lastproofread: 2023-01-26

WLAN/WIFI - Wireless LAN

WLAN (Wireless LAN) interface provide 802.11 (a/b/g/n/ac) wireless support (commonly referred to as Wi-Fi) by means of compatible hardware. If your hardware supports it, VyOS supports multiple logical wireless interfaces per physical device.

There are three modes of operation for a wireless interface:

WAP (Wireless Access-Point) provides network access to connecting stations if the physical hardware supports acting as a WAP
A station acts as a Wi-Fi client accessing the network through an available WAP
Monitor, the system passively monitors any kind of wireless traffic

If the system detects an unconfigured wireless device, it will be automatically added the configuration tree, specifying any detected settings (for example, its MAC address) and configured to run in monitor mode.

Configuration

Common interface configuration

/_include/interface-common-with-dhcp.txt

Wireless options

set interfaces wireless <interface> channel <number>

Channel number (IEEE 802.11), for 2.4Ghz (802.11 b/g/n) channels range from 1-14. On 5Ghz (802.11 a/h/j/n/ac) channels available are 0, 34 to 173

set interfaces wireless <interface> country-code <cc>

Country code (ISO/IEC 3166-1). Used to set regulatory domain. Set as needed to indicate country in which device is operating. This can limit available channels and transmit power.

Note

This option is mandatory in Access-Point mode.

set interfaces wireless <interface> disable-broadcast-ssid

Send empty SSID in beacons and ignore probe request frames that do not specify full SSID, i.e., require stations to know SSID.

set interfaces wireless <interface> expunge-failing-stations

Disassociate stations based on excessive transmission failures or other indications of connection loss.

This depends on the driver capabilities and may not be available with all drivers.

set interfaces wireless <interface> isolate-stations

Client isolation can be used to prevent low-level bridging of frames between associated stations in the BSS.

By default, this bridging is allowed.

set interfaces wireless <interface> max-stations

Maximum number of stations allowed in station table. New stations will be rejected after the station table is full. IEEE 802.11 has a limit of 2007 different association IDs, so this number should not be larger than that.

This defaults to 2007.

set interfaces wireless <interface> mgmt-frame-protection

Management Frame Protection (MFP) according to IEEE 802.11w

set interfaces wireless <interface> mode <a | b | g | n | ac>

Operation mode of wireless radio.

a - 802.11a - 54 Mbits/sec
b - 802.11b - 11 Mbits/sec
g - 802.11g - 54 Mbits/sec (default)
n - 802.11n - 600 Mbits/sec
ac - 802.11ac - 1300 Mbits/sec

set interfaces wireless <interface> physical-device <device>

Wireless hardware device used as underlay radio.

This defaults to phy0.

set interfaces wireless <interface> reduce-transmit-power <number>

Add Power Constraint element to Beacon and Probe Response frames.

This option adds Power Constraint element when applicable and Country element is added. Power Constraint element is required by Transmit Power Control.

Valid values are 0..255.

set interfaces wireless <interface> ssid <ssid>

SSID to be used in IEEE 802.11 management frames

set interfaces wireless <interface> type <access-point | station | monitor>

Wireless device type for this interface

access-point - Access-point forwards packets between other nodes
station - Connects to another access point
monitor - Passively monitor all packets on the frequency/channel

/_include/interface-per-client-thread.txt

PPDU

set interfaces wireless <interface> capabilities require-ht

set interfaces wireless <interface> capabilities require-hvt

HT (High Throughput) capabilities (802.11n)

set interfaces wireless <interface> capabilities ht 40mhz-incapable

Device is incapable of 40 MHz, do not advertise. This sets [40-INTOLERANT]

set interfaces wireless <interface> capabilities ht auto-powersave

WMM-PS Unscheduled Automatic Power Save Delivery [U-APSD]

set interfaces wireless <interface> capabilities ht channel-set-width <ht20 | ht40+ | ht40->

Supported channel width set.

ht40- - Both 20 MHz and 40 MHz with secondary channel below the primary channel
ht40+ - Both 20 MHz and 40 MHz with secondary channel above the primary channel

Note

There are limits on which channels can be used with HT40- and HT40+. Following table shows the channels that may be available for HT40- and HT40+ use per IEEE 802.11n Annex J:

Depending on the location, not all of these channels may be available for use!

freq      HT40-       HT40+
2.4 GHz       5-13        1-7 (1-9 in Europe/Japan)
5 GHz     40,48,56,64 36,44,52,60

