Transmit and Receive is blocked in Broadcom Client (CYW43455) when Quite IE is Enabled on AP

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maku_3939256
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Hi,

Problem Statement: 

Transmit and Receive are blocked after a certain time in Broadcom devices whenever Quiet IE Element (40) is enabled and broadcasted in the beacon. The issue exists even when we disable RRM and Spectrum Management features. 

We tried to ping from Broadcom device to a server and we can see that the ping fails and nothing is seen on-air after a certain time.

Device Details:

Model CYW43455
SW Version Linux Version:
Linux SAMA5D2C3 4.9.87-linux4sam_5.8+ #1 Tue Feb 4 13:01:34 UTC 2020 armv7l GNU/Linux
wl ver:
1.21 RC0.0
wl0: May  2 2019 02:46:17 version 7.45.189 (r714228 CY) FWID 01-e1db26e2 tws:GENR.1.1.2
WiFi Config         wl -i wlan0 down
        wl vht_features 0
        wl band b;
        wl nmode 0;
        wl spect 0
        wl rrm 0
        wl wme 1
        wl -i wlan0 lrl 7
        wl -i wlan0 srl 7
        wl -i wlan0 PM 2
        wl -i wlan0 rateset 6b 9 12b 18 24b 36
        wl -i wlan0 up

 

AP Details:

AP Type Aruba 505/ Aruba 205
Build Time 2017-03-02 04:25:52 PST
Version 6.5.1.0-4.3.1.2_58595

 

AP WLAN Profile Details:

wlan ssid-profile aruba5
enable
index 6
type employee
essid aruba5
opmode opensystem
max-authentication-failures 0
rf-band 2.4
captive-portal disable
dtim-period 1
broadcast-filter none
dmo-channel-utilization-threshold 90
local-probe-req-thresh 0
max-clients-threshold 64
dot11r
dot11k
dot11v
rrm-quiet-ie

 

Quite IE in AP Beacon:

maku_3939256_0-1627971319535.png

 

Event Logs:

From the logs, we can observe that the ping stops at the point(can be found in the Wireshark capture) when we received only QUIET_START(event:13) and didn't receive QUIET_END(event:14).

Below is the event in the log file where only the QUIET_START event was received and no QUIET_END event was received thereafter and at the same time we observed Ping stopped in the packet capture.

2021-07-28T17:52:00.175481+00:00 SAMA5D2C3 kernel: [ 1484.040000] brcmfmac: brcmf_fweh_process_event: event nodebug (13)

Packet Capture Details:

1. In the Wireshark capture, you can use the following filter to extract the packets to look after:

(wlan.ssid == aruba5 && wlan.fc.type_subtype == 8 && wlan.bssid == 34:fc:b9:4c:d9:c6) || wlan.addr==e8:e8:b7:09:52:17

2. Ping stops from packet 340421 and transmission stop from packet 340566

 
Please help us in debugging this issue and Let us know if you require any more details.
 
Thanks,
Manoj
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1 Solution
raks_99
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First question asked 250 replies posted 250 sign-ins

Hi,

Summary of the discussion:

"wl spect" should be set to 1 which is "Loose interpretation of 11h spec - may join non 11h AP" for Quiet period scheduling to work.

Thanks.

View solution in original post

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maku_3939256
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Hi @VinayakS_26  / @GauravS_31 ,

Can you please help us in debugging this issue.

Regards,

 

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raks_99
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Hi Manoj,

I'm taking a look at your logs and will try to reproduce this. I'll get back on this.

Thanks

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Hi @raks_99,

Thank you for your response. 

Any update on this is very much appriciated.

Thanks & Regards,

Manoj

raks_99
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Hi Manoj,

I tried to reproduce this issue. I used two 43455 devices, one as an AP and one as a Client since I do not have an Aruba AP. I sent probes with the quiet IE element, and I was able to see both QUIET_START and corresponding QUIET_END events. Then I checked for the probe packets to make sure if there is anything different than what Aruba AP is sending out. So it looks like our APs leave out the 'period' field in the quiet parameter as 0, whereas frames from the Aruba AP has the period set to 200. 

2021-08-13 12_05_27-2021-08-12 14_29_42-192.168.0.69 (kali_0) - VNC Viewer.png ‎- Photos.png

So what I think is going on here is the Aruba AP is using periodic quiet IE and the radio is not supporting the periodic quiet IE. Do you find any other settings in AP related to quiet IE where you can turn off periodic quiet? Also, I have attached the latest firmware, can you try with this if there are any improvements?

