Regulatory Domains and Japan Channel 14

Mon Jan 18 05:46:20 PST 2016

Dear All,

We are trying to perform scanning at the 2.4GHz band with the JP (Japan) regulatory domain, but it seems that the ath10k refuses to scan the channel 14 although the channel 14 is a valid channel in Japan (with certain rate and transmit power limitations).

We have set up an AP for the channel 14 (The AP is for Japanese market) and it is visible when capturing beacon frames with our existing network monitoring gear on channel 14.

We have tried with two different ath10k firmwares. The setup is running the ath10k on a Gateworks Ventana board with Linux OpenWrt 4.1.6 provided by Gateworks.

Firmware 1:

[   11.222699] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: enabling device (0140 -> 0142)
[   11.229671] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: pci irq legacy interrupts 0 irq_mode 0 reset_mode 0
[   11.463218] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/cal-pci-0000:03:00.0.bin failed with error -2
[   11.473612] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: Falling back to user helper
[   11.488114] firmware ath10k!cal-pci-0000:03:00.0.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[   12.699649] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: qca988x hw2.0 (0x4100016c, 0x043202ff) fw 10.2.4.70-2 api 5 htt-ver 2.1 wmi-op 5 htt-op 2 cal otp max-sta 128 features no-p2p
[   12.716354] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: no channel configured; ignoring frame(s)!
[   12.716370] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: no channel configured; ignoring frame(s)!
[   12.716385] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: no channel configured; ignoring frame(s)!
[   12.716400] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: no channel configured; ignoring frame(s)!
[   12.725776] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: no channel configured; ignoring frame(s)!
[   12.725793] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: no channel configured; ignoring frame(s)!
[   12.735298] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: no channel configured; ignoring frame(s)!
[   12.735326] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: no channel configured; ignoring frame(s)!
[   12.735355] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: no channel configured; ignoring frame(s)!
[   12.735378] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: no channel configured; ignoring frame(s)!
[   12.796065] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: debug 0 debugfs 1 tracing 0 dfs 1 testmode 1
[   12.915521] ath10k_pci 0000:06:00.0: enabling device (0140 -> 0142)
[   12.922648] ath10k_pci 0000:06:00.0: pci irq legacy interrupts 0 irq_mode 0 reset_mode 0
[   13.141720] ath10k_pci 0000:06:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/cal-pci-0000:06:00.0.bin failed with error -2
[   13.152120] ath10k_pci 0000:06:00.0: Falling back to user helper
[   13.166544] firmware ath10k!cal-pci-0000:06:00.0.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[   14.333721] ath10k_pci 0000:06:00.0: qca988x hw2.0 (0x4100016c, 0x043202ff) fw 10.2.4.70-2 api 5 htt-ver 2.1 wmi-op 5 htt-op 2 cal otp max-sta 128 features no-p2p
[   14.348433] ath10k_pci 0000:06:00.0: debug 0 debugfs 1 tracing 0 dfs 1 testmode 1

Firmware 2:

[   11.322556] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: enabling device (0140 -> 0142)
[   11.331562] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: pci irq legacy interrupts 0 irq_mode 0 reset_mode 0
[   11.547193] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/cal-pci-0000:03:00.0.bin failed with error -2
[   11.557589] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: Falling back to user helper
[   11.571973] firmware ath10k!cal-pci-0000:03:00.0.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[   12.775156] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: qca988x hw2.0 (0x4100016c, 0x043202ff) fw 10.2.4.70.17-2 api 5 htt-ver 2.1 wmi-op 5 htt-op 2 cal otp max-sta 128 features no-p2p
[   12.790225] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: no channel configured; ignoring frame(s)!
[   12.790244] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: no channel configured; ignoring frame(s)!
[   12.790259] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: no channel configured; ignoring frame(s)!
[   12.790275] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: no channel configured; ignoring frame(s)!
[   12.790289] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: no channel configured; ignoring frame(s)!
[   12.790304] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: no channel configured; ignoring frame(s)!
[   12.790319] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: no channel configured; ignoring frame(s)!
[   12.790334] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: no channel configured; ignoring frame(s)!
[   12.790353] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: no channel configured; ignoring frame(s)!
[   12.790368] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: no channel configured; ignoring frame(s)!
[   12.864307] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: debug 0 debugfs 1 tracing 0 dfs 1 testmode 1
[   12.979191] ath10k_pci 0000:06:00.0: enabling device (0140 -> 0142)
[   12.986343] ath10k_pci 0000:06:00.0: pci irq legacy interrupts 0 irq_mode 0 reset_mode 0
[   13.205675] ath10k_pci 0000:06:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/cal-pci-0000:06:00.0.bin failed with error -2
[   13.216077] ath10k_pci 0000:06:00.0: Falling back to user helper
[   13.230590] firmware ath10k!cal-pci-0000:06:00.0.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[   14.403062] ath10k_pci 0000:06:00.0: qca988x hw2.0 (0x4100016c, 0x043202ff) fw 10.2.4.70.17-2 api 5 htt-ver 2.1 wmi-op 5 htt-op 2 cal otp max-sta 128 features no-p2p
[   14.418343] ath10k_pci 0000:06:00.0: debug 0 debugfs 1 tracing 0 dfs 1 testmode

Set the regulatory domain to JP:

# iw reg set JP

[  123.871988] cfg80211: Regulatory domain changed to country: JP
[  123.877850] cfg80211:  DFS Master region: JProot at OpenWrt:/# 
[  123.882030] cfg80211:   (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp), (dfs_cac_time)
[  123.893148] cfg80211:   (2402000 KHz - 2482000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (N/A)
[  123.901187] cfg80211:   (2474000 KHz - 2494000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (N/A)
[  123.909220] cfg80211:   (4910000 KHz - 4990000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2300 mBm), (N/A)
[  123.917231] cfg80211:   (5030000 KHz - 5090000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2300 mBm), (N/A)
[  123.925261] cfg80211:   (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 80000 KHz, 160000 KHz AUTO), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (N/A)
[  123.934766] cfg80211:   (5250000 KHz - 5330000 KHz @ 80000 KHz, 160000 KHz AUTO), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (0 s)
[  123.944273] cfg80211:   (5490000 KHz - 5710000 KHz @ 160000 KHz), (N/A, 2300 mBm), (0 s)
[  123.952387] cfg80211:   (59000000 KHz - 66000000 KHz @ 2160000 KHz), (N/A, 1000 mBm), (N/A)

Verify the regulatory domain:

# iw reg get

global
country JP: DFS-JP
    (2402 - 2482 @ 40), (N/A, 20), (N/A)
    (2474 - 2494 @ 20), (N/A, 20), (N/A), NO-OFDM
    (4910 - 4990 @ 40), (N/A, 23), (N/A)
    (5030 - 5090 @ 40), (N/A, 23), (N/A)
    (5170 - 5250 @ 80), (N/A, 20), (N/A), AUTO-BW
    (5250 - 5330 @ 80), (N/A, 20), (0 ms), DFS, AUTO-BW
    (5490 - 5710 @ 160), (N/A, 23), (0 ms), DFS
    (59000 - 66000 @ 2160), (N/A, 10), (N/A)

Perform passive scanning:

# ifconfig wlan0 up

# iw dev wlan0 scan passive | grep freq | sort

The scanning produces a list of frequencies where the APs were heard but no channel 14 frequency 2484.

Questions: 

- Will the Japan channel 14 be supported by ath10k for the scanning in near future?
- What is the current status of the regulatory domains in general in the ath10k driver/firmware?

Best regards,
Tomi Saarnio