Page History

...

Let us see in what types of network topology one wireless enabled RDK box can operate. We can see two use cases here, 
In first case we will see a straight forward network where we will have an IP headend for TV channels, VOD,  etc.

Image Removed

• In the above picture, the data will be received by a RDK Broadband device which will be our entry point to the home network. This will act as a video gateway and an internet router also. The network connectivity from RDK broadband device to IP headend will be through a high speed network such as fiber optics, etc.
• From the RDK broadband device, all clients in a home network will receive internet and video data through the wireless network. The RDK broadband device will be the access point and video devices such as Raspberry Pi will act as wifi clients.

In second use case, we wanted to show how a legacy network can be extended to operate with wifi enable devices, 
In the figure, we use a RDK Video gateway to receive data from Cable media and relay to a RDK broadband device through MoCA network. In this network topology,

Image Removed

RDK client devices will be able to access the QAM channel from the Video gateway and internet through the broadband device. Video and internet data will be received by the Broadband Device and sent to Wireless clients.

...

In the below sequence diagram, we will see how an HTML application will interact with Wifi manager through Service manager. We can see that for each functionality we have an uniform API name across different component, which enable simplicity in development and the set off APIs can be mapped easily. For example, If we take one API that is getConnectionType(), which we can use to get the active interface type which may be Wifi or LAN interface.

Image Removed

In first place, we will have Java Script functions registered with Service manager. Then Service manager will have an internal implementation for that API with error handling and managing result.
When the call is propagated, to the actual handler daemon (Wifi manager) through message bus, it will be translated to a IARM RPC call. 

...

Here we will walkthrough the different RDK component involved in the process and starting from Application which is the imitator, ending with Wi-Fi HAL which is the provider of the functionality. We will also see the messaging formats in which the RDK components communicate. 

Image Removed

Initiating the connection: Here application may need to enable the WiFi if required. In which case he has call the initialization routine and network manager will handle the further operation

...

• First we need to have the OEM or SOC provider driver and firmware available with us so that we can integrate with our platform.
• There are Generic linux wireless packages need to be integrated with the platform.
• Most importantly, all the compatibility issues regarding Wifi driver and platform need to be addressed before hand, so that there is no issues regarding performance or connection glitches.
• We will need build support files for integration.
• A new HAL has to be written for the platform.

Image Removed

RDK Wifi Specification mentions, all communication from network manager to the Wifi Driver has to be through WPA supplicant. So the basic requirement is to add WPA supplicant and its related packages such as netlink library and wireless tools. When all the dependency are added to the platform, we have to write a Wi-Fi HAL customized in our platform. Then we have to add the Wifi support in build framework via adding appropriate packages in image recipe as well as machine configuration file.

...