I can not run AP and STA mode simultaneously.

[munir-zin]

Hi,
I am facing issues setting both modes (AP and STA) of picow. When I try to setup AP mode 1st and then try a connection to router in STA mode, I get following error.

<err> zephyr_cyw43: Please disable access point mode before initiating a client connection.

Similarly, when I try to connect first and then enable AP mode, I get this error.

<err> zephyr_cyw43: Currently connected as a client. Please disconnect before enabling AP.

NOTE: I am trying to disconnect as well before enabling AP mode.

If I just enable AP mode, it works fine. But When I try to connect a client device with it, the client device does not get any IP address and no event for NET_EVENT_WIFI_AP_STA_CONNECTED is received.

[drensber]

You do have to disconnect before going into AP mode and disable AP mode before connecting. Not sure if that helps. If not, please provide detailed instructions for how to reproduce the problem. Thanks, —DaveOn Mar 21, 2024, at 4:29 AM, munir-zin ***@***.***> wrote: Hi, I am facing issues setting both modes (AP and STA) of picow. When I try to setup AP mode 1st and then try a connection to router in STA mode, I get following error. <err> zephyr_cyw43: Please disable access point mode before initiating a client connection. Similarly, when I try to connect first and then enable AP mode, I get this error. <err> zephyr_cyw43: Currently connected as a client. Please disconnect before enabling AP. NOTE: I am trying to disconnect as well before enabling AP mode. —Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[munir-zin]

H idrensber,
Thank you for your response. I actually want to put the device in both modes simultaneously. I am trying to achieve following:

1. Start device in STA mode and try to connect to the provided network.
2. If connection is fail, start AP mode and also keep trying to reconnect.
3. User can connect through this AP and a webpage should be displayed to the user with SSID and Password settings.
4. User can update these fields and device can connect to these new credentials.

Can you please let me know if I can achieve this using these CYW43-driver API?

I have achieved this using pico_sdk link. Now I want to achieve this using Zephyr environment.

H idrensber, Thank you for your response. I actually want to put the device in both modes simultaneously. I am trying to achieve following:

1. Start device in STA mode and try to connect to the provided network.
2. If connection is fail, start AP mode and also keep trying to reconnect.
3. User can connect through this AP and a webpage should be displayed to the user with SSID and Password settings.
4. User can update these fields and device can connect to these new credentials.

Can you please let me know if I can achieve this using these CYW43-driver API?

I have achieved this using pico_sdk link. Now I want to achieve this using Zephyr environment.

The driver that our Zephyr binding depends on as a submodule (https://github.com/georgerobotics/cyw43-driver.git) does not support simultaneously being in STA and AP mode. This is the same driver that's provided with the Pico SDK. If it did support simultaneous AP and STA, I would have passed that ability along in the Zephyr binding. I thought that the reason for this is because the WiFi module itself does not support it.

If you believe that this is an artificial limitation, you can experiment with removing the check that results in those error messages.

[munir-zin]

Hi,
The wifi module supports both modes simultaneously, as I have done work on it using pico_sdk. There are certain conditions to synchronise them, e.g., if the device is in a connecting state, you can not perform scanning at that particular moment, and vice versa.
I will check your code by removing the conditions you suggested and updating you on the results.

[munir-zin]

I am also facing another issue related to AP mode. When I try to connect a client device to AP mode of PicoW, It does not get IP address and no event for "AP_STA_Connected" is triggered.

When I was writing the code that prevented simultaneous AP and STA modes, I do remember thinking that sometimes I had both working simultaneously, so you could be right (I'd need to check the module spec to be sure).

I believe that you are correct that no IP address is set up when it goes into AP mode. I suspect that most people would want the AP network to have a DHCP server, but some may want static addresses. That is really part of the example app, not the driver, though.

If you want to enhance the sample application so that it can set up the IP network on the AP-mode network, I'd be happy to accept those changes. If you can get the simultaneous AP and STA mode working reliably, I'd be happy to take that too.

[munir-zin]

Thanks for the update. I will try both of these for my application, and once tested, I will share them with you.

