Ieee80211Interface

compound module

This module implements an IEEE 802.11 network interface. It implements a large subset of the IEEE 802.11 standard, and may use radio models and wireless signal representations of varying levels of detail. It is also extremely configurable, and its component structure makes it easy to experiment with various details of the protocol.

The main components of the interface are the MAC and the radio submodules. Most configuration parameters are in the MAC (Ieee80211Mac) and its numerous subcomponents. Most subcomponents are replaceable to facilitate experimentation by using typename assignments in the configuration.

The default radio is Ieee80211ScalarRadio, but it can be replaced with any of several compatible radio types using typename assignments in the configuration. Several radio models of varying levels of detail are available, from simple unit disk radio models to layered radio models that explicitly model forward error correction, scrambling, symbol encoding/decoding, etc, and may represent radio signals with a multi-dimensional power density function over time and frequency. The INET User Guide elaborates on the possibilities.

The type of the management submodule is also configurable. The type of this submodule decides whether the interfaces acts an AP, a STA, or is in ad hoc mode. Use Ieee80211MgmtSta or Ieee80211MgmtStaSimplified for STA, Ieee80211MgmtAp or Ieee80211MgmtApSimplified for AP, and Ieee80211MgmtAdhoc for ad hoc mode.

The agent submodule is responsible for initiating the process of connecting to an AP and similar tasks normally done from "user space".

The LLC submodule is responsible for adding/removing the LLC header on packets.

A classifier is responsible for assigning a 802.1d User Priority (UP) to packets, and is only needed if QoS is involved.

The clock submodule would allow clock skew modeling -- this is currently not used.

Note about the implementation:

Despite its appearance, Ieee80211Interface is not a plain compound module. It has an underlying custom C++ class that inherits from cModule.

Usage diagram

The following diagram shows usage relationships between types. Unresolved types are missing from the diagram.

Inheritance diagram

The following diagram shows inheritance relationships for this type. Unresolved types are missing from the diagram.

Extends

Name	Type	Description
NetworkInterface	compound module	This module serves as the base module for all network interfaces.

Parameters

Name	Type	Default value	Description
displayStringTextFormat	string	"%a (%i)\n%m"
recordPcap	bool	false
numPcapRecorders	int	recordPcap ? 1 : 0
interfaceTableModule	string
energySourceModule	string	""
opMode	string	"g(mixed)"
address	string	"auto"	MAC address as hex string (12 hex digits), or "auto". "auto" values will be replaced by a generated MAC address in init stage 0.
protocol	string	""
bitrate	double	-1bps

Properties

Name	Value	Description
networkInterface
lifecycleSupport
class	NetworkInterface
display	i=block/ifcard

Gates

Name	Direction	Size	Description
upperLayerIn	input
upperLayerOut	output
radioIn	input

Signals

Name	Type	Unit
packetDropped	inet::Packet

Statistics

Name	Title	Source	Record	Unit	Interpolation Mode
packetDropInterfaceDown	packet drops: interface down	packetDropReasonIsInterfaceDown(packetDropped)	count, sum(packetBytes), vector(packetBytes)		none
packetDropNoCarrier	packet drops: no carrier	packetDropReasonIsNoCarrier(packetDropped)	count, sum(packetBytes), vector(packetBytes)		none

Direct method calls (observed)

call to	function	info
MessageDispatcher	inet::MessageDispatcher::handleRegisterInterface	handleRegisterInterface
Ieee80211Interface	inet::NetworkInterface::receiveSignal	POST_MODEL_CHANGE
InterfaceTable	inet::InterfaceTable::findInterfaceByName	findInterfaceByName
InterfaceTable	inet::InterfaceTable::interfaceChanged	interfaceChanged
Ipv4RoutingTable	inet::Ipv4RoutingTable::receiveSignal	interfaceCreated
NextHopRoutingTable	inet::NextHopRoutingTable::receiveSignal	interfaceCreated

Called methods (observed)

function	info	call from
inet::NetworkInterface::handleOperationStage	handleOperationStage	ScenarioManager, SimpleEpEnergyManagement, SimpleEpEnergyStorage
inet::NetworkInterface::receiveSignal	POST_MODEL_CHANGE	-=Network=-, ScenarioManager, OmittedIeee8021dQosClassifier, Ieee80211Interface, Contention, Dcf, Hcf, InProgressFrames, AarfRateControl

Tagging operations (observed)

tagType	tagAction
	clearTags

Unassigned submodule parameters

Name	Type	Default value	Description
pcapRecorder.verbose	bool	true	whether to log packets on the module output
pcapRecorder.pcapFile	string	""	the PCAP file to be written
pcapRecorder.fileFormat	string	"pcapng"
pcapRecorder.snaplen	int	65535	maximum number of bytes to record per packet
pcapRecorder.dumpBadFrames	bool	true	enable dump of frames with hasBitError
pcapRecorder.sendingSignalNames	string	"packetSentToLower"	space-separated list of outbound packet signals to subscribe to
pcapRecorder.receivingSignalNames	string	"packetReceivedFromLower"	space-separated list of inbound packet signals to subscribe to
pcapRecorder.dumpProtocols	string	"ethernetmac ppp ieee80211mac"	space-separated list of protocol names as defined in the Protocol class
pcapRecorder.packetFilter	object	"*"	which packets are considered, matches all packets by default
pcapRecorder.helpers	string	""	usable PcapRecorder::IHelper helpers for accept packettype and store/convert packet as specified linktype currently available: "inet::AckingMacToEthernetPcapRecorderHelper"
pcapRecorder.alwaysFlush	bool	false	flush the pcapFile after each write to ensure that all packets are captured in case of a crash
pcapRecorder.displayStringTextFormat	string	"rec: %n pks"
mgmt.macModule	string		The path to the MAC module

