Introduction to the Linux Wireless Subsystem
Guest post by lemnisca.
I’ve recently started getting into Linux wireless programming for work. I am a fairly experienced C programmer but don’t know much about kernel development so this is a new adventure for me. What I found was that while there is a lot of information available about how it all works — indeed, since it’s open source, one can at least in theory have complete information about the functioning of the system — there is not much in the way of an introduction. There’s no broad explanation of how it all works for someone completely new to the system. The documentation that does exist is largely focused on documenting individual functions, structs, etc. and is more of a reference for those already familiar with the system. I quickly found myself lost in a sea of source code, chasing down chains of function calls with no real feel for how the whole thing is put together. So I’ve decided to share what I’ve learnt, in the hopes that it might help someone else in the future.