Note

40 MHz channels may switch their primary and secondary channels if needed or creation of 40 MHz channel maybe rejected based on overlapping BSSes. These changes are done automatically when hostapd is setting up the 40 MHz channel.

set interfaces wireless <interface> capabilities ht delayed-block-ack

Enable HT-delayed Block Ack [DELAYED-BA]

set interfaces wireless <interface> capabilities ht dsss-cck-40

DSSS/CCK Mode in 40 MHz, this sets [DSSS_CCK-40]

set interfaces wireless <interface> capabilities ht greenfield

This enables the greenfield option which sets the [GF] option

set interfaces wireless <interface> capabilities ht ldpc

Enable LDPC coding capability

set interfaces wireless <interface> capabilities ht lsig-protection

Enable L-SIG TXOP protection capability

set interfaces wireless <interface> capabilities ht max-amsdu <3839 | 7935>

Maximum A-MSDU length 3839 (default) or 7935 octets

set interfaces wireless <interface> capabilities ht short-gi <20 | 40>

Short GI capabilities for 20 and 40 MHz

set interfaces wireless <interface> capabilities ht smps <static | dynamic>

Spatial Multiplexing Power Save (SMPS) settings

set interfaces wireless <interface> capabilities ht stbc rx <num>

Enable receiving PPDU using STBC (Space Time Block Coding)

set interfaces wireless <interface> capabilities ht stbc tx

Enable sending PPDU using STBC (Space Time Block Coding)

VHT (Very High Throughput) capabilities (802.11ac)

set interfaces wireless <interface> capabilities vht antenna-count

Number of antennas on this card

set interfaces wireless <interface> capabilities vht antenna-pattern-fixed

Set if antenna pattern does not change during the lifetime of an association

set interfaces wireless <interface> capabilities vht beamform <single-user-beamformer | single-user-beamformee | multi-user-beamformer | multi-user-beamformee>

Beamforming capabilities:

single-user-beamformer - Support for operation as single user beamformer
single-user-beamformee - Support for operation as single user beamformee
multi-user-beamformer - Support for operation as single user beamformer
multi-user-beamformee - Support for operation as single user beamformer

set interfaces wireless <interface> capabilities vht center-channel-freq <freq-1 | freq-2> <number>

VHT operating channel center frequency - center freq 1 (for use with 80, 80+80 and 160 modes)

VHT operating channel center frequency - center freq 2 (for use with the 80+80 mode)

<number> must be from 34 - 173. For 80 MHz channels it should be channel + 6.

set interfaces wireless <interface> capabilities vht channel-set-width <0 | 1 | 2 | 3>

0 - 20 or 40 MHz channel width (default)
1 - 80 MHz channel width
2 - 160 MHz channel width
3 - 80+80 MHz channel width

set interfaces wireless <interface> capabilities vht ldpc

Enable LDPC (Low Density Parity Check) coding capability

set interfaces wireless <interface> capabilities vht link-adaptation

VHT link adaptation capabilities

set interfaces wireless <interface> capabilities vht max-mpdu <value>

Increase Maximum MPDU length to 7991 or 11454 octets (default 3895 octets)

set interfaces wireless <interface> capabilities vht max-mpdu-exp <value>

Set the maximum length of A-MPDU pre-EOF padding that the station can receive

set interfaces wireless <interface> capabilities vht short-gi <80 | 160>

Short GI capabilities

set interfaces wireless <interface> capabilities vht stbc rx <num>

Enable receiving PPDU using STBC (Space Time Block Coding)

set interfaces wireless <interface> capabilities vht stbc tx

Enable sending PPDU using STBC (Space Time Block Coding)

set interfaces wireless <interface> capabilities vht tx-powersave

Enable VHT TXOP Power Save Mode

set interfaces wireless <interface> capabilities vht vht-cf

Station supports receiving VHT variant HT Control field

Wireless options (Station/Client)

The example creates a wireless station (commonly referred to as Wi-Fi client) that accesses the network through the WAP defined in the above example. The default physical device (phy0) is used.

set interfaces wireless wlan0 type station
set interfaces wireless wlan0 address dhcp
set interfaces wireless wlan0 country-code de
set interfaces wireless wlan0 ssid Test
set interfaces wireless wlan0 security wpa passphrase '12345678'

Resulting in

interfaces {
  [...]
  wireless wlan0 {
    address dhcp
    country-code de
    security {
      wpa {
        passphrase "12345678"
      }
    }
    ssid TEST
    type station
  }

Security

WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) and WPA2 Enterprise in combination with 802.1x based authentication can be used to authenticate users or computers in a domain.

