The Wavelan drivers saga
------------------------
By Jean Tourrilhes <jt@hpl.hp.com>
The Wavelan is a Radio network adapter designed by
Lucent. Under this generic name is hidden quite a variety of hardware,
and many Linux driver to support it.
The get the full story on Wireless LANs, please consult :
http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/
“wavelan” driver (old ISA Wavelan)
o Config : Network device -> Wireless LAN -> AT&T WaveLAN
o Location : .../drivers/net/wireless/wavelan*
o in-line doc : .../drivers/net/wireless/wavelan.p.h
o on-line doc :
http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Wavelan.html
This is the driver for the ISA version of the first generation
of the Wavelan, now discontinued. The device is 2 Mb/s, composed of a
Intel 82586 controller and a Lucent Modem, and is NOT 802.11 compliant.
The driver has been tested with the following hardware :
o Wavelan ISA 915 MHz (full length ISA card)
o Wavelan ISA 915 MHz 2.0 (half length ISA card)
o Wavelan ISA 2.4 GHz (full length ISA card, fixed frequency)
o Wavelan ISA 2.4 GHz 2.0 (half length ISA card, frequency selectable)
o Above cards with the optional DES encryption feature
“wavelan_cs” driver (old Pcmcia Wavelan)
o Config : Network device -> PCMCIA network ->
Pcmcia Wireless LAN -> AT&T/Lucent WaveLAN
o Location : .../drivers/net/pcmcia/wavelan*
o in-line doc : .../drivers/net/pcmcia/wavelan_cs.h
o on-line doc :
http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Wavelan.html
This is the driver for the PCMCIA version of the first
generation of the Wavelan, now discontinued. The device is 2 Mb/s,
composed of a Intel 82593 controller (totally different from the 82586)
and a Lucent Modem, and NOT 802.11 compatible.
The driver has been tested with the following hardware :
o Wavelan Pcmcia 915 MHz 2.0 (Pcmcia card + separate
modem/antenna block)
o Wavelan Pcmcia 2.4 GHz 2.0 (Pcmcia card + separate
modem/antenna block)
“wvlan_cs” driver (Wavelan IEEE, GPL)
o Config : Not yet in kernel
o Location : Pcmcia package 3.1.10+
o on-line doc : http://www.fasta.fh-dortmund.de/users/andy/wvlan/
This is the driver for the current generation of Wavelan IEEE,
which is 802.11 compatible. Depending on version, it is 2 Mb/s or 11
Mb/s, with or without encryption, all implemented in Lucent specific
DSP (the Hermes).
This is a GPL full source PCMCIA driver (ISA is just a Pcmcia
card with ISA-Pcmcia bridge).
“wavelan2_cs” driver (Wavelan IEEE, binary)
o Config : Not yet in kernel
o Location : ftp://sourceforge.org/pcmcia/contrib/
This driver support exactly the same hardware as the previous
driver, the main difference is that it is based on a binary library
and supported by Lucent.
I hope it clears the confusion ;-)
Jean
