NAME
bwfm
—
Broadcom and Cypress IEEE
802.11a/ac/b/g/n wireless network device
SYNOPSIS
bwfm* at pci?
bwfm* at sdmmc?
bwfm* at usb?
DESCRIPTION
The bwfm
driver provides support for
Broadcom and Cypress FullMAC wireless network adapters.
The following table summarizes supported chipsets and their
capabilities, as well as the bus attachments recognized by the
bwfm
driver:
Chipset | Spectrum | Type | MIMO | Bus |
BCM43143 | 2GHz | 11n | 1x1 | SDMMC/USB |
BCM43236 | 2GHz/5GHz | 11n | 2x2 | USB |
BCM4324 | 2GHz/5GHz | 11n | 2x2 | SDMMC |
BCM43242 | 2GHz/5GHz | 11n | 2x2 | USB |
BCM4329 | 2GHz/5GHz | 11n | 2x2 | SDMMC |
BCM4330 | 2GHz/5GHz | 11n | 2x2 | SDMMC |
BCM4334 | 2GHz/5GHz | 11n | 2x2 | SDMMC |
BCM43340 | 2GHz/5GHz | 11n | 1x1 | SDMMC |
BCM43341 | 2GHz/5GHz | 11n | 1x1 | SDMMC |
BCM4335 | 2GHz/5GHz | 11ac | 1x1 | SDMMC |
BCM43362 | 2GHz | 11n | 1x1 | SDMMC |
BCM43364 | 2GHz | 11n | 1x1 | SDMMC |
BCM4339 | 2GHz/5GHz | 11ac | 1x1 | SDMMC |
BCM43430 | 2GHz | 11n | 1x1 | SDMMC |
BCM43455 | 2GHz/5GHz | 11ac | 1x1 | SDMMC |
BCM43456 | 2GHz/5GHz | 11ac | 2x2 | SDMMC |
BCM4350 | 2GHz/5GHz | 11ac | 2x2 | PCI |
BCM4354 | 2GHz/5GHz | 11ac | 2x2 | SDMMC |
BCM4356 | 2GHz/5GHz | 11ac | 2x2 | PCI/SDMMC |
BCM43569 | 2GHz/5GHz | 11ac | 2x2 | USB |
BCM43602 | 2GHz/5GHz | 11ac | 3x3 | PCI |
BCM4371 | 2GHz/5GHz | 11ac | 2x2 | PCI |
These are the modes the bwfm
driver can
operate in:
- BSS mode
- Also known as infrastructure mode, this is used when associating with an access point, through which all traffic passes. This mode is the default.
- Host AP
- In this mode the driver acts as an access point (base station) for other cards.
The bwfm
driver can be configured to use
Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) or Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA1 and WPA2).
WPA2 is the current encryption standard for wireless networks. It is
strongly recommended that neither WEP nor WPA1 are used as the sole
mechanism to secure wireless communication, due to serious weaknesses. WPA1
is disabled by default and may be enabled using the option
"wpaprotos
wpa1,wpa2". For standard WPA networks which use
pre-shared keys (PSK), keys are configured using the
"wpakey
" option. WPA-Enterprise networks
require use of the wpa_supplicant package. The bwfm
driver relies on the software 802.11 stack for the WPA handshake. Both
encryption and decryption of data frames are handled by the firmware.
The firmware automatically selects the transmit speed and the channel depending on the received signal strength.
The bwfm
driver can be configured at
runtime with
ifconfig(8) or on boot with
hostname.if(5).
FILES
The driver needs a firmware file which is loaded when the driver attaches. A prepackaged version of the firmware can be installed using fw_update(8).
EXAMPLES
The following example scans for available networks:
# ifconfig bwfm0 scan
The following hostname.if(5) example configures bwfm0 to join network “mynwid”, using WPA key “mywpakey”, obtaining an IP address using DHCP:
nwid mynwid wpakey mywpakey inet autoconf
The following hostname.if(5) example creates a host-based access point on boot:
mediaopt hostap nwid mynwid wpakey mywpakey inet 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0
SEE ALSO
arp(4), ifmedia(4), intro(4), netintro(4), pci(4), usb(4), hostname.if(5), ifconfig(8)
HISTORY
The bwfm
driver first appeared in
OpenBSD 6.3.
AUTHORS
The bwfm
driver was written by
Patrick Wildt
<patrick@blueri.se>.
CAVEATS
The firmware is outdated and contains known vulnerabilities.
This driver does not support powersave mode.