STRUCT IEEE80211_RX_STATUS(9)

📦 version 7.3.1, in nixpkgs unstable

✨ NAME ✨

okay bestie, welcome to the struct ieee80211_rx_status(9) page from the Kernel API Manual 💖 this is literally the receive status struct, and it is giving “driver hands mac80211 a whole little receipt for every frame” energy. no cap.

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

here’s the actual shape of the struct, bestie — keep every field exactly as it is:

       struct ieee80211_rx_status {
           u64 mactime;
           union {
             u64 boottime_ns;
             ktime_t ack_tx_hwtstamp;
           };
           u32 device_timestamp;
           u32 ampdu_reference;
           u32 flag;
           u16 freq: 13, freq_offset: 1;
           u8 enc_flags;
           u8 encoding:3, bw:4;
           union {
             struct {
               u8 he_ru:3;
               u8 he_gi:2;
               u8 he_dcm:1;
             };
             struct {
               u8 ru:4;
               u8 gi:2;
             } eht;
             struct {
               u8 ru:4;
               u8 gi:2;
               u8 elr:1;
               u8 im:1;
             } uhr;
           };
           u8 rate_idx;
           u8 nss;
           u8 rx_flags;
           u8 band;
           u8 antenna;
           s8 signal;
           u8 chains;
           s8 chain_signal[IEEE80211_MAX_CHAINS];
           u8 zero_length_psdu_type;
           u8 link_valid:1, link_id:4;
        };

🫶 Members 🫶

  • mactime — value in microseconds of the 64-bit Time Synchronization Function (TSF) timer when the first data symbol (MPDU) arrived at the hardware ⏱️
  • {unnamed_union} — anonymous.
  • boottime_ns — CLOCK_BOOTTIME timestamp the frame was received at. this is needed only for beacons and probe responses that update the scan cache 👑
  • ack_tx_hwtstamp — hardware timestamp for the ack TX in nanoseconds. only needed for Timing measurement and Fine timing measurement action frames. only reported by devices that have timestamping enabled ✨
  • device_timestamp — arbitrary timestamp for the device. mac80211 doesn’t use it, but can store it and pass it back to the driver for synchronisation 🎀
  • ampdu_reference — A-MPDU reference number. it must be a different value for each A-MPDU, but the same for each subframe within one A-MPDU 🔥
  • flag — RX_FLAG_
  • freq — frequency the radio was tuned to when receiving this frame, in MHz. this field must be set for management frames, but isn’t strictly needed for data (other) frames — for those it only affects radiotap reporting 📡
  • freq_offset — freq has a positive offset of 500Khz.
  • enc_flags — uses bits from enum mac80211_rx_encoding_flags
  • encoding — enum mac80211_rx_encoding
  • bw — enum rate_info_bw
  • {unnamed_union} — anonymous.
  • {unnamed_struct} — anonymous.
  • he_ru — HE RU, from enum nl80211_he_ru_alloc
  • he_gi — HE GI, from enum nl80211_he_gi
  • he_dcm — HE DCM value
  • eht — EHT specific rate information 🌸
  • eht.ru — EHT RU, from enum nl80211_eht_ru_alloc
  • eht.gi — EHT GI, from enum nl80211_eht_gi
  • uhr — UHR specific rate information 💜
  • uhr.ru — UHR RU, from enum nl80211_eht_ru_alloc
  • uhr.gi — UHR GI, from enum nl80211_eht_gi
  • uhr.elr — UHR ELR MCS was used
  • uhr.im — UHR interference mitigation was used
  • rate_idx — index of data rate into band’s supported rates or MCS index if HT or VHT is used (RX_FLAG_HT/RX_FLAG_VHT)
  • nss — number of streams (VHT, HE, EHT and UHR only)
  • rx_flags — internal RX flags for mac80211
  • band — the active band when this frame was received
  • antenna — antenna used
  • signal — signal strength when receiving this frame, either in dBm, in dB or unspecified depending on the hardware capabilities flags IEEE80211_HW_SIGNAL_* 📶
  • chains — bitmask of receive chains for which separate signal strength values were filled.
  • chain_signal — per-chain signal strength, in dBm (unlike signal, doesn’t support dB or unspecified units)
  • zero_length_psdu_type — radiotap type of the 0-length PSDU
  • link_valid — if the link which is identified by link_id is valid. this flag is set only when connection is MLO 💅
  • link_id — id of the link used to receive the packet. this is used along with link_valid.

🌈 Description 🌈

the low-level driver should provide this information (the subset supported by hardware) to the 802.11 code with each received frame, in the skb’s control buffer (cb). periodt 💖

👀 SEE ALSO (aka the reading list) 👀

okay bestie you made it to the end, and now we hit the part where the manual page just. keeps. going. this is the see-also zone and it is long — but every single one of these is a real page you can pull up, so here's the whole list, zero skips, no cap 💅

ngl that was a lot of cross-references, so if you read all of them you're genuinely the main character of the kernel docs 💀🫶

and that's a wrap on struct ieee80211_rx_status(9) bestie!! the whole thing lives in ./include/net, and this particular page is dated October 2026 — so go forth, cite it, and slay your driver code ✨🎀💖

📦 where this page comes from