Reconfigure hostapd per BSS

[John Crispin]

On 24.06.20 07:16, Shay Bar wrote:
> Hi Jouni,
>
> In current code, SIGHUP can be used to reconfigure hostapd.
> Upon this signal hostapd will read .conf file and reconfigure.
> In case of MBSS, I find it useful to be able to reconfigure only
> specific BSS(s) without interfering other BSS's currently running.
> I want to implement such mechanism and want your opinion.
>
> I waver between two options:
> 1. Add BSS reload mask (of BSS's) to .conf file so that only the
>      BSS's enabled in the bitmask will be reconfigured from the
>      conf file upon SIGHUP.
> 2. Add hostapd_cli RECONFIGURE option that receive as
>       parameter the BSS's bitmask and reconfigures
>       (from .conf file).only the enabled BSS's.
>
> Appreciate your feedback.
>
> Thanks,
> Shay.

Hi Shay,

we are carrying a patch inside openwrt doing something similar [1]. it 
basically introduces a radio_id and config_id option, where we put a 
hash of the radio/bss section of the config file. when you call reload, 
hostapd will only restart that specific BSS. THis has been working for 
people in the field, and changes to one BSS wont interrupt the 
connectivity of others on the same phy. been meaning to send this 
updtream for a while. might be the time to do so now.

     John

[1] 
https://git.openwrt.org/?p=openwrt/openwrt.git;a=blob;f=package/network/services/hostapd/patches/700-wifi-reload.patch