intermittent ath0

[Erik Norgaard]

Tom Connolly wrote:
>>6.0-CURRENT as of yesterday, recompiled the kernel with options
>>
>>device          ath
>>device          ath_hal         # Atheros HAL
>>device          ath_rate_onoe   # Onoe rate control for ath driver

> I use the ath0 driver also and I lose connection to the wireless router
> sometimes.
> I'm running FreeBSD 5.3 STABLE and using a D-Ling wireless card.
> I have the driver compiled into the kernel but I don't have the
> following:
> 
> device          ath_rate_onoe   # Onoe rate control for ath driver
> 
> Do I need this?  What does it do?

First, I'm not sure if this has made it into -STABLE yet, looking into 
the NOTES file on my 5.3p1 these options are not mentioned. I write 
these because there seems to be two mutually exclusive options:

device          ath_rate_onoe   # Onoe rate control for ath driver
#device         ath_rate_amrr   # AMRR rate control for ath driver

mentioned in the NOTES file on 6.0. A look into the source, there is 
actually a good explanation of what his does:

  * A rate control module is responsible for choosing the transmit rate
  * for each data frame.  Management+control frames are always sent at
  * a fixed rate.

(see the source for more, /usr/src/sys/dev/ath/if_athrate.h)

Getting the transmissionrates right may solve the buffering problem, 
since if one end is sending too fast the other may run out of buffer. I 
guess that the previous driver also had such code, but the new code is 
better?

When I recompiled my kernel, I first did not include any of these and 
the compilation failed. So, I guess it is needed in that case :-)

Now, I'm just guessing, and code appears quite new, so try to see if 
things help or help debug :-)

Cheers, Erik
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