Beaglebone Black + FreeBSD + USB WiFi = WAP?

[Chris Gordon]

Is anyone using a BeagleBone Black and USB Wifi as a WAP?  If so, what kind of throughput do you get on your Wifi?  I’m getting very bad network performance.

Hardware:

- BeagleBone Black rev C.
- Tried with two different USB Wifi Adapters:
	- Edimax N150 (small nub type adapter)
	- LB Link from Adafruit (https://www.adafruit.com/product/1030)
	- Both show as RTL8188CUS chips (via dmesg)
- Wired connection connected for access to my network and internet

OS:

-  Mostly with the most recent Beaglebone Snapshot of 11.0
-  A few quick tests with the 11. snapshot image

Connection Speeds:

- Using nuttcp (over 100Mbps ethernet) between the BB and another machine, I can get ~90+ Mbps in each direction  so I don’t think there is an issue with that part of the connection.
- Using the BB as a WAP and connection my iPad I see 1 to 5 Mbps down and < 1 Mbps tested via the Ookla Speedtest app.  
- Connecting to my ancient Netgear WAP using the same app and test, I get roughly 10 Mbps in either direction with the same test.


Configs (pretty much taken right from the handbook):

/boot/loader.conf:

if_urtwn_load="YES"
wlan_mac_load="YES"

/etc/rc.conf (relevant parts)

ifconfig_cpsw0="inet XX.XX.XX.XX netmask 0xffffff00”
defaultrouter=“YY.YY.YY.YY"
hostapd_enable="YES"
wlans_urtwn0="wlan0"
create_args_wlan0="wlanmode hostap"
ifconfig_wlan0="up"
cloned_interfaces="bridge0"
ifconfig_bridge0="addm cpsw0 addm wlan0 up”

/etc/hostapd.conf

interface=wlan0
debug=1
ctrl_interface=/var/run/hostapd
ctrl_interface_group=wheel
ssid=REDACTED
wpa=2
wpa_passphrase=REDACTED
wpa_key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
wpa_pairwise=CCMP



Any ideas?  Is this just the limit of USB wifi on this board?  


Thanks,
Chris