hostap/doc/mainpage.doxygen

/**
\mainpage Developers' documentation for wpa_supplicant and hostapd

The goal of this documentation and comments in the source code is to
give enough information for other developers to understand how
%wpa_supplicant and hostapd have been implemented, how they can be
modified, how new drivers can be supported, and how the source code
can be ported to other operating systems. If any information is
missing, feel free to contact Jouni Malinen <j@w1.fi> for more
information. Contributions as patch files are also very welcome at the
same address. Please note that this software is licensed under the
BSD license (the one with advertisement clause removed). All
contributions to %wpa_supplicant and hostapd are expected to use
compatible licensing terms.

The source code and read-only access to the combined %wpa_supplicant
and hostapd Git repository is available from the project home page at
http://w1.fi/wpa_supplicant/. This developers' documentation is also
available as a PDF file from
http://w1.fi/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant-devel.pdf .


\section wpa_supplicant wpa_supplicant

%wpa_supplicant is a WPA Supplicant for Linux, BSD and Windows with
support for WPA and WPA2 (IEEE 802.11i / RSN). Supplicant is the IEEE
802.1X/WPA component that is used in the client stations. It
implements key negotiation with a WPA Authenticator and it can optionally
control roaming and IEEE 802.11 authentication/association of the wlan
driver.

The design goal for %wpa_supplicant was to use hardware, driver, and
OS independent, portable C code for all WPA functionality. The source
code is divided into separate C files as shown on the \ref
code_structure "code structure page". All hardware/driver specific
functionality is in separate files that implement a \ref
driver_wrapper "well-defined driver API". Information about porting
to different target boards and operating systems is available on
the \ref porting "porting page".

EAPOL (IEEE 802.1X) state machines are implemented as a separate
module that interacts with \ref eap_peer_module "EAP peer implementation".
In addition to programs aimed at normal production use,
%wpa_supplicant source tree includes number of \ref testing_tools
"testing and development tools" that make it easier to test the
programs without having to setup a full test setup with wireless
cards. These tools can also be used to implement automatic test
suites.

%wpa_supplicant implements a
\ref ctrl_iface_page "control interface" that can be used by
external programs to control the operations of the %wpa_supplicant
daemon and to get status information and event notifications. There is
a small C library that provides helper functions to facilitate the use of the
control interface. This library can also be used with C++.

\image html wpa_supplicant.png "wpa_supplicant modules"
\image latex wpa_supplicant.eps "wpa_supplicant modules" width=15cm


\section hostapd hostapd

hostapd includes IEEE 802.11 access point management (authentication /
association), IEEE 802.1X/WPA/WPA2 Authenticator, EAP server, and
RADIUS authentication server functionality. It can be build with
various configuration option, e.g., a standalone AP management
solution or a RADIUS authentication server with support for number of
EAP methods.

The design goal for hostapd was to use hardware, driver, and
OS independent, portable C code for all WPA functionality. The source
code is divided into separate C files as shown on the \ref
code_structure "code structure page". All hardware/driver specific
functionality is in separate files that implement a \ref
driver_wrapper "well-defined driver API". Information about porting
to different target boards and operating systems is available on
the \ref porting "porting page".

EAPOL (IEEE 802.1X) state machines are implemented as a separate
module that interacts with \ref eap_server_module "EAP server implementation".
Similarly, RADIUS authentication server is in its own separate module.
Both IEEE 802.1X and RADIUS authentication server can use EAP server
functionality.

hostapd implements a \ref hostapd_ctrl_iface_page "control interface"
that can be used by external programs to control the operations of the
hostapdt daemon and to get status information and event notifications.
There is a small C library that provides helper functions to facilitate
the use of the control interface. This library can also be used with
C++.

\image html hostapd.png "hostapd modules"
\image latex hostapd.eps "hostapd modules" width=15cm

*/