On Tue, Apr 5, 2011 at 12:07 AM, Johannes Berg <johannes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Mon, 2011-04-04 at 19:06 -0700, Javier Cardona wrote: >> This is useful for implementing frame protection in userspace. The kernel may >> request a userspace daemon to verify a frame (sent to userspace via >> cfg80211_rx_mgmt()). The userspace daemon can then pass back the >> verified/unprotected frame to the stack for further processing (via a >> self-addressed frame sent with cfg80211_mlme_mgmt_tx()) >> >> We are using this for our implementation authenticated peering. 11s defines >> two versions of mesh peering, the non-secure mesh peering management (MPM) and >> the Authenticated Mesh Peering Exchange (AMPE). The latter is based on the >> exact same state machine as MPM. It is really convenient to use the in-kernel >> MPM with a minimal userspace daemon to add the security bits introduced by >> AMPE. This way both secured and open mesh networks can use exact same peering >> code. >> >> What do you think... will this fly? > > Seems very strange to me. I guess if you're after unification in my mind > it makes more sense to declare the in-kernel state machine legacy, copy > it into the userspace tool and use it even for unprotected MPM? We would like to preserve the ability to join an open mesh without a daemon, in the same way that a station can associate with an AP without one. With that goal in mind, the alternatives are to duplicate the MPM in userspace or to reuse the in-kernel MPM with only AMPE in userspace. Considering that AMPE uses MPM frames and state machines, reusing the in-kernel MPM is a significantly lower effort alternative. Furthermore, while working on AMPE we can also bring the in-kernel MPM up to spec. Of course this requires agreeing on a suitable API between MPM and AMPE. If you don't like the generic one I proposed we can try to define a mesh-specific alternative. But first, setting aside the API change proposal, do you object to this AMPE-in-userspace/MPM-in-kernel partition? Cheers, Javier -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-wireless" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
