[RFC 1/2] Support fixing the BSSID in IBSS mode.

[Nicolas Cavallari]

On 28/01/2012 12:19, Antonio Quartulli wrote:
> On Sat, Jan 28, 2012 at 11:39:13 +0200, Jouni Malinen wrote:
>> On Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 06:52:34PM +0100, Nicolas Cavallari wrote:
>>> When the "bssid=" option is set for an IBSS network and ap_scan = 2,
>>> ask the driver to fix this BSSID, if possible.
>>>
>>> Previously, any "bssid=" option were ignored in IBSS mode when ap_scan=2.
>> Thanks, applied both patches.
>>
>>> Whould like to know if it is the right approach, driver-wise and
>>> configuration-wise.
>>> I'm not aware of any program specifying a BSSID when creating an IBSS
>>> network, except NetworkManager that does it only when the user
>>> requests it.
>> Well, this is not really the way IBSS is supposed to work, but since
>> this type of hacks have been implemented in some drivers, we might as
>> well support them in wpa_supplicant.
> Actually I'm curious about this behaviour...if we have another IBSS with
> ESSID=x and BSSID=y1 and we start a new IBSS with ESSID=x (the same) and a fixed
> BSSID=y2 then the two cells will not join each other...
> At this point, what is another new client supposed to do (if it has not fixed
> BSSID)? join the first one? the second one? this maybe an already mentioned and
> solved problem but actually this is not totally clear to me...does the ieee standard 
> 'allow' such scenario?
This scenario is already possible without fixed BSSID : if the new
station is in the middle of two stations that can't see each other, it
will still have to choose the oldest. The not-choosen one will
eventually merge with the two (unless it has fixed bssid, or broken ibss
merge, the latter being more common).