Re: CFT: newath hal

On Thu, 01 Feb 2007 19:02:04 -0800, Sam Leffler wrote
> You can find hal version 0.9.30.7 here:
> 
> http://people.freebsd.org/~sam/ath_hal-20070201.tgz
> 

I was finally able to get my point-to-point link working with Ubiquiti SR9
cards  and 0.9.30.7 hal (after some guidance from Sam off-list - many thanks).
My original problem turned out to be hardware related, apparently you need a
device that is capable to provide enough power to the minipci slot to power
the 700mW SR9. The symptoms were all sorts of hardware weirdness and status
codes and I kept seeing "no carrier" on one side. After moving the card to a
more powerful test device, the problem was resolved. 

My test setup was as follows:

STA side: WRAP.2C + SR9 + 900mhz 3dBi omni
AP side: Soekris Net4521 + SR9 + 900mhz 3dBi omni

I tested two quick scenarios: one with both STA and AP side-by-side and the
other with AP & STA on two different floors. In both cases the AP was
connected to an existing live network and the STA had a laptop attached to its
ethernet port. I tested throughput with a large FTP transfer from a server
behind the AP to the laptop (for lack of a better tool). I was actually able
to achieve a higher transfer rate while going between floors. Probably due to
the RF propagation patterns of the antennae and the way they were positioned
in the side-by-side scenario. The throughput test yielded sustained
approximate rate of 9.6Mbit/sec and 12.8Mbit/sec when side-by-side and between
floors respectively. One interesting thing to note is that the STA (WRAP) side
always reported an RSSI higher then the AP by about 10 points. I also grabbed
output from athstats if anyone is interested. 

Overall, everything worked well once the hardware issue was resolved and I
look forward to deploying some point-to-point 900mhz links over longer
distances with some more powerful antennae. 

Many thanks to Sam for his work and continued support. 

 Yuri