Thanks,

Rakshith

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Thanks, @raks_99 for the information.

We will check and let you know our observations.

Regards,

Manoj 

 

Hi @raks_99,

Please find the observations below with the New Firmware Shared by you:

  • With RSN Quiet IE Enabled on AP:
    • Data is blocked right from the connection itself.
  • With RSN Quiet IE Disabled on AP: 
    • No Issue was observed.

Version Details:

root@SAMA5D2C3:~# wl ver

1.21 RC0.0

wl0: Apr 15 2021 03:03:20 version 7.45.234 (4ca95bb CY) FWID 01-996384e2 tws:GENR.1.1.2

We have the below queries:

  1. Is it possible for you to reproduce the issue with Quiet Period setting to 200?
  2. Are there any settings/commands on the Station side to ignore these Quiet IE events and work properly without blocking data?
  3. Do we need to Enable anything on Station Side to support Quiet IE?

Please find attachments for logs and packet captures.

Attachments:

  1. new_fw_with_rrnie.tar: Collected logs with shared New Firmware and Quiet IE enabled at AP.
  2. new_fw_wo_rrmie.tar: Collected logs with shared New Firmware and Quiet IE disabled at AP.

Wireshark Filter for Packet Captures:

(wlan.ssid == aruba5 && wlan.fc.type_subtype == 8 && wlan.bssid ==38:17:C3:50:A8:81) || wlan.addr==e8:e8:b7:09:52:17

 

Thanks & Regards,

Manoj.

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Hi @raks_99,

Gentle Reminder.

Please share with us if there is any update.

Thanks & Regards,

Manoj.

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raks_99
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Hi Manoj,

Periodic Quiet Scheduling is not supported on our devices. But I am not sure if the WiFi radio is supposed to go completely silent as seen in your logs. I am checking this with the FW team and will get back.

Is it possible for you to reproduce the issue with Quiet Period setting to 200? >  No I do not have an AP that supports this. I enabled quiet IE on 43455-AP is through the 'wl quiet' command and this does not have any option to set the period(for quiet scheduling).

wl quiet <TBTTs until start>, <duration (in TUs)>, <offset (in TUs)>

'wl quiet  50 30 20' is the command I used during my testing 

Are there any settings/commands on the Station side to ignore these Quiet IE events and work properly without blocking data?

There are no other commands for this. I expect it to work in a non-blocking manner but from your logs, it looks like there is no traffic being sent out from the client.

Do we need to Enable anything on Station Side to support Quiet IE?Quiet IE is supported, but periodic scheduling of quiet is not supported. And from the packet captures it looks like Aruba is using periodic quiet scheduling.

I will follow up with an update from the internal team in a day or two.

Thanks.

 

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Hi @raks_99,

Gentle Reminder.

Please let us know if there is any update on this.

Regards,

Manoj.

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raks_99
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Hi @maku_3939256 ,

Apologies for the delay. I discussed this internally with the team and from my testing, I see that the radio does honour Quiet time, but we do not support periodic scheduling. I suppose this is the reason for the radio going completely silent. Can you test this with any other AP which do not schedule the Quiet periods (i.e with Period=0  as the parameter )?

Thanks and Best Regards,

Rakshith

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Hi @raks_99,

Thank you for the response.

Currently, we are facing this critical issue at our customer site and we have no option to modify the Quiet IE settings on the AP side. 

So it will be helpful if you provide us a fix from Station Side so that it will handle these Quiet IE Elements without blocking the Data.

Regards,

Manoj

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raks_99
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Hi @maku_3939256 ,

From the logs in new_fw_with_rrnie.zip,

I see the radio is silent on air, but I see event logs being printed. Do you see event messages being printed while the radio is silent?

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Hi @raks_99,

Thanks for your response.

Yes, we are seeing event messages even when the radio is silent on air. We see the events related to scanning and connection.

Regards,

Manoj.

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raks_99
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Hi @maku_3939256 ,

I would like to share a debug firmware with you. 

I will create a case on mycases system on your behalf, let me know if are able to access the case.

Thanks

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maku_3939256
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Hi @raks_99,

I am able to access the Case link created by you. Please share the debug Firmware.

 

Regards,

Manoj.

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raks_99
Moderator
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First question asked 250 replies posted 250 sign-ins

Hi,

Summary of the discussion:

"wl spect" should be set to 1 which is "Loose interpretation of 11h spec - may join non 11h AP" for Quiet period scheduling to work.

Thanks.

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