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802.11 Payload Encapsulation

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Important  The Native 802.11 Wireless LAN interface is deprecated in Windows 10 and later. Please use the WLAN Device Driver Interface (WDI) instead. For more information about WDI, see WLAN Universal Windows driver model.

 

By default, the operating system performs EtherType encapsulation on all sent or received media access control (MAC) service data unit (MSDU) packets, as shown in the following table.

IEEE EtherType Encapsulation type

AppleTalk Address Resolution Protocol (0x80F3)

IEEE 802.1h

IPX (0x8137)

IEEE 802.1h

All other EtherTypes

RFC 1042

 

When associating to an access point (AP) in an infrastructure BSS network, the miniport driver must specify its own list of EtherType encapsulations if the BSS association requires additional or different EtherType encapsulations. The miniport driver specifies its EtherType encapsulation list when it makes an NDIS_STATUS_DOT11_ASSOCIATION_COMPLETION indication.

The operating system performs the encapsulation for the EtherType of a sent or received packet based on the following sequence:

  • If the EtherType is found in the miniport driver's encapsulation list, the operating system performs the specified encapsulation.

  • Otherwise, if the EtherType is found in the default encapsulation table, the operating system performs the specified encapsulation.

The miniport driver formats each entry in its EtherType encapsulation list as a DOT11_ENCAP_ENTRY structure.

The following points apply to the miniport driver's EtherType encapsulation list:

  • The miniport driver must not provide an EtherType encapsulation list through the NDIS_STATUS_DOT11_ASSOCIATION_COMPLETION indication if the IEEE dot11DesiredBSSType management information base (MIB) object is set to dot11_BSS_type_independent. For more information about this MIB object, see OID_DOT11_DESIRED_BSS_TYPE.

  • The operating system deletes the miniport driver's EtherType encapsulation list from its default encapsulation list when the miniport driver completes a disassociation operation. For more information about this operation, see Disassociation Operations.