[munir-zin]

I have updated the code to make both modes work, and I did it. Following code sections are commented (in file: zephyr_cyw43_drv.c:

function name: zephyr_cyw43_mgmt_connect
 // if ((cyw43_state.itf_state >> CYW43_ITF_STA) & 1) {
        //         int link_status=cyw43_wifi_link_status(&cyw43_state, CYW43_ITF_STA);

        //         if (link_status == CYW43_LINK_JOIN || link_status == CYW43_LINK_NONET) {
        //                 LOG_ERR("Already connected.\n");
        //                 rv = -EAGAIN;
        //                 return rv;
        //         }
        // }

        // if ((cyw43_state.itf_state >> CYW43_ITF_AP) & 1) {
        //         LOG_ERR("Please disable access point mode before initiating a client connection.\n");
        //         rv = -EBUSY;
        //         return rv;
        // }

Function name:zephyr_cyw43_mgmt_ap_enable

 // if ((cyw43_state.itf_state >> CYW43_ITF_STA) & 1) {

        //         int link_status=cyw43_wifi_link_status(&cyw43_state, CYW43_ITF_STA);

        //         if (link_status == CYW43_LINK_JOIN || link_status == CYW43_LINK_NONET) {
        //                 LOG_ERR("Currently connected as a client. Please disconnect before enabling AP.\n");
        //                 rv = -EBUSY;
        //                 return rv;
        //         }
        // }

I also added two event raise to detect AP mode enabled or disabled.

case ZEPHYR_CYW43_REQ_ENABLE_AP:
                err = zephyr_cyw43_enable_ap(zephyr_cyw43_device);
                if (err) { LOG_ERR("Enable AP returned error %d\n", err); }
                wifi_mgmt_raise_ap_enable_result_event(zephyr_cyw43_device->iface, err);
                break;
        case ZEPHYR_CYW43_REQ_DISABLE_AP:
                err = zephyr_cyw43_disable_ap(zephyr_cyw43_device);
                if (err) { LOG_ERR("Disable AP returned error %d\n", err); }
                wifi_mgmt_raise_ap_disable_result_event(zephyr_cyw43_device->iface, err);
                break;

Now I am having issue of assigning IP address to client device when connecting to AP mode. I used below code from zephyr/subsys/net/lib/dhcpv4/dhcpv4_server.c, but it has no impact. I would appreciate if you can suggest me some tutorial or guide for this mechanism.

struct in_addr baseAddr = {{{192, 168, 4, 1}}}; 
    net_dhcpv4_server_start(iface, &baseAddr);

As you discovered, there is a DHCP server in the core codebase, but it seems to be really poorly documented (Google search didn't turn up anything at all, really).

It will start by putting "CONFIG_NET_DHCPV4_SERVER=y" in the prj.conf file, but beyond that, I'm not really sure. I think the best "documentation" may be to just look at the code, so do a search like this:

fgrep CONFIG_NET_DHCPV4_SERVER -r zephyrproject/zephyr

You'll also need to find a way to start and stop the server at runtime, since you'll only want it running when the AP is enabled. One of my colleagues recently implemented something using the server, so I'll see if I can find more info from him about how to integrate it into the application.

[munir-zin]

I am getting error for dhcp server <err> net_dhcpv4_server: Address pool does not belong to the interface subnet.

I am settingup like this

    struct net_if *iface = net_if_get_default();
    uint8_t gateway_addr[] = {192, 168, 4, 1};
    uint8_t netmask_addr[] = {255, 255, 255, 0};
    iface->config.ip.ipv4->gw.s_addr = htonl(*(uint32_t *)gateway_addr);
    iface->config.ip.ipv4->netmask.s_addr = htonl(*(uint32_t *)netmask_addr);

 struct in_addr baseAddr = {{{192, 168, 4, 1}}};
    net_dhcpv4_server_start(iface, &baseAddr);

[munir-zin]

I am getting "Network Interface is not configured".
I have configured the network interface by setting up following configurations in prj.conf.

