Intel Has A Number Of WiFi Improvements Ready For Linux 5.17
Merged to the networking subsystem's net-next branch ahead of the Linux 5.17 merge window in mid-January were a number of improvements for new and existing wireless hardware. Some of the Intel WiFi improvements coming for the Linux 5.17 kernel include:
- Continued work enabling their next-generation "Bz" hardware family. Going back to the summer Intel was working on Linux support for yet-to-be-released "Bz" WiFi hardware and that enablement work is continuing for Linux 5.17. There are also Rx changes for new hardware families.
- New Killer AX211 WiFi PCI IDs added.
- Fixes around 6GHz WiFi scanning.
- Support for Optimized Connectivity Experience (OCE) scanning. OCE allows for improving WiFi connection management with the access point being able to provide more detailed guidance to the WiFi chipset for better steering/connectivity and the client also being able to communicate more information to the access point in a standardized manner.
- Firmware debugging improvements and fixes.
- Time-Aware-SAR (TAS) support read from the BIOS. This is around the Specific Absorption Rate "SAR" for changing the radio transmitter power in reaction to the proximity of the antenna to the user. OEMs previously relied on vendor/hardware-specific SAR while more recently there is a standardized interface already supported by Windows 10 and now this Time Aware SAR (TAS) ACPI table.
The IWLWIFI changes were merged last week as part of the big batch of networking updates for this next kernel version.
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