[LEDE-DEV] FCC killing open platforms and inovations

[Simon Wunderlich]

Hi Russell,

On Thursday, November 17, 2016 1:32:23 AM CET Russell Senior wrote:
> >>>>> "Simon" == Simon Wunderlich <simon.wunderlich at open-mesh.com> writes:
> Simon> You are right, the FCC doesn't explicitly requires to prevent
> Simon> third-party firmware loading anymore. However, they still require
> Simon> to explain how a vendor makes sure that US RF limits are not
> Simon> violated [1]. Since a third-party firmware can be anything
> Simon> including a firmware with a patched ath9k where DFS is disabled
> Simon> etc, we (as Open-Mesh) can't really prevent that those RF limits
> Simon> are violated.  Thus we can not give a convincing explanation
> Simon> there, and the situation stays the same.
> 
> Simon> If you have any constructive idea, I would love to propose it
> Simon> internally.
> 
> Am I correct that since all 802.11ac radios (such as those supported by
> ath10k, etc) require firmware blobs, that solves the FCC problem?
> 
> It is only the 100 million existing already-sold devices that will still
> be able to interfere with the radars? ;-)

No, firmware (at least in ath10k) doesn't solve the problem. You can still set 
a country code, DFS pattern matching is still done in the host-side driver 
part (and not in the firmware), and you can still disable radar detection.

In my personal opinion, binary blob firmware (at least as its used today) just 
creates more problems regarding open-ness that it could possibly solve.

Cheers, 
      Simon
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 801 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part.
URL: <http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/lede-dev/attachments/20161117/79f8209e/attachment.sig>