The wireless client (supplicant) authenticates against the RADIUS server (authentication server) using an EAP (Extensible Authentication Protocol) method configured on the RADIUS server. The WAP (also referred to as authenticator) role is to send all authentication messages between the supplicant and the configured authentication server, thus the RADIUS server is responsible for authenticating the users.

The WAP in this example has the following characteristics:

IP address 192.168.2.1/24
Network ID (SSID) Enterprise-TEST
WPA passphrase 12345678
Use 802.11n protocol
Wireless channel 1
RADIUS server at 192.168.3.10 with shared-secret VyOSPassword

set interfaces wireless wlan0 address '192.168.2.1/24'
set interfaces wireless wlan0 country-code de
set interfaces wireless wlan0 type access-point
set interfaces wireless wlan0 channel 1
set interfaces wireless wlan0 mode n
set interfaces wireless wlan0 ssid 'TEST'
set interfaces wireless wlan0 security wpa mode wpa2
set interfaces wireless wlan0 security wpa cipher CCMP
set interfaces wireless wlan0 security wpa radius server 192.168.3.10 key 'VyOSPassword'
set interfaces wireless wlan0 security wpa radius server 192.168.3.10 port 1812

Resulting in

interfaces {
  [...]
  wireless wlan0 {
        address 192.168.2.1/24
        country-code de
        channel 1
        mode n
        security {
            wpa {
                cipher CCMP
                mode wpa2
                radius {
                    server 192.168.3.10 {
                        key 'VyOSPassword'
                        port 1812
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        ssid "Enterprise-TEST"
        type access-point
    }
}

VLAN

Regular VLANs (802.1q)

/_include/interface-vlan-8021q.txt

QinQ (802.1ad)

/_include/interface-vlan-8021ad.txt

Operation

show interfaces wireless info

Use this command to view operational status and wireless-specific information about all wireless interfaces.

vyos@vyos:~$ show interfaces wireless info
Interface  Type          SSID                         Channel
wlan0      access-point  VyOS-TEST-0                        1

show interfaces wireless detail

Use this command to view operational status and details wireless-specific information about all wireless interfaces.

vyos@vyos:~$ show interfaces wireless detail
wlan0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:c3 brd XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:ff
    inet xxx.xxx.99.254/24 scope global wlan0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::xxxx:xxxx:fe54:2fc3/64 scope link
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

    RX:  bytes    packets     errors    dropped    overrun      mcast
         66072        282          0          0          0          0
    TX:  bytes    packets     errors    dropped    carrier collisions
         83413        430          0          0          0          0

wlan1: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:c3 brd XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:ff
    inet xxx.xxx.100.254/24 scope global wlan0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::xxxx:xxxx:ffff:2ed3/64 scope link
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

    RX:  bytes    packets     errors    dropped    overrun      mcast
         166072      5282          0          0          0          0
    TX:  bytes    packets     errors    dropped    carrier collisions
         183413      5430          0          0          0          0

show interfaces wireless <wlanX>

This command shows both status and statistics on the specified wireless interface. The wireless interface identifier can range from wlan0 to wlan999.

vyos@vyos:~$ show interfaces wireless wlan0
wlan0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:c3 brd XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:ff
    inet xxx.xxx.99.254/24 scope global wlan0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::xxxx:xxxx:fe54:2fc3/64 scope link
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

    RX:  bytes    packets     errors    dropped    overrun      mcast
         66072        282          0          0          0          0
    TX:  bytes    packets     errors    dropped    carrier collisions
         83413        430          0          0          0          0

show interfaces wireless <wlanX> brief

This command gives a brief status overview of a specified wireless interface. The wireless interface identifier can range from wlan0 to wlan999.

vyos@vyos:~$ show interfaces wireless wlan0 brief
Codes: S - State, L - Link, u - Up, D - Down, A - Admin Down
Interface        IP Address                        S/L  Description
---------        ----------                        ---  -----------
wlan0            192.168.2.254/24                    u/u

show interfaces wireless <wlanX> queue

Use this command to view wireless interface queue information. The wireless interface identifier can range from wlan0 to wlan999.

vyos@vyos:~$ show interfaces wireless wlan0 queue
qdisc pfifo_fast 0: root bands 3 priomap 1 2 2 2 1 2 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
 Sent 810323 bytes 6016 pkt (dropped 0, overlimits 0 requeues 0)
 rate 0bit 0pps backlog 0b 0p requeues 0

show interfaces wireless <wlanX> scan

This command is used to retrieve information about WAP within the range of your wireless interface. This command is useful on wireless interfaces configured in station mode.