CONFIG_NETWORKING=y
CONFIG_NET_CONFIG_INIT_TIMEOUT=60
CONFIG_NET_CONFIG_AUTO_INIT=y
CONFIG_NET_CONFIG_NEED_IPV4=y

The error logs are:

*** Booting Zephyr OS build v3.6.0 ***
[00:00:02.584,000] <inf> net_config: Initializing network
[00:00:02.584,000] <inf> net_config: Waiting interface 1 (0x3ffb2508) to be up...
[00:00:02.585,000] <err> esp32_wifi: Failed to send packet
[00:00:02.586,000] <err> esp32_wifi: Failed to send packet
[00:00:02.586,000] <err> esp32_wifi: Failed to send packet
[00:00:02.586,000] <inf> net_config: Interface 1 (0x3ffb2508) coming up
[00:00:02.587,000] <err> esp32_wifi: Failed to send packet
[00:00:02.587,000] <inf> net_config: Running dhcpv4 client...
[00:00:03.587,000] <err> esp32_wifi: Failed to send packet
[00:00:04.588,000] <err> esp32_wifi: Failed to send packet
[00:00:11.588,000] <err> esp32_wifi: Failed to send packet
[00:00:16.588,000] <err> esp32_wifi: Failed to send packet
[00:00:24.589,000] <err> esp32_wifi: Failed to send packet
[00:00:41.589,000] <err> esp32_wifi: Failed to send packet
[00:00:50.588,000] <err> net_config: Timeout while waiting network setup
[00:00:50.588,000] <err> net_config: Network initialization failed (-116)

When I try to connect client device, then error logs are:

[00:02:49.293,000] <wrn> net_if: iface 0x3ffb2508 is down
[00:02:49.293,000] <err> net_dhcpv4_server: Failed to send ICMP probe
[00:02:51.209,000] <wrn> net_if: iface 0x3ffb2508 is down
[00:02:51.209,000] <err> net_dhcpv4_server: Failed to send ICMP probe
[00:02:53.224,000] <wrn> net_if: iface 0x3ffb2508 is down
[00:02:53.224,000] <err> net_dhcpv4_server: Failed to send ICMP probe
[00:02:58.027,000] <wrn> net_if: iface 0x3ffb2508 is down
[00:02:58.027,000] <err> net_dhcpv4_server: Failed to send ICMP probe

[drensber]

Hi,

I'm actually having problems with AP mode too. I'd honestly not tested it much before (I only really checked to see if it advertised an SSID and that another client could connect to it). I'm going to look into this further, as I'm doing something right now where the AP mode would be important. I'll cross-check what I do with an ESP32 module just to make sure that this isn't a generic problem with Zephyr and Zephyr configuration vs. a problem with the wifi module and driver.

[munir-zin]

This is the code I am trying to achieve the functionality of.

I am using PicoW and ESP32 devices to setup WiFIManager. I am starting device in AP and STA both modes simultaneously. When I try to connect a client device, I am getting these issue:

1. AP mode is enabled, but no event for NET_EVENT_WIFI_AP_ENABLE_RESULT is triggered.
2. When I connect a client device (Mobile) to AP mode, it is not getting any IP addresses and no event is triggered for NET_EVENT_WIFI_AP_STA_CONNECTED.

bool IS_AP_ENABLED = false;

void enableApMode(void)
{
    LOG_DBG("Enabling AP Mode.");
    struct net_if * netifInterface = net_if_get_default();
    struct in_addr gateway_addr = {192, 168, 4, 1};
    struct in_addr netmask_addr = {255, 255, 255, 0};
    struct in_addr baseAddr = gateway_addr;
    LOG_DBG("Gateway: %" PRIu32 ", Netmask: %" PRIu32 "", gateway_addr.s_addr, netmask_addr.s_addr);
    net_if_ipv4_set_netmask(netifInterface, &netmask_addr);
    net_if_ipv4_set_gw(netifInterface, &gateway_addr);
    // netifInterface->config.ip.ipv4->gw.s_addr = htonl(*(uint32_t *)gateway_addr);
    // netifInterface->config.ip.ipv4->netmask.s_addr = htonl(*(uint32_t *)netmask_addr);

    struct wifi_connect_req_params wifiConfig = {
        .ssid = (const uint8_t *)AP_SSID,
        .ssid_length = strlen(AP_SSID),
        .psk = (const uint8_t *)AP_PSK,
        .psk_length = strlen(AP_PSK),
        .band = WIFI_FREQ_BAND_2_4_GHZ,
        .channel = WIFI_CHANNEL_ANY,
    };

    if (strlen(AP_PSK) > 0)
    {
        wifiConfig.security = WIFI_SECURITY_TYPE_PSK;
    }
    else
    {
        wifiConfig.security = WIFI_SECURITY_TYPE_NONE;
    }

    if (net_mgmt(NET_REQUEST_WIFI_AP_ENABLE, netifInterface, &wifiConfig, sizeof(struct wifi_connect_req_params)))
    {
        LOG_ERR("AP Mode Request Failed\n");
    }

