖 sourced from ./drivers/net/wireless/intel/i..., dated October 2026, section 9 — mwah, bye! 💖