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Command: ifmedia | Section: 4 | Source: OpenBSD | File: ifmedia.4
IFMEDIA(4) FreeBSD Kernel Interfaces Manual IFMEDIA(4)
NAME
ifmedia - network interface media settings
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <net/if.h>
#include <net/if_media.h>
DESCRIPTION
The ifmedia interface provides a consistent method for querying and
setting network interface media and media options. The media is
typically set using the ifconfig(8) command.
Currently these link types are supported by ifmedia:
IFM_ETHER Ethernet
IFM_FDDI FDDI
IFM_IEEE80211 IEEE802.11 Wireless LAN
IFM_TDM Time Division Multiplex
IFM_CARP CARP
The following sections describe the possible media settings for each link
type. Not all of these are supported by every device; refer to your
device's manual page for more information.
The lists below provide the possible names of each media type or option.
The first name in the list is the canonical name of the media type or
option. Additional names are acceptable aliases for the media type or
option.
COMMON MEDIA TYPES AND OPTIONS
The following media types are shared by all link types:
IFM_AUTO Autoselect the best media. [autoselect, auto]
IFM_MANUAL Jumper or switch on device selects media. anual]
IFM_NONE Deselect all media. [none]
The following media options are shared by all link types:
IFM_FDX Place the device into full-duplex mode. This option
only has meaning if the device is normally not full-
duplex.
IFM_HDX Place the device into half-duplex mode. This option
only has meaning if the device is normally not half-
duplex. [half-duplex, hdx]
IFM_FLOW Enable hardware flow control on device.
IFM_FLAG0 Driver-defined flag. [flag0]
IFM_FLAG1 Driver-defined flag. [flag1]
IFM_FLAG2 Driver-defined flag. [flag2]
IFM_LOOP Place the device into hardware loopback mode.
[loopback, hw-loopback, loop]
MEDIA TYPES AND OPTIONS FOR ETHERNET
The following media types are defined for Ethernet:
IFM_10_T 10BASE-T, 10Mb/s over unshielded twisted pair, RJ45
connector. [10baseT, UTP, 10UTP]
IFM_10_2 10BASE2, 10Mb/s over coaxial cable, BNC connector;
also called Thinnet. [10base2, BNC, 10BNC]
IFM_10_5 10BASE5, 10Mb/s over 15-wire cables, DB15
connector; also called AUI. [10base5, AUI, 10AUI]
IFM_10_STP 10BASE-STP, 10Mb/s over shielded twisted pair, DB9
connector. [10baseSTP, STP, 10STP]
IFM_10_FL 10BASE-FL, 10Mb/s over fiber optic cables.
[10baseFL, FL, 10FL]
IFM_100_TX 100BASE-TX, 100Mb/s over unshielded twisted pair,
RJ45 connector. [100baseTX, 100TX]
IFM_100_FX 100BASE-FX, 100Mb/s over fiber optic cables.
[100baseFX, 100FX]
IFM_100_T4 100BASE-T4, 100Mb/s over 4-wire (category 3)
unshielded twisted pair, RJ45 connector.
[100baseT4, 100T4]
IFM_100_T2 100BASE-T2. [100baseT2, 100T2]
IFM_100_VG 100VG-AnyLAN. [100baseVG, 100VG]
IFM_1000_SX 1000BASE-SX, 1Gb/s over multi-mode fiber optic
cables. [1000baseSX, 1000SX]
IFM_1000_LX 1000BASE-LX, 1Gb/s over single-mode fiber optic
cables. [1000baseLX, 1000LX]
IFM_1000_CX 1000BASE-CX, 1Gb/s over shielded twisted pair.
[1000baseCX, 1000CX]
IFM_1000_T 1000BASE-T, 1Gb/s over category 5 unshielded
twisted pair, RJ45 connector. [1000baseT, 1000T]
IFM_1000_TX Compatibility for 1000BASE-T. [1000baseTX, 1000TX]
IFM_2500_SX 2500BASE-SX, 2.5Gb/s over multi-mode fiber optic
cables. [2500baseSX, 2500SX]
IFM_2500_T 2500BASE-T, 2.5Gb/s over unshielded twisted pair,
RJ45 connector. [2500baseT, 2500BASE-T]
IFM_10G_CX4 10GBASE-CX4, 10Gb/s over XAUI 4-lane PCS and copper
cables. [10GbaseCX4, 10GCX4, 10GBASE-CX4]
IFM_10G_LR 10GBASE-LR, 10Gb/s over single-mode fiber optic
cables. [10GbaseLR, 10GLR, 10GBASE-LR]
IFM_10G_SFP_CU 10GSFP+Cu, 10Gb/s over SFP+ Direct Attach cables.
