What WIFI chipset for AP+STA combinated ?

[r2d2r01]

Hi Armbian forum team, i have bought some HC1/XU4, very fine boards, thank's, but have a wifi AP+STA pb.

odroidhc1 / kernel: armbian 4.14 / wifi module 3
lsusb -> Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0bda:8176 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8188CUS 802.11n WLAN Adapter ).
lsmod -> rtl_usb 20480 1 rtl8192cu

After rebuild hostapd-rtl/driver (to suport nl80211)/AP + wpa_supplicant/STA runs fine but not simultaneously (when wpa_supp connects in STA (AP shutdown, etc..)).
In fact that seems normal because in iw "combination is not supported"

What 's the best chipset you advise me (rtl8812, rtl8814, rt3572/5572, mt7601, atheros, cypress) which supports AP+STA at SAME TIME.

Thank's for light.
Good evening
Frederic

 

 

root@IQB:/etc# lsusb -t

/:  Bus 06.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci-hcd/1p, 5000M

    |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Vendor Specific Class, Driver=r8152, 5000M

/:  Bus 05.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci-hcd/1p, 480M

/:  Bus 04.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci-hcd/1p, 5000M

    |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Mass Storage, Driver=uas, 5000M

/:  Bus 03.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci-hcd/1p, 480M

/:  Bus 02.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=exynos-ohci/3p, 12M

/:  Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=exynos-ehci/3p, 480M

    |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Vendor Specific Class, Driver=rtl8192cu, 480M

 

 

 

[Igor]

20 minutes ago, r2d2r01 said:

which supports AP+STA at SAME TIME

Moved to general section since this is not board specific. I was doing many hacking around wireless, but was never focused to this particular function. Can't help  

[r2d2r01]

Thank's Igor, sure,often after many hack on driver/hostap rebuild, load/unload/reboot.etc.... time past .... and i am in prod, so i'm looking for a true solution not a "rustine"
The main solution persistant is to have the right driver which pilot fine chipset. When i think that on little SoC, whe have this functionality integrated by default.
Are u thinking kernel 5.4 manage better this aspect ?

[r2d2r01]

For thoses which helps, some links which get some lights.

 

https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/drivers

http://home.exetel.com.au/heynow/review-of-usb-wifi-adapters.php

https://wiki.debian.org/WiFi#USB_Devices

https://www.wirelesshack.org/top-linux-compatible-usb-wireless-adapters.html

https://www.wirelesshack.org/best-usb-wireless-network-adapters.html

 

 

 

 

 

[Igor]

1 hour ago, r2d2r01 said:

Are u thinking kernel 5.4 manage better this aspect ?

Yes, but there you will have some unrelated SoC specific problems that are not ironed out yet - 5.4.y support for Odroid XU4 is not perfect yet, while for many other boards is.

BTW. We are doing STA performance tests on whatever is on board or plugged into the boards, but for AP we don't have tests yet. Also not for STA + AP ... This way you would see the best performance right away. I think you will need to invest some time to get this information. As you can see, most of the tests are focused for basic functions only.

 

https://github.com/armbian/autotests

 

Example report:
https://dl.armbian.com/_test-reports/2020-05-10_01.19.36.html

[Heisath]

For AP+STA at the same time you'd probably need a chip with multiple transceiver modules. The MT7615 might work, although drivers for that are pretty bad atm. http://wiki.banana-pi.org/BPI-MT7615_802.11_ac_wifi_4x4_dual-band_module

[r2d2r01]

Igor, reports are a true snapshot of system components, big job, bravo. Agree with you, I start a cycle of investigation for the couple driver/chipset with some perenity, but quid from chicken or egg
I start from armbian / driver kernel supported <-> chipset AP/START implemented function and will see.

Thank's Heisath for proposition, 4T4R ouah, but bad driver is an open door about dysfunction hard to debug and unstable.

I have ordered some wifi dongles i receive in 2/3 weeks and will start a test cycle.

See you guys

 

 

[dvdspeler]

Ive been working on getting an AWUS1900 with RTL8814au as an Access point the last days. So far it seems hard to acomplish without manually setting up the makefile in aircrack-ng/rtl8812au

Next on the list is to try Kali Linux on bananapi. I tried loading the kali repo and installing with $ apt install rtl8814au-dkms (or something similar in the kali repo) but the package builds for non-arm or some other issue... Couldn't point it out. Its a complex juggle of switching kernels and git driver builds.

I was hoping you'd have some results in a better working chipset, as I just want to use it as an AP . Maybe better luck with archaur but idk