Note

Scanning is not supported on all wireless drivers and wireless hardware. Refer to your driver and wireless hardware documentation for further details.

vyos@vyos:~$ show interfaces wireless wlan0 scan
Address            SSID                          Channel  Signal (dbm)
00:53:3b:88:6e:d8  WLAN-576405                         1  -64.00
00:53:3b:88:6e:da  Telekom_FON                         1  -64.00
00:53:00:f2:c2:a4  BabyView_F2C2A4                     6  -60.00
00:53:3b:88:6e:d6  Telekom_FON                       100  -72.00
00:53:3b:88:6e:d4  WLAN-576405                       100  -71.00
00:53:44:a4:96:ec  KabelBox-4DC8                      56  -81.00
00:53:d9:7a:67:c2  WLAN-741980                         1  -75.00
00:53:7c:99:ce:76  Vodafone Homespot                   1  -86.00
00:53:44:a4:97:21  KabelBox-4DC8                       1  -78.00
00:53:44:a4:97:21  Vodafone Hotspot                    1  -79.00
00:53:44:a4:97:21  Vodafone Homespot                   1  -79.00
00:53:86:40:30:da  Telekom_FON                         1  -86.00
00:53:7c:99:ce:76  Vodafone Hotspot                    1  -86.00
00:53:44:46:d2:0b  Vodafone Hotspot                    1  -87.00

Examples

The following example creates a WAP. When configuring multiple WAP interfaces, you must specify unique IP addresses, channels, Network IDs commonly referred to as SSID (Service Set Identifier), and MAC addresses.

The WAP in this example has the following characteristics:

IP address 192.168.2.1/24
Network ID (SSID) TEST
WPA passphrase 12345678
Use 802.11n protocol
Wireless channel 1

set interfaces wireless wlan0 address '192.168.2.1/24'
set interfaces wireless wlan0 type access-point
set interfaces wireless wlan0 channel 1
set interfaces wireless wlan0 mode n
set interfaces wireless wlan0 ssid 'TEST'
set interfaces wireless wlan0 security wpa mode wpa2
set interfaces wireless wlan0 security wpa cipher CCMP
set interfaces wireless wlan0 security wpa passphrase '12345678'
set interfaces wireless wlan0 country-code de

Resulting in

interfaces {
  [...]
  wireless wlan0 {
        address 192.168.2.1/24
        channel 1
        country-code de
        mode n
        security {
            wpa {
                cipher CCMP
                mode wpa2
                passphrase "12345678"
            }
        }
        ssid "TEST"
        type access-point
    }
}
system {
  [...]
  wifi-regulatory-domain DE
}

To get it to work as an access point with this configuration you will need to set up a DHCP server to work with that network. You can - of course - also bridge the Wireless interface with any configured bridge (bridge-interface) on the system.

Intel AX200

The Intel AX200 card does not work out of the box in AP mode, see https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/598275/intel-ax200-ap-mode. You can still put this card into AP mode using the following configuration:

set interfaces wireless wlan0 channel '1'
set interfaces wireless wlan0 country-code 'us'
set interfaces wireless wlan0 mode 'n'
set interfaces wireless wlan0 physical-device 'phy0'
set interfaces wireless wlan0 ssid 'VyOS'
set interfaces wireless wlan0 type 'access-point'

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wireless.rst

wireless.rst

WLAN/WIFI - Wireless LAN

Configuration

Common interface configuration

Wireless options

PPDU

HT (High Throughput) capabilities (802.11n)

VHT (Very High Throughput) capabilities (802.11ac)

Wireless options (Station/Client)

Security

VLAN

Regular VLANs (802.1q)

QinQ (802.1ad)

Operation

Examples

Intel AX200

Files

wireless.rst

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wireless.rst

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WLAN/WIFI - Wireless LAN

Configuration

Common interface configuration

Wireless options

PPDU

HT (High Throughput) capabilities (802.11n)

VHT (Very High Throughput) capabilities (802.11ac)

Wireless options (Station/Client)

Security

VLAN

Regular VLANs (802.1q)

QinQ (802.1ad)

Operation

Examples

Intel AX200