[10GSFP+Cu, 10GCu]
IFM_10G_SR 10GBASE-SR, 10Gb/s over multi-mode fiber optic
cables. [10GbaseSR, 10GSR, 10GBASE-SR]
IFM_10G_T 10GBASE-T, 10Gb/s over unshielded twisted pair,
RJ45 connector. [10GbaseT, 10GT, 10GBASE-T]
IFM_HPNA_1 HomePNA 1.0, 1Mb/s over 2-wire (category 3)
unshielded twisted pair [HomePNA1, HPNA1]
The following media options are defined for Ethernet:
IFM_ETH_MASTER Configure a 1000BASE-T PHY as a MASTER PHY.
IFM_ETH_RXPAUSE Receive flow control is enabled on the 1000BASE-T
PHY.
IFM_ETH_TXPAUSE Transmit flow control is enabled on the 1000BASE-T
PHY.
MEDIA TYPES AND OPTIONS FOR FDDI
The following media types are defined for FDDI:
IFM_FDDI_SMF Single-mode fiber. [Single-mode, SMF]
IFM_FDDI_MMF Multi-mode fiber. [Multi-mode, MMF]
IFM_FDDI_UTP Unshielded twisted pair, RJ45 connector. [UTP, CDDI]
The following media options are defined for FDDI:
IFM_FDDI_DA Dual-attached station vs. Single-attached station.
[dual-attach, das]
MEDIA TYPES AND OPTIONS FOR IEEE802.11 WIRELESS LAN
The following media modes are defined for IEEE802.11 Wireless LAN:
IFM_IEEE80211_11A 5GHz, OFDM mode. [11a]
IFM_IEEE80211_11B 2GHz, DSSS/CCK mode. [11b]
IFM_IEEE80211_11G 2GHz, DSSS/CCK/OFDM mode. [11g]
IFM_IEEE80211_FH 2GHz, GFSK mode. [fh]
IFM_IEEE80211_11N 2GHz/5GHz, HT mode. [11n]
IFM_IEEE80211_11AC 5GHz, VHT mode. [11ac]
The following media options are defined for IEEE802.11 Wireless LAN:
IFM_IEEE80211_ADHOC Ad-hoc mode. [adhoc]
IFM_IEEE80211_HOSTAP Host Access Point mode. [hostap]
IFM_IEEE80211_IBSS IBSS mode. [ibss]
IFM_IEEE80211_IBSSMASTER IBSS master mode. [ibssmaster]
IFM_IEEE80211_MONITOR Monitor mode. onitor]
All of the above media options are mutually exclusive. If no media
option is used, the wireless interface will try to find an access point
to connect to. hostap mode allows the wireless interface to act as an
access point for other 802.11 devices. ibss mode is the standardized
method of operating without an access point, with each participating
device taking on part of the role of an access point. adhoc mode, more
accurately known as ad-hoc demo mode, is not specified by the IEEE 802.11
standard and only works with wi(4) devices. Likewise, ibssmaster mode
only works with wi(4) devices. On standard 802.11 networks the IBSS
master role is assigned automatically.
The channels detailed below are defined for IEEE802.11 Wireless LAN in
the 2.4GHz band. The list of available frequencies is dependent on radio
regulations specified by regional authorities. Recognized regulatory
authorities include the FCC (United States), ETSI (Europe), and Japan.
Frequencies in the table are specified in MHz.
Channel FCC ETSI Japan
1 2412 2412 2412
2 2417 2417 2417
3 2422 2422 2422
4 2427 2427 2427
5 2432 2432 2432
6 2437 2437 2437
7 2442 2442 2442
8 2447 2447 2447
9 2452 2452 2452
10 2457 2457 2457
11 2462 2462 2462
12 - 2467 2467
13 - 2472 2472
14 - - 2484
The channels do overlap; the bandwidth required for each channel is about
20MHz. When using multiple channels in close proximity, it is suggested
that channels be separated by at least 25MHz. In the US, this means that
only channels 1, 6, and 11 may be used simultaneously without
interference.
