Goals
For more than a decade, AbsoluteValue Systems has invested in
creating technology with three fundamental goals in mind:
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wireless network ubiquity,
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customer value, and
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stability.
Wireless network ubiquity relates to our ongoing ability to
create solutions with unique extra-standard features that solve
specific customer requirements while still maintaining wireless
network standards-compatibility. Value for our customers
is created through turn-key solutions that also serve as a
reliable value-add foundation. Stability refers to our
company history, our long-term approach to building and improving
technologies, and the quality of the solutions we deliver.
Fundamental Principles
To meet the three goals of ubiquity, value, and stability,
AVS has several fundamental principles that apply to all
of our technology development activities.
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All development is targeted for the Linux
operating system.
Targeting a single
FOSS
operating system reduces the complexity of the
resulting technology and maximizes the amount of
information available about the underlying
platform. AVS is a very Linux-centric company;
all of our developers use Linux workstations
(personally and professionally) and all of our IT
infrastructure runs Linux. Surrounding ourselves
with Linux systems is the best way to prevent the
dilution of Linux expertise. Our sole Linux focus
restricts AVS's markets somewhat, but our
customers benefit by avoiding the costs associated
with 'multi-platform' solutions.
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Toolsets are managed.
Many projects and products suffer from
"development tool proliferation". When new
engineers