NXP Semiconductors
UM11558
Getting Started with NXP-based Wireless Modules on i.MX 8M Quad EVK Running Android 10 OS
3.2 Wi-Fi layer interfaces
The wireless module requires a kernel driver loaded on the i.MX 8M Quad host system
and a firmware running on 88W8987/88W8997 SoC. The MLAN module downloads
the firmware binary to the SD8987/PCIE8997 adapter when the SDIO/PCIe bus
driver detects the SDIO/PCIe interface of the module. The kernel driver (SD8987/
PCIE8997) is loaded between the bus driver and the network stack from the "cfg80211"
subsystem in the kernel. NXP kernel driver includes a set of controls and configurations
to communicate with the user space through one of the following interfaces:
•
Input/output control (IOCTL)
•
Wireless Extension (Wext)
•
CFG80211
The IOCTL provides a path to the user space applications, such as
iwconfig
and
iwpriv
whereas cfg80211 provides a different path to the user space application, such as
wpa_supplicant
,
hostapd
and
iw
.
illustrates the Wi-Fi layer interface.
UM11558
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User manual
Rev. 1 — 29 January 2021
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