Channels in the 5GHz band are too numerous to list here. Regulation of
their use, particularly outdoors, varies between countries. Users are
advised to inform themselves about applicable regulations before
configuring wireless LAN devices for use in the 5GHz band.
The following media types are defined for IEEE802.11 Wireless LAN:
IFM_IEEE80211_FH1 Frequency Hopping 1Mbps. [FH1]
IFM_IEEE80211_FH2 Frequency Hopping 2Mbps. [FH2]
IFM_IEEE80211_DS1 Direct Sequence 1Mbps. [DS1]
IFM_IEEE80211_DS2 Direct Sequence 2Mbps. [DS2]
The above media types were first introduced in the IEEE 802.11-1997
standard and are used in the 2.4GHz band only. Frequency Hopping Spread
Spectrum modulation is incompatible with modern 802.11 networks. Direct
Sequence Spread Spectrum modulation (DSSS) frames can still be used if
backwards compatibility to 802.11b is enabled.
IFM_IEEE80211_DS5 Direct Sequence 5.5Mbps. [DS5]
IFM_IEEE80211_DS11 Direct Sequence 11Mbps. [DS11]
IFM_IEEE80211_DS22 Direct Sequence 22Mbps. [DS22]
The above media types were first introduced in the IEEE 802.11b-1999
standard and are used in the 2.4GHz band only. They use Complementary
Code Keying (CCK) which, compared to frames sent at 1Mbps or 2Mbps,
reduces the possible distance between transmitter and receiver.
Modern 802.11 networks remain compatible with 802.11b, even though DSSS
frames are incompatible with modern 802.11 frames using OFDM. Co-
existence with 802.11b requires OFDM transmitters to either risk frame
collisions or "reserve" the medium with a separate preceding transmission
that DSSS receivers are able to decode. This causes additional overhead
which some 802.11 deployments avoid by deliberately disabling backwards
compatibility with 802.11b.
IFM_IEEE80211_OFDM6 OFDM 6Mbps. [OFDM6]
IFM_IEEE80211_OFDM9 OFDM 9Mbps. [OFDM9]
IFM_IEEE80211_OFDM12 OFDM 12Mbps. [OFDM12]
IFM_IEEE80211_OFDM18 OFDM 18Mbps. [OFDM18]
IFM_IEEE80211_OFDM24 OFDM 24Mbps. [OFDM24]
IFM_IEEE80211_OFDM36 OFDM 36Mbps. [OFDM36]
IFM_IEEE80211_OFDM48 OFDM 48Mbps. [OFDM48]
IFM_IEEE80211_OFDM54 OFDM 54Mbps. [OFDM54]
IFM_IEEE80211_OFDM72 OFDM 72Mbps. [OFDM72]
The above media types were first introduced in the IEEE 802.11a-1999
standard for the 5GHz band, and in the IEEE 802.11g-2003 standard for the
2.4GHz band. OFDM with 72Mbps is a proprietary extension and was never
standardized by IEEE.
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is the current standard
modulation technique for 802.11. Each 20MHz channel used by 802.11a and
802.11g provides space for 48 OFDM sub-carriers for data. The sub-
carriers use BPSK, QPSK, 16QAM, or 64QAM modulation, combined with a
particular coding rate for error correction at the receiver. The coding
rate specifies how many data bits in a frame are transmitted without
redundancy.
Modulation Coding Rate Mbit/s
BPSK 1/2 6
BPSK 3/4 9
QPSK 1/2 12
QPSK 3/4 18
16QAM 1/2 24
16QAM 3/4 36
64QAM 1/2 48
64QAM 3/4 52
The IEEE 802.11n-2009 standard for "High Throughput" (HT) wireless LAN
defines additional sub-carriers, modulations, and coding rates. The
channel bandwidth for data frame transmissions was optionally extended to
40MHz, with full backwards compatibility to 802.11a/b/g devices which
cannot decode 40MHz transmissions. Several additional features were
introduced, most notably MIMO (multiple-input, multiple-output). With
MIMO, a data stream is divided across up to 4 "spatial streams", which
are transmitted in parallel by a corresponding amount of antennas. Each
spatial stream is received with a dedicated antenna, and the spatial
streams are de-multiplexed to obtain the original data stream.
