IEEE 802.11r/k/v support

stuartbh

pfSense users/developers:

I am contemplating to put together a pfSense router and was wondering about what support for 802.11r/k/v might exist if pfSense is loaded onto a router that is inclusive of an 802.11 WiFi network card.

I realize that if I plugged 802.11r/k/v APs into pfSense on the LAN side, that everything would likely be fine. I am asking this as I am thinking it would be nice to have a WiFi card in the pfSense router to get a 3rd AP with 802.11r on my network. Granted, cheap routers that can run a current version of OpenWRT with 802.11r capability are not hard to find either.

Thanks in advance.

Stuart

stephenw10

Possibly.

I've never seen it tried but as I understand it the functionality should be there in hostapd.
There are no GUI options for it. I would only attempt that as a project.

Steve

stuartbh

stephenw,

Is it possible to request this as a new feature?

stephenw10

I does look like we build hostap with those options enabled:
https://github.com/pfsense/FreeBSD-src/blob/devel-12/contrib/wpa/hostapd/defconfig#L150
https://github.com/pfsense/FreeBSD-src/blob/devel-12/contrib/wpa/hostapd/defconfig#L160

That might be all that's required.

You can add a feature requests here: https://redmine.pfsense.org/
It's likely to be extremely low priority though.

Attempting to configure it manually to prove it works first is what I would do there.

Steve

slu

@stephenw10 said in IEEE 802.11r/k/v support:

little bit off topic, but it would be so cool to see smaller Netgate boxes with built in wifi.

stephenw10

It's possible to add wifi but the current support for hardware in FreeBSD is such that it's not worth it for most use cases.

Steve

stuartbh

stephenw,

I am a bit confused by your response to the off-topic poster. It sounds like you are saying that FreeBSD does a poor job of supporting WiFi cards in general and I have to admit I find that a rather interesting assertion to make as that has never been my understanding, disambiguation would be well appreciated.

Stuart

stephenw10

Yes, exactly that.
There is no support in FreeBSD for 802.11AC. The best you can do is 802.11N with a 3x3 card so usually somewhere in the 300Mbps range if you're lucky.

Steve

stuartbh

stephenw,

Ah, in that case I understand. I am definitely a Linux expert and by no means a FreeBSD expert. I just understood that the two kernels were on par with each in terms of hardware support, apparently that is an incorrect understanding on my part, one I am glad to understand fully now.

Generally speaking, plugging an AP that supports and manages 802.11r into a pfSense based router is not a huge deal and if support for 802.11 is week I understand. Are there any recommended 802.11N cards that work and you'd think could possible function with 802.11r?

Stuart

stephenw10

It depends what you are putting it in but a later Atheros based 3x3 card is about the best you can do. So for example I have here a Sparklan WPEA-127N. It works pretty good but I still mostly use it just to test the wifi components in pfSense.

Steve