    netifInterface = net_if_get_default();

    if (!netifInterface)
    {
        printk("Error: No network interface found!\n");
        return;
    }

    printk("DHCPv4 server started...\n");
    net_dhcpv4_server_start(netifInterface, &baseAddr);
}

void connectWiFi(void)
{
   struct net_if * netifInterface = net_if_get_default();

    struct wifi_connect_req_params wifiConfig =
        {
            .ssid = (const uint8_t *)SSID,
            .ssid_length = strlen(SSID),
            .psk = (const uint8_t *)PSK,
            .psk_length = strlen(PSK),
            .band = WIFI_FREQ_BAND_2_4_GHZ,
            .channel = WIFI_CHANNEL_ANY,
        };

    if (strlen(PSK) > 0)
    {
        wifiConfig.security = WIFI_SECURITY_TYPE_PSK;
    }
    else
    {
        wifiConfig.security = WIFI_SECURITY_TYPE_NONE;
    }

    wifiConfig.band = WIFI_FREQ_BAND_2_4_GHZ;
    wifiConfig.mfp = WIFI_MFP_OPTIONAL;

    LOG_DBG("Connecting to SSID: %s\n", wifiConfig.ssid);
    if (net_mgmt(NET_REQUEST_WIFI_CONNECT, netifInterface, &wifiConfig, sizeof(struct wifi_connect_req_params)))
    {
        LOG_ERR("WiFi Connection Request Failed\n");
    }
}

void handleWiFiEvents(struct net_mgmt_event_callback *cb, uint32_t mgmt_event, struct net_if *iface)
{
    switch (mgmt_event)
    {
    case NET_EVENT_WIFI_CONNECT_RESULT:
       const struct wifi_status *status = (const struct wifi_status *)cb->info;
       LOG_DBG("NET_EVENT_WIFI_CONNECT_RESULT");
       
       if (status->status)
       {
            LOG_ERR("WiFi connection failed (%d).", status->status);
            if (!IS_AP_ENABLED)
                enableApMode();
            else
                connectWiFi();
        }
        break;

    case NET_EVENT_WIFI_DISCONNECT_RESULT:
        LOG_DBG("NET_EVENT_WIFI_DISCONNECT_RESULT");
       if (!IS_AP_ENABLED)
                enableApMode();
      else
                connectWiFi();
        break;

    case NET_EVENT_WIFI_AP_ENABLE_RESULT:
        LOG_DBG("NET_EVENT_WIFI_AP_ENABLE_RESULT");
         IS_AP_ENABLED = true;
        connectWiFi();
        break;

    case NET_EVENT_WIFI_AP_DISABLE_RESULT:
        LOG_DBG("NET_EVENT_WIFI_AP_DISABLE_RESULT");
        IS_AP_ENABLED = false;
        break;

    case NET_EVENT_WIFI_AP_STA_CONNECTED:
        LOG_DBG("NET_EVENT_WIFI_AP_STA_CONNECTED");
        break;

    case NET_EVENT_WIFI_AP_STA_DISCONNECTED:
        LOG_DBG("NET_EVENT_WIFI_AP_STA_DISCONNECTED");
        break;

    case NET_EVENT_IPV4_ADDR_ADD:
        LOG_DBG("NET_EVENT_IPV4_ADDR_ADD");
       
        break;

    default:
        break;
    }
}



void main()
{
    LOG_DBG("Setting up WiFi on %s\n", CONFIG_BOARD);

    net_mgmt_init_event_callback(&cbWiFi, handleWiFiEvents, WIFI_EVENT_MASK);
    net_mgmt_init_event_callback(&cbIPV4, handleWiFiEvents, IPV4_EVENT_MASK);

    net_mgmt_add_event_callback(&cbWiFi);
    net_mgmt_add_event_callback(&cbIPV4);

    // enableApMode();
    connectWiFi();

    LOG_DBG("WiFi Ready...\n\n");
}

[drensber]

Thanks for sharing your code. I'm actually having trouble getting AP mode to work correctly on the Pico W (nevermind the simultaneous STA mode). Good to see that you have an ESP32 to cross-check with as well. Wifi+Zephyr is obviously a lot more mature on the ESP32 (which I mistakenly called "STM32" in my previous message).

[munir-zin]

Please do share your results after testing it.