Analysis of open source drivers for IEEE 802.11 WLANs

The purpose of this study is to analyze the open source IEEE 802.11 wireless local area network (WLAN) stack implementation for further enhancement and implementations. We discuss the IEEE 802.11 WLAN implementation in the latest Linux kernel. This includes a functional breakdown of the driver and the overall flow of information via functions. We also survey the specific implementation methods used in the WLAN Linux stack. We compare the legacy driver implementation with the newer Linux kernel implementation. For reference, the Atheros network device driver is taken as an example to discuss the WLAN structure, stack and driver implementation.