[149818] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: 802.11 MAC Point Coordination Function
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jonathan Lassoff)
Thu Feb 16 03:59:03 2012
In-Reply-To: <CAJCOWetn9o5cfm2LWS5z9-pb1SvPTmVm8GqstLt9fNZvzW2yaA@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:57:59 -0800
From: Jonathan Lassoff <jof@thejof.com>
To: Jeremy <jbaino@gmail.com>
Cc: NANOG <nanog@nanog.org>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
On Wed, Feb 15, 2012 at 8:13 PM, Jeremy <jbaino@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm doing some research on 802.11 quality of service, congestion control,
> etc. I'm trying to find some information on the Point Coordination
> Function, a polling based access control method, but I'm having a hard time
> finding much in the way of vendor support. I have access to some cisco
> 1242's, 1140's and 1252's and I've been searching the Cisco's site and
> can't find a real answer on whether or not it's supported let alone how to
> configure it.
>
> Does anyone have any experience with this? Does Cisco have some special
> name for it aside from PCF? Any help would be appreciated!
I know of no such feature in "classic" Aironet APs. Everything I've
run across only does classic 802.11-style DCF along with all the
stations.
You might check out the Aironet 1550, which supports forming dynamic
mesh-like topologies, though I can't speak to it as I've never laid
hands on the hardware or software.
Other vendors and hackers are implementing alternative media-access
control and coordination functions, though.
You might check out Ubiquiti's AirMax-speaking hardware or
ieee80211_tdma in FreeBSD for software MAC-capable drivers.
Cheers,
jof
