Looking to use an nrf7002, nRF5340 board as only a MAC layer

[phairsine]

We want to upgrade our existing product to WiFi 6.  We have a lot of customization in our TCP/IP stack so we don't want to use the zephyr stack.  We only want to make the station connection/association to an AP and then pass the ethernet frames from our firmware to the network the AP is connected to. and back There are examples that seem to do this but I can found no documentation on what the programs are actually doing code wise.  A demo called raw_tx_packet seems to do this on the transmit side, but I can find no support for all the config flags set , or any documentation on how packets need to be formed to be sent as WiFi data packets. Also, there is something called TX Injection mode that is being enabled in the demo.  I can find nothing to explain what this does.

On the RX side there is an app called promiscuous that seems to pull in all the 802.11 packets.  I think I could look for data packets then check the MACIDs to see if the packet is destined for us. Again, I can find no documentation on how this works and what the structure of the received packet is. I am looking for more documentation on how this works, 

We plan to use a FanStel WT02C40C module to run the Wifi code. 

We do not need to provision the nrf7002 as we already have a mechanism for doing that on our host micro.. 

We will use a UART or SPI it send commands and data to the Fanstel module

One last question, can the MACID of the nrf7002 be set at run time? Our host MCU has a MAC built in and also has ethernet capability It would be nice if both WiFi packets and Ethernet packets have the same MACID

Any help would be appreciated. 

[Charlie]

Hi,

Thank you for reaching out to us with your request. Based on your description, this is a highly customized implementation.

While we do not have a complete solution tailored to your needs, we will do our best to help you address some of the challenges.

Since you plan to use UART or SPI to send commands and data to the Fanstel module, the Wi-Fi: Shell sample would be a good starting point. This sample also provides support for transmitting and receiving raw MAC layer data.

The MAC address can be configured at runtime according to MAC address configuration. However, you may need to modify the Wi-Fi: Shell sample and add custom commands to fulfill your specific needs.

Please feel free to reach out if you need further assistance.

Best regards,

Charlie