WiLink8 Feature Guide/AP ELP

Supported from version ol_r8.a9.14 (R8.4) and above

Feture Description

Unlike a conventional AP, portable devices implementing software AP feature cannot be assumed to be tethered to a power-supply
and the role of a Soft-AP is much more demanding than the role of a legacy STA. Thus, there is an inherent requirement to reduce the power-consumption
of the devices while serving the role of Soft-AP without any significant performance impact.
This requires a standalone power-save mechanism at the Soft-AP that reduces the power-consumption of this device without any explicit messaging to the STAs.

Setup & Configuration

AP ELP mode requires modifying the wl18xx-conf ini file AP ELP attributes.
Currently the only supported attribute is:
wl18xx.ap_sleep.idle_duty_cycle: Duty Cycle (0-99%) for awake portion of the AP when in idle mode. Default is 0x00 meaning AP is always awake.

The following AP ELP attributes are currently not supported:
wl18xx.ap_sleep.connected_duty_cycle: Duty Cycle (0-99%) for awake portion of the AP when there are connected stations. Default is 0x00 meaning AP is always awake.
wl18xx.ap_sleep.max_stations_thresh: Maximum stations that are allowed to be connected to AP before disabling the feature (255: no limit). Default is 0x04.
wl18xx.ap_sleep.idle_conn_thresh: Timeout for enabling the AP Sleep after traffic stops. Units are 0.1 seconds. Default is 0x08.

It can be done by changing the values in the default.conf file and create the bin file from scratch:

$ cd /usr/sbin/wlconf

$ vi default.conf

Set the wl18xx.ap_sleep attributes to the appropriate value, exit and save.

$ rm wlconf-18xx-conf.bin

$ ./wlconf –D (a new wlconf-18xx-conf.bin will be created)

$ cp wlconf-18xx-conf.bin <conf-bin> (Where <conf-bin> is usually /lib/firmware/ti-connectivity/wl18xx-conf.bin)

Alternately, it can be done by editing the existing bin file by:

$ cd /lib/firmware/ti-connectivity

./wlconf -i wl18xx_conf_bin -o wl18xx_conf_bin --set wl18xx.ap_sleep.idle_duty_cycle=0x14

This will set the AP to sleep 20% of the time when in idle mode.

User Guide & Examples

Once the device was configured as described above it will work in AP ELP mode.
No need for additional operations.

Errata/Limitations

1. This feature is disabled when working with BT.
2. This feature is not supported with Multi-Role scenarios.