General

MLO is an integral and mandatory part of Wi-Fi 7 (11be) specification. It allows aggregating multiple bands/APs as single links at protocol level allowing for increased throughput capacity and decreased (improved) latency.

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This should be considered as a technology preview.

Northbound API

OVSDB

Wifi_VIF_Config

Additional meaning

• enabled - for interfaces that are mode = sta this implicitly defines whether a given link is also intended to be used for MLO setup. If multiple VIFs that share the same mld_addrare enabled then a MLO association shall be done as soon as possible with as little VIFs as possible. Additional VIF links can be added through a re-setup after they get discovered. The MLO non-AP STA can be setup initially with a single link only if other affiliated VIFs are incapable of finding a matching link.

Wifi_VIF_State

Added

• mld_addr - the MLD address that given VIF is part of. This is non-configurable at runtime. This is considered a system property. If empty, the VIF is not part of an MLD.

• mld_if_name - this is system dependent. If the data path will be routed through a different network device in the system, then this shall be reported here. This is required to properly configure bridging rules.

Wifi_Associated_Clients

Added

• mld_addr - the MLD address that belongs to the associated client. If empty, the link is not part of an MLD and is a regular non-MLO association. If non-empty it signals the client is Wi-Fi 7, uses MLO and this particular row is one of the affiliated links of the MLD client. A client may have 1 or more links (ie. rows). Each link (row) will have a different mac_addr, but the same mld_addr.

Notes

• MLO clients will appear >1 in the Wifi_Associated_Clients. Each MLO link will show up as separate entry (row) in the table and will be tied up by the mld_addr column.

Wifi_VIF_Neighbors

• mld_addr - the MLD address that the given Neighbor entry is part of. If empty, the neighbor is not part of an MLD and is a regular non-MLD AP.

MQTT

Client

Added

• mld_address - a string, format of aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff that denotes the client’s MLD address, if Wi-Fi 7 MLO association took place. Multiple reports with different mac_address can appear sharing the same mld_address.

Notes

• MLO clients will advertise their statistics in separate Client messages per link (and will be part of separate band reports). The mld_addresswill tie up the separate link reports.

BSClient

Added

• mld_address - a string, format of aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff that denotes the client’s MLD address, if Wi-Fi 7 MLO association took place. Multiple reports with different mac_address can appear sharing the same mld_address.

Notes

• MLO clients will advertise their statistics in separate BSClient messages per link (and will be part of separate band reports). The mld_addresswill tie up the separate link reports.

Southbound API

osw_drv modules are expected to report additional data in reports:

• osw_drv_vif_state_ap

  • struct osw_drv_mld_state mld - see below

• osw_drv_vif_state_sta

  • struct osw_drv_mld_state mld - see below

• osw_drv_vif_state_sta_link

  • struct osw_hwaddr mld_addr- Signals given STA iftype VIF link association is part of an MLD. If 00:00:00:00:00:00 is reported then the link is not part of an MLD.

• osw_drv_sta_state

  • struct osw_hwaddr mld_addr - Signals given STA link association is part of an MLD. If 00:00:00:00:00:00 is reported then the link is not part of an MLD.

• struct osw_drv_mld_state - shared structure to de-duplicate and represent similar data

  • struct osw_hwaddr addr - Signals what MLD address given entity (that uses struct osw_drv_mld_state) is part of. 00:00:00:00:00:00 if not part of an MLD.

  • struct osw_ifname if_name - Signals where datapath will be redirected by the system to. Possible values could be:

    • "" (empty) if datapath is not re-routed in any way and the system

    • if_name of one of the VIFs that are part of the MLD

      • In other words, multiple VIFs that are part of the same MLD can report that one of them was elected for datapath processing.

    • some special if_name of a bond-style VIF

Requirements

• QSDK 12.0 for QCA is required

  • Patch required: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/wireless/wireless-next.git/commit/?id=a6e4f85d3820d00694ed10f581f4c650445dbcda

    • Without this patch MLD reporting from kernel to userspace is broken.

  • Feature flags required:

    • prov_mld - enables MLD VIF provisioning. System integrator are urged to consider this as a reference, not a production ready solution.

    • use_owm - enables OWM and disables WM2. OWM is required for MLO operation.