IEEE8021_AMRR(9)

💖 IEEE8021_AMRR 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the ieee80211_amrr page — that's manual section 9, the Kernel Developer's Manual, and yes this is the one about making your 802.11 network driver pick a transmit rate. it's giving "tiny brain, big job." let's go 🦋

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✨ NAME ✨

ieee80211_amrr — 802.11 network driver transmit rate control support

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <net80211/ieee80211_amrr.h>

void
ieee80211_amrr_init(struct ieee80211_amrr *, struct ieee80211vap *,
    int amin, int amax, int interval);

void
ieee80211_amrr_cleanup(struct ieee80211_amrr *);

void
ieee80211_amrr_setinterval(struct ieee80211_amrr *, int interval);

void
ieee80211_amrr_node_init(struct ieee80211_amrr *,
    struct ieee80211_amrr_node *, struct ieee80211_node *);

int
ieee80211_amrr_choose(struct ieee80211_node *,
    struct ieee80211_amrr_node *);

void
ieee80211_amrr_tx_complete(struct ieee80211_amrr_node *, int ok,
    int retries);

void
ieee80211_amrr_tx_update(struct ieee80211_amrr_node *, int txnct,
    int success, int retrycnt);

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👑 DESCRIPTION 👑

so. ieee80211_amrr is an implementation of the AMRR transmit rate control algorithm, made for drivers that use the net80211 software layer. what's a rate control algorithm, you ask? it's literally the thing responsible for choosing the transmit rate for each frame. to maximize throughput, algorithms try to use the highest rate that's appropriate for the operating conditions. and babes, those conditions move: the distance between two stations may change, transient noise may be present that affects signal quality, etc. 💫

ieee80211_amrr uses very simple information from a driver to do it's job: whether a frame was successfully delivered and how many transmit attempts were made. and like, that's it. while this enables its use with virtually any wireless device, it limits it's effectiveness — do not expect it to function well in difficult environments and/or respond quickly to changing conditions. no cap, she's low maintenance but she's not magic.

ieee80211_amrr requires per-vap state and per-node state for each station it is to select rates for. the API's are designed for drivers to pre-allocate state in the driver-private extension areas of each vap and node. for example the ral(4) driver defines a vap as:

struct rt2560_vap {
        struct ieee80211vap     ral_vap;
        struct ieee80211_beacon_offsets ral_bo;
        struct ieee80211_amrr   amrr;

        int      (*ral_newstate)(struct ieee80211vap *,
                      enum ieee80211_state, int);
};

the amrr structure member holds the per-vap state for ieee80211_amrr, and ral(4) initializes it in the vap create method with:

ieee80211_amrr_init(&rvp->amrr, vap,
    IEEE80211_AMRR_MIN_SUCCESS_THRESHOLD,
    IEEE80211_AMRR_MAX_SUCCESS_THRESHOLD,
    500 /* ms */);

and the node is defined as:

struct rt2560_node {
        struct ieee80211_node   ni;
        struct ieee80211_amrr_node amrr;
};

with initialization done in the driver's iv_newassoc method:

static void
rt2560_newassoc(struct ieee80211_node *ni, int isnew)
{
        struct ieee80211vap *vap = ni->ni_vap;

        ieee80211_amrr_node_init(&RT2560_VAP(vap)->amrr,
            &RT2560_NODE(ni)->amrr, ni);
}

once ieee80211_amrr state is setup, transmit rates are requested by calling ieee80211_amrr_choose() in the transmit path; e.g.:

tp = &vap->iv_txparms[ieee80211_chan2mode(ni->ni_chan)];
if (IEEE80211_IS_MULTICAST(wh->i_addr1)) {
        rate = tp->mcastrate;
} else if (m0->m_flags & M_EAPOL) {
        rate = tp->mgmtrate;
} else if (tp->ucastrate != IEEE80211_FIXED_RATE_NONE) {
        rate = tp->ucastrate;
} else {
        (void) ieee80211_amrr_choose(ni, &RT2560_NODE(ni)->amrr);
        rate = ni->ni_txrate;
}

note a rate is chosen only for unicast data frames when a fixed transmit rate is not configured — the other cases are handled with the net80211 transmit parameters. 📌

also note that ieee80211_amrr_choose() writes the chosen rate in ni_txrate; this eliminates copying the value as it is exported to user applications so they can display the current transmit rate in status. efficiency era honestly 💅

the remaining work a driver must do is feed status back to ieee80211_amrr when a frame transmit completes using ieee80211_amrr_tx_complete(). drivers that poll a device to retrieve statistics can use ieee80211_amrr_tx_update() (instead or in addition). both? sure. one? also fine. we're flexible 🫶

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• ieee80211(9)
• ieee80211_output(9)

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and that's the whole page bestie, you ate it 💖 mwah. this one shipped from Debian, dated August 4, 2009 — yeah she's an elder but she still serves. go pick some rates responsibly ✨🎀🦋