hostap and different cards drivers

[Alexander Kotelnikov]

Hello.

Hostapd can run with cards which have different capabilities. I use it
with atheros and ralink. Atheros cards can handle some functionality
of an access point in driver/hardware, i.e. it can be an simple
WEP-only AP without a hostapd at all. Ralink on the contrary can
handle nothing of this sort.

So the question is: does hostapd try to use most of capabilities of
the hardware, or once it is running it performs everything in software
for all cards? It is not hard to understand, for example, how the list
of assosiated or authorized STAs can be kept in driver in one case and
in hostap in another. Links to the sources are welcome.

Thanks,
-- 
Alexander Kotelnikov
Saint-Petersburg, Russia