open-sdr/openwifi
Openwifi
OpenWifi is an open-source implementation of the IEEE 802.11n wireless standard designed for programmable logic. It provides a software-defined radio platform and WiFi baseband processor that implements the physical and MAC layers on FPGA hardware, accompanied by a dedicated wireless driver and toolset for hardware control.
The project is distinguished by its deep integration of signal analysis and telemetry, specifically through a framework for capturing channel state information and raw IQ samples. It enables high-precision packet timestamping and cross-layer correlation between physical layer samples and captured packets to support wireless protocol research and sensing.
The system covers a broad surface of wireless capabilities, including radio configuration for frequency tuning and bandwidth customization, RF management for antenna and gain control, and traffic management for low-MAC hardware offloading. It supports standard networking modes such as Access Point, Station, Ad-hoc, and Monitor, and includes tools for protocol fuzzing and raw packet injection.
The project includes utilities for custom OS image generation and supports dynamic driver reloading to update FPGA images without rebooting the system.
Features
- RF Signal Processing Implementations - Implements the 802.11n physical and MAC layers using FPGA-based RF signal processing at baseband.
- WiFi Baseband FPGA Designs - Provides a full hardware and software implementation of the 802.11n wireless standard for programmable logic.
- IEEE 802.11 Implementations - Provides a full-stack design compatible with the IEEE 802.11n wireless standard.
- IQ Sample Captures - Extracts raw IQ samples and channel state information through a dedicated side-channel telemetry interface.
- Capture Channel Management - Extracts channel response and equalizer data from wireless packets via a dedicated side-channel interface.
- Network Interface Implementations - Provides a compatible network interface supporting multiple wireless modes implemented directly on FPGA hardware.
- Wireless Baseband Designs - Provides an open-source implementation of the 802.11n wireless baseband and MAC layers on FPGA hardware.
- RF Transmission Power Control - Sets power attenuation and modifies hardware registers to increase output signal strength.
- Gain and Filter Control - Toggles between automatic gain control and manual settings to optimize RF signal reception.
- Radio Parameter Configurations - Provides interfaces for adjusting low-level hardware parameters such as CCA thresholds and receiver sensitivity.
- Bandwidth Customizations - Allows modifying operational frequency ranges and channel bandwidth to support various wireless standards.
- Frequency Tuning - Enables precise adjustment of transmit and receive frequencies across a wide spectrum, including non-standard overrides.
- Receiver Sensitivity Thresholds - Establishes a signal strength threshold to ignore weak background noise during reception.
- Software Defined Radios - Provides a software-defined radio platform for capturing IQ samples and analyzing physical layer behavior.
- Wi-Fi CSI Sensing - Extracts and analyzes Channel State Information (CSI) for environmental sensing and object detection.
- WiFi Baseband Processors - Implements a low-level hardware baseband processor covering the physical and MAC layers for wireless networking.
- CSI Metadata Extraction - Extracts Channel State Information from wireless packets to analyze environment reflections and signal state.
- IoT Wireless Protocol Stacks - Implements a full wireless protocol stack that integrates with standard networking frameworks.
- Low-MAC Management - Handles the low-MAC process including sequence numbering and automatic hardware retransmissions.
- Physical-to-Packet Correlation - Relates captured IQ samples to specific packets by aligning their respective timestamps.
- Wireless Network Drivers - Implements low-level kernel drivers to manage the communication between the operating system and the FPGA-based wireless hardware.
- Hardware Queue Slicing - Slices transmission time based on MAC addresses using time-gated or scheduled queues.
- Coherent Multi-Antenna Captures - Records synchronized IQ data from primary and monitoring antennas to analyze multi-path reception.
- Radio Hardware Integration - Interfaces processing systems with frequency transceivers and amplifiers to execute software-defined radio operations.
- Signal Triggering Logics - Initiates IQ sample collection based on specific hardware conditions such as checksum results or signal thresholds.
- Joint Radar-Communication Sensing - Detects target objects by analyzing channel state information during full duplex transmission.
- Ad Hoc Network Provisioning - Implements the ability to create peer-to-peer wireless networks using shared channels and cell IDs.
- CSI Packet Correlation - Links channel state information to specific packets by matching timestamps across capture streams.
- CSI Value Injection - Injects artificial CSI values to test sensing capabilities or establish covert communication channels.
- Wireless Network Mode Toggles - Supports switching the wireless device between Access Point, Station, Ad-hoc, and Monitor modes.
- Wireless Protocol Analysis Suites - Provides utilities for capturing and analyzing radio frequency signals and protocol behavior for network debugging.
- Network Interface Slicing - Shares a single physical interface between two distinct network slices using control tools.
- Network Performance Analysis Tools - Injects packets across varying bitrates and payload sizes to analyze traces and measure physical layer performance.
- Protocol Fuzzing - Injects malformed packets and data into wireless protocols to test the security and robustness of implementations.
- MAC Layer Offloads - Offloads packet sequencing and automatic acknowledgment logic from the CPU to FPGA hardware.
- Network Task Offloads - Offloads Ethernet and MAC processing to programmable logic to reduce CPU overhead.
- Physical Layer Timestamp Correlation - Provides high-precision correlation between physical layer timestamps and captured wireless packets for signal analysis.
- Low-MAC Transmission Settings - Controls packet settings including modulation, RTS/CTS mechanisms, and retransmission limits.
- Packet Retransmission Strategies - Sets maximum packet re-transmissions and toggles automatic acknowledgement behavior in hardware.
- Raw Wireless Frame Injection - Sends arbitrary raw 802.11 frames through the network interface in monitor mode for physical layer testing.
- WiFi Access Point Hosting - Configures the device to broadcast beacons and accept associations as a WiFi access point.
- Wireless Frame Injection Tools - Supports the injection of raw frames and packet fuzzing to research the robustness of 802.11 implementations.
- Wireless Network Scanning - Enables scanning for available wireless networks and authenticating client devices to access points.
- Wireless Network Time Synchronization - Maintains high-precision clock alignment across multi-hop wireless connections for synchronized signal analysis.
- Physical Layer Configurations - Supports specific subcarriers and code rates to optimize high-speed wireless throughput.
- Physical Layer Packet Timestamping - Attaches high-precision timer values to packets at the moment of physical layer reception for accurate signal analysis.
- IQ Sample Replays - Writes custom IQ baseband data directly to hardware to trigger one-time transmissions for testing.
- Packet Metadata Extraction Logging - Extracts real-time telemetry including timestamps and signal strength from received wireless frames to the kernel log.
- Network Infrastructure - Full-stack Wi-Fi design based on software-defined radio.
- Networking Tools - Full-stack Wi-Fi design based on software-defined radio.
Star history
How this analysis was created: This summary and feature list were written by an AI model that read the project's README and public documentation pages. Each feature links to the documentation it came from; stars, license and language come straight from the GitHub API. The model does not read the source code, and the analysis is refreshed when the project is re-analysed. Learn more on our About page.
