wpa_supplicant_select_bss error?

[Dan Williams]

On Tue, 2013-12-17 at 13:23 +1100, a.brooks2 at marathon-targets.com wrote:
> Hi Dan,
> 
> I'm travelling at the moment so I can't test why wpa_scan_result_compar 
> might be doing the wrong thing -- but I can confirm that while using two 
> APs from the same vendor, one with terrible signal-strength was ordered 
> ahead of one with good signal strength.

When you're done traveling, put some debug prints into
wpa_scan_result_compar() and see what's going on.  I'm pretty curious.

Dan

> 
> Alex
> 
> On 2013-12-17 03:03, Dan Williams wrote:
> > On Sun, 2013-12-15 at 21:53 +1100, a.brooks2 at marathon-targets.com 
> > wrote:
> >> Hi,
> >> 
> >> I've been trying to track down why a client seems to connect to the
> >> (significantly) weaker of two access-points with identical SSIDs, and
> >> refuses to roam to the stronger one subsequently.
> >> 
> >> I think there might be an error in wpa_supplicant_select_bss:
> > 
> > Scan results are sorted when they arrive from the driver in
> > wpa_supplicant_get_scan_results() using the wpa_scan_result_compar()
> > function, a huge component of which is signal strength.  Thus, when
> > wpa_supplicant_select_bss() returns the first matching AP, it should
> > already be the best AP because the AP list has been sorted.
> > 
> > So I would concentrate your debugging on that function, and find out 
> > why
> > it decides your "better" AP is less usable than your "worse" AP.
> > 
> > Dan
> > 
> >> static struct wpa_bss *
> >> wpa_supplicant_select_bss(struct wpa_supplicant *wpa_s,
> >>                struct wpa_ssid *group,
> >>                struct wpa_ssid **selected_ssid)
> >> {
> >>      unsigned int i;
> >> 
> >>      wpa_dbg(wpa_s, MSG_DEBUG, "Selecting BSS from priority group %d",
> >>          group->priority);
> >> 
> >>      for (i = 0; i < wpa_s->last_scan_res_used; i++) {
> >>          struct wpa_bss *bss = wpa_s->last_scan_res[i];
> >>          *selected_ssid = wpa_scan_res_match(wpa_s, i, bss, group);
> >>          if (!*selected_ssid)
> >>              continue;
> >>          wpa_dbg(wpa_s, MSG_DEBUG, "   selected BSS " MACSTR
> >>              " ssid='%s'",
> >>              MAC2STR(bss->bssid),
> >>              wpa_ssid_txt(bss->ssid, bss->ssid_len));
> >>          return bss;
> >>      }
> >> 
> >>      return NULL;
> >> }
> >> 
> >> 
> >> The loop returns on the first BSS it finds with the appropriate ssid.
> >> So the results depend on the order of the scan results.
> >> In my case I have a client which happens to list the weaker BSS first,
> >> so it does the wrong thing.
> >> 
> >> I think this loop should find the best BSS instead.  I made this 
> >> change
> >> and now my client happily connects to the correct BSS, and roams
> >> appropriately.
> >> 
> >> I can submit a patch but thought I'd ask the question first (this code
> >> seems to have been around for a while so I'm surprised no-one has 
> >> found
> >> it if it is in fact a bug), let me know.
> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> Cheers,
> >> 
> >> Alex
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> HostAP mailing list
> >> HostAP at lists.shmoo.com
> >> http://lists.shmoo.com/mailman/listinfo/hostap