Cross-Platform P2P Wi-Fi: How the EU Killed AWDL

I recently wanted to do point-to-point Wi-Fi for transferring some data but apparently support for the ad-hoc IBSS mode wasn't available on my MT7925. Wi-Fi Aware is completely new to me and didn't come up while searching on the topic at all. I can't find anything about using it on Linux now either. Anybody have any references on its support?

There's a single kernel commit referencing Wi-Fi Aware from 2023 [0]. iw supposedly supports a few commands pertaining to it [1].

  [0] https://web.git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?h=v6.14&id=9b89495e479c5fedbf3f2eca4f1c4e9dd481265e
  [1] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/53594406/implementing-a-wifi-aware-application-outside-android

Any WiFi operation besides STA is in general a crapshoot, especially if the card is not meant for use in an AP. WiFi hardware vendors can't be bothered to provide fully usable stacks for anything else (if even that).

For example Intel's broken Location Aware Regulatory completely breaks any use-cases where your device is not the STA (on anything besides 2.4GHz). Most cards also have no DFS support, meaning you'll be left with a microscopic usable segment. Then there's also the problem with incorrect regulatory information.

All of which in the end makes reliable high-speed point-to-point operation very annoying to achieve. Even if it'd be totally legal. Leaving you with a terribly slow link.

Adhoc was the coolest thing, I still miss it. One day in 2002-ish, I was showing a friend some photos on my laptop and noticed a crowd had gathered over my shoulder, and there simply wasn't enough room for everyone to get a good view.

"Fire up adhoc, set it to this ssid, vnc to this address"

Two minutes later, my photos are on five screens around the coffee shop and everyone can see.

Adhoc just worked, and that's more than I can say for a great many things before or since.

The WiFi Alliance has a habit of always have a marketing name and a different name in the spec, you'll a lot more references to it in places like WPA supplicant if you search for Neighbor Awareness Networking (NAN). Also here is the link to the spec https://www.wi-fi.org/system/files/Wi-Fi%20Aware%20Specifica...

What stops you from using it today? A wiki claims it is just 3 commands and IP configuration:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Ad-hoc_networking#Manual_me...

>The WiFi Alliance has a habit of always have a marketing name and a different name in the spec

What, the same people that named a consumer facing product 802.11g?

My windows laptop supports creating a wifi hotspot. It even allows sharing my upstream wifi internet connection over the hotspot, which I wasn't aware was a thing until recently (my Pixel 7 also supports this). I'm sure you could do the same thing with Linux with the right incantation. Not as cool as adhoc but it's also a paradigm people are very familiar with these days.

i think this is most important post of all

people hail apple for what is essentially 3 line script XD

i do understand that it does much more. but 3 line script is closer to what it really is, then what people think it is.

They didn’t name it that, IEEE did.

That would be the IEEE, and I don't think the marketing people in the Wi-Fi Alliance participate at that level.

Last time I tried it I got some error that made me think the driver didn't support it, but it's been a while. I wonder if my new card is any better...