IBM Developerworks has published an article about building wireless network devices with Linux. The article, entitled “Running Free with Linux,” focuses on the various options and tools offered to manage wireless access points under Linux.

According to the article, the first decision is whether or not to use tools supporting “wireless extensions,” an API used by wireless drivers to convey statistics to applications.

Tools that do not support “wireless extensions” include ROSE (Radionet Open Source Environment), an access point development kit that works with Prism-based radios and the 2.4 series kernel, as well as several Bluetooth and IrDA tools.

The “wireless extensions” avail users of the “wireless tools,” a number of commandline-based management and configuration utilities, including: iwconfig, iwlist, iwspy, iwpriv, and ifrename. The article discusses various graphical end-user applications that put a friendly face on the wireless tools.

The article then discusses hardware compatibility issues, before concluding with a look at WIANA (wireless assigned numbers authority), NoCatAuth, and the future of Linux wireless networking.

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