Support for cfg80211 / mac80211 Linux 802.11 drivers on Android#

This section tries to document what is required to support 802.11 Linux drivers on Android.

The current status quo#

Android uses wireless-extensions to support its 802.11 drivers. The drivers that Android devices have up to this day used are all using wireless-extensions for communication. The Android codebase also uses a custom wpa_supplicant. The details of this can be found on android’s porting wifi page and on this porting wifi drivers to android documentation.

Roadmap#

The current Android 802.11 interface should change to use nl80211. The proper approach would be to extend nl80211 upstream (where necessary) and use an unmodified wpa_supplicant in Android.

Doing this will mean adding support to Android for all new 802.11 cfg80211/mac80211 Linux drivers.

Work#

Anyone working on this?

LKML References#