ath12k pcie radios with MLO support?

[Vasanthakumar Thiagarajan]

On 11/12/2025 7:10 AM, Ben Greear wrote:
> On 11/11/25 17:29, Jeff Johnson wrote:
>> On 11/11/2025 7:27 AM, Ben Greear wrote:
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> Are there any current radios + software available where one can put
>>> ath12k radios in (mini)pcie slots or similar and use those in x86-64
>>> chassis and provide tri-band MLO?
>>>
>>> Last I looked, Compex had some dual-band radios and maybe single-band
>>> 6ghz, but I am not sure those can be combined into a tri-band MLO solution?
>>
>> Most of the Compex modules use the AP-centric QCN chipsets.
>> For your use case look for something using the WCN chipset.
>>
>> Something like:
>> https://www.sparklan.com/product/wnfq-291bei/
>>
>> (I haven't tried it and don't endorse it, just giving as an example)
> 
> Hello Jeff,
> 
> Thanks for the link.  That too is dual band though.  I'm interested in
> using ath12k radios for wifi testing purposes, so I'd really like tri-band
> MLO to have some feature parity with the MTK 7996 radio board.
> 
> Is ath12k able to combine discrete wifi NICs into tri-band MLO stations?

Yes, ath12k supports tri-band MLO STA. This has been validated for QCN chipsets.
Not sure if this has been tested for WCN chipsets.

> 
> Or is ath12k entirely DBDC at this point with no tri-band MLO capability?
> 
> In addition, back in ath10k days, I was able to get the radio to do up to
> 64 STA vdevs once I put the firmware on a diet.  From a quick look at the ath12k
> driver, it seems the limit for STA vdevs is exactly 1.  Is there any somewhat-documented
> way to get ath12k to support more STA vdevs?

Supporting more number of STA vdevs instead of the current 1 STA will require
firmware changes (and of course more validations).

Vasanth