[PATCH] Avoid unnecessary triggering of rescans

[Dan Williams]

On Fri, 2008-03-07 at 09:04 +0200, Jouni Malinen wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 05:53:52PM +0100, Helmut Schaa wrote:
> 
> > The setup here is a bit complex, I have multiple hidden APs with the same 
> > ESSID around.
> > 
> > Once wpa_supplicant gets the scan-results (not being the scan initiator) it 
> > tries to find a suitable AP. If it finds the one you're currently associated 
> > with it drops the message "Already associated..." and does not do anything 
> > else.
> 
> That is the expected behavior for processing unsolicited scan results.
> 
> > Otherwise it starts a new scan. Once it starts a scan for a specific ESSID it 
> > will get the currently associated AP but in my case there are even more APs 
> > which match the ESSID and wpa_supplicant will start associating with the 
> > first matching AP.
> 
> This is also expected. If the scan results do not include the current
> AP, wpa_supplicant assumes that the AP is not available anymore and
> tries to find another AP to use. I would like to make sure all drivers
> return the currently associated AP in scan results always regardless of
> the scan type. This information is needed, e.g., for WPA security
> validation.

_Definitely_.  This should be required of all drivers.

dan

> > Perhaps it would be even better to do nothing when scan-results come in and 
> > wpa_supplicant is not in state WPA_SCANNING.
> 
> The goal in the current design is to allow changing the APs based on
> background scans if a better AP becomes available. As such, I do not
> want to change this part of the design.
> 
> In general, I would like to get the driver changed to return the current
> BSS (including its SSID even if the AP does not broadcast it) in scan
> results. If for some reason that is not possible, the driver wrapper
> should somehow notify core supplicant code (e.g., a capability flag)
> that this is the case and allow wpa_supplicant to ignore
> current-AP-missing-from-results case when such a driver is used (and not
> to reduce functionality with other drivers that work more properly).
>