802.11n assigns a numeric identifier to all possible combinations of
modulation, coding rate, and number of spatial streams. This results in
77 distinct modulation and coding schemes, abbreviated as "MCS".
ifmedia supports HT_MCS0 up to HT_MCS31:
IFM_IEEE80211_HT_MCSx HT OFDM MCS x (where x is in the range 0 -
31, inclusive). [HT-MCSx]
In practice, only MCS-0 to MCS-32 are supported by commonly available
devices. The remaining MCS define combinations where distinct spatial
streams employ distinct modulations, a feature which was not widely
implemented by hardware vendors.
The IEEE 802.11ac-2013 standard for "Very High Throughput" (VHT) wireless
LAN operates in the 5GHz band only. The channel bandwidth for data frame
transmissions can be up to 160MHz wide. The MCS identifiers were
redefined and vastly reduced in number. As a result, only VHT_MCS0 to
VHT_MCS9 are defined for 802.11ac:
IFM_IEEE80211_VHT_MCSx VHT OFDM MCS x (where x is in the range 0 -
9, inclusive). [VHT-MCSx]
The number of spatial streams is no longer associated with a given VHT
MCS identifier and must be specified as a separate "NSS" parameter. This
parameter is not yet implemented by ifmedia.
MEDIA TYPES AND OPTIONS FOR TDM
The following media types are defined for TDM:
IFM_TDM_E1 E1, 2048kb/s HDB3 encoded, G.703 clearchannel
serial line. [e1]
IFM_TDM_E1_AMI E1, 2048kb/s AMI encoded, G.703 clearchannel
serial line. [e1-ami]
IFM_TDM_E1_AMI_G704 E1, 2048kb/s AMI encoded, G.704 structured
serial line. [e1-ami-g.704]
IFM_TDM_E1_G704 E1, 2048kb/s HDB3 encoded, G.704 structured
serial line. [e1-g.704]
IFM_TDM_E1_G704_CRC4 E1, 2048kb/s HDB3 encoded, G.704 structured
serial line with CRC4 checksum.
[e1-g.704-crc4]
IFM_TDM_E3 E3, 34368kb/s HDB3 encoded, G.703
clearchannel serial line. [e3]
IFM_TDM_E3_G751 E3, 34368kb/s HDB3 encoded, G.751 structured
serial line. [e3-g.751]
IFM_TDM_E3_G832 E3, 34368kb/s HDB3 encoded, G.832 structured
serial line. [e3-g.832]
IFM_TDM_T1 T1, 1536xkb/s B8ZS encoded, extended super
frame (ESF) structured serial line. [t1]
IFM_TDM_T1_AMI T1, 1536kb/s AMI encoded, super frame (SF)
structured serial line. [t1-ami]
IFM_TDM_T3 T3, 44736kb/s B3ZS, C-bit structured serial
line. [t3]
IFM_TDM_T3_M13 T3, 44736kb/s B3ZS, M13 structured serial
line. [t3-m13]
The following media options are defined for TDM:
IFM_TDM_HDLC_CRC16 Cisco HDLC with 16-bit CRC checksum encoding.
[hdlc-crc16]
IFM_TDM_FR_ANSI ANSI/ITU Framerelay encoding. [framerelay-
ansi, framerelay-itu]
IFM_TDM_FR_CISCO Cisco Framerelay encoding. [framerelay-cisco]
IFM_TDM_PPP PPP encoding. [ppp]
By default TDM interfaces will use Cisco HDLC encoding with a 32-bit CRC
checksum.
The following media modes are defined for TDM:
IFM_TDM_MASTER Use local clock source as master clock. aster]
MEDIA TYPES AND OPTIONS FOR CARP
carp(4) does not support any media types or options.
SEE ALSO
netintro(4), ifconfig(8)
HISTORY
The ifmedia interface first appeared in BSD/OS 3.0. The implementation
that appeared in NetBSD 1.3 was written by Jonathan Stone and Jason R.
Thorpe to be compatible with the BSDI API. It has since gone through
several revisions which have extended the API while maintaining backwards
compatibility with the original API.
Support for the IEEE802.11 Wireless LAN link type was added in
NetBSD 1.5.
Host AP mode was added in OpenBSD 3.1.
FreeBSD 14.1-RELEASE-p8 August 15, 2023 FreeBSD 14.1-RELEASE-p8