Source code

//
// This module implements an IEEE 802.11 network interface. It implements
// a large subset of the IEEE 802.11 standard, and may use radio models
// and wireless signal representations of varying levels of detail.
// It is also extremely configurable, and its component structure makes
// it easy to experiment with various details of the protocol.
//
// The main components of the interface are the MAC and the radio submodules.
// Most configuration parameters are in the MAC (~Ieee80211Mac) and its
// numerous subcomponents. Most subcomponents are replaceable to facilitate
// experimentation by using typename assignments in the configuration.
//
// The default radio is ~Ieee80211ScalarRadio, but it can be replaced
// with any of several compatible radio types using typename assignments
// in the configuration. Several radio models of varying levels of detail
// are available, from simple unit disk radio models to layered radio models
// that explicitly model forward error correction, scrambling, symbol
// encoding/decoding, etc, and may represent radio signals with a
// multi-dimensional power density function over time and frequency.
// The INET User Guide elaborates on the possibilities.
//
// The type of the management submodule is also configurable. The type of this
// submodule decides whether the interfaces acts an AP, a STA, or is in ad hoc mode.
// Use ~Ieee80211MgmtSta or ~Ieee80211MgmtStaSimplified for STA,
// ~Ieee80211MgmtAp or ~Ieee80211MgmtApSimplified for AP, and
// ~Ieee80211MgmtAdhoc for ad hoc mode.
//
// The agent submodule is responsible for initiating the process of connecting
// to an AP and similar tasks normally done from "user space".
//
// The LLC submodule is responsible for adding/removing the LLC header on packets.
//
// A classifier is responsible for assigning a 802.1d User Priority (UP) to
// packets, and is only needed if QoS is involved.
//
// The clock submodule would allow clock skew modeling -- this is currently not used.
//
// Note about the implementation:
//
// Despite its appearance, Ieee80211Interface is not a plain compound module.
// It has an underlying custom C++ class that inherits from cModule.
//
module Ieee80211Interface extends NetworkInterface like IWirelessInterface
{
    parameters:
        string interfaceTableModule;
        string energySourceModule = default("");
        string opMode @enum("a","b","g(erp)","g(mixed)","n(mixed-2.4Ghz)","p","ac") = default("g(mixed)");
        string address @mutable = default("auto"); // MAC address as hex string (12 hex digits), or
                                                   // "auto". "auto" values will be replaced by
                                                   // a generated MAC address in init stage 0.
        string protocol = default("");
        double bitrate @unit(bps) = default(-1bps);
        **.opMode = this.opMode;
        **.bitrate = this.bitrate;
        mac.modeSet = default(this.opMode);
        mac.*.rateSelection.dataFrameBitrate = default(this.bitrate);
        *.macModule = default(absPath(".mac"));
        *.mibModule = default(absPath(".mib"));
        *.interfaceTableModule = default(absPath(this.interfaceTableModule));
        *.energySourceModule = default(absPath(this.energySourceModule));
    gates:
        input upperLayerIn;
        output upperLayerOut;
        input radioIn @labels(IWirelessSignal);
    submodules:
        mib: Ieee80211Mib {
            parameters:
                @display("p=100,300;is=s");
        }
        llc: <default(opMode == "p" ? "Ieee80211LlcEpd" : "Ieee80211LlcLpd")> like IIeee80211Llc {
            parameters:
                @display("p=300,200");
        }
        classifier: <default("OmittedIeee8021dQosClassifier")> like IIeee8021dQosClassifier {
            parameters:
                @display("p=500,100");
        }
        agent: <default("Ieee80211AgentSta")> like IIeee80211Agent if typename != "" {
            parameters:
                @display("p=700,300");
        }
        mgmt: <default("Ieee80211MgmtSta")> like IIeee80211Mgmt {
            parameters:
                @display("p=500,300");
        }
        mac: <default("Ieee80211Mac")> like IIeee80211Mac {
            parameters:
                @display("p=300,300");
        }
        radio: <default("Ieee80211ScalarRadio")> like IRadio {
            parameters:
                @display("p=300,400");
        }
    connections:
        radioIn --> { @display("m=s"); } --> radio.radioIn;
        radio.upperLayerIn <-- mac.lowerLayerOut;
        radio.upperLayerOut --> mac.lowerLayerIn;

        mac.mgmtOut --> mgmt.macIn;
        mac.mgmtIn <-- mgmt.macOut;

        mgmt.agentOut --> agent.mgmtIn if exists(agent);
        mgmt.agentIn <-- agent.mgmtOut if exists(agent);

        llc.upperLayerOut --> { @display("m=n"); } --> upperLayerOut;
        llc.upperLayerIn <-- { @display("m=n"); } <-- classifier.out;

        llc.lowerLayerOut --> mac.upperLayerIn;
        llc.lowerLayerIn <-- mac.upperLayerOut;

        classifier.in <-- { @display("m=n"); } <-- upperLayerIn;
}

File: src/inet/linklayer/ieee80211/Ieee80211Interface.ned