Deploy Wi-Fi 7 network : focusing on Multi-Link Operation functionality (MLO)

[Rania SAHRAOUI]

Hello everyone,

I’m trying to deploy a Wi-Fi 7 network . I need the Wi-Fi 7 standard because my goal is to use Multi-Link Operation (MLO), a functionality introduced in Wi-Fi 7.

1. Does Mininet-WiFi support the Wi-Fi 7 standard?
2. Does it offer the MLO functionality (i.e., multiple radio links across multiple bands between stations and access points)? If not, is it possible to simulate this feature?

Any insights or recommendations for this use case would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

[Ramon Fontes]

Hello! I have great news regarding this.

> 1. Does Mininet-WiFi support the Wi-Fi 7 standard?

Yes, Mininet-WiFi now supports the Wi-Fi 7 standard! To access this
functionality, make sure to run git pull to update your repository
with the latest changes—I’ve just added support for Wi-Fi 7 -
https://github.com/intrig-unicamp/mininet-wifi/blob/master/examples/wifi7.py.
:)

> 2. Does it offer the MLO functionality (i.e., multiple radio links across multiple bands between stations and access points)? If not, is it possible to simulate this feature?

Mininet-WiFi can support MLO as long as hostapd provides the necessary
support. I recommend checking the hostapd documentation for more
details. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the chance to test MLO yet.

[Rania SAHRAOUI]

Thank you Ramonre for the update, this is great news! 

I appreciate the guidance on MLO and will look into hostapd’s documentation.

Thanks again for sharing this information.

[Rania SAHRAOUI]

Hello

I’m writing to ask for guidance concerning the hostapd :

1. Could you please share the hostapd documentation (for Wi-Fi 7, if available) ?

2. MLO Integration
   I reviewed the hostapd configuration for Wi-Fi 7 added via this patch:
   https://github.com/intrig-unicamp/mininet-wifi/blob/master/util/hostap-patches/config.patch.
   It appears that MLO (Multi-Link Operation) is not mentioned, although MBO (Multi-Band Operation)—which is important for MLO—is supported. Is it possible to integrate MLO?

Any insights or recommendations for this use case would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

[Ramon Fontes]

1. https://w1.fi/hostapd/

2. I haven't had the chance to try MLO.

Sent from my mobile device

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[Rania SAHRAOUI]

Hi Ramon !

Thank you for the documentation! The hostapd.conf file indeed supports MLO.

I am new to Mininet-WiFi and would like to know how to enable the MLO feature or any other feature mentioned in hostapd.conf within a Mininet-wifi script.

Any tutorials, examples, or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance!

[Ramon Fontes]

I recommend reading the mn-wifi ebook:
https://github.com/ramonfontes/mn-wifi-ebook

Regarding the code, since it is open-source and publicly available,
you can search for relevant keywords. For example, the file
mn_wifi/link.py
(https://github.com/intrig-unicamp/mininet-wifi/blob/master/mn_wifi/link.py#L804)
contains most of the hostapd configuration.

[Rania SAHRAOUI]

Hello Ramon,

Thank you for the documentation. I was able to configure the AP to use MLO (Multi-Link Operation) via the hostapd configuration.

However, I noticed that there is no mention of MLO support on the station side when using wpa_supplicant.

1. How can I configure the station to support MLO?

2. Is there a newer version of wpa_supplicant that includes Wi-Fi 7 (MLO) support?

3. Is there an alternative to wpa_supplicant that supports Wi-Fi 7 (MLO) for stations?

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance!

[Ramon Fontes]

Dear Rania,

I don't have answers for your questions because I haven't tried MLO yet.

[Rania SAHRAOUI]

Thank you, Ramon.

Is it possible to replace the hostapd used in Mininet-WiFi with the hostap-ct GitHub repository, which provides MLO support in wpa_supplicant?

https://github.com/greearb/hostap-ct/tree/master/wpa_supplicant

Thank you in advance.

[Ramon Fontes]

> Is it possible to replace the hostapd used in Mininet-WiFi with the hostap-ct GitHub repository, which provides MLO support in wpa_supplicant?

Yes, it is possible. Actually, you only have to reinstall hostap from the new repo. Those changes look interesting and I think that they will be included in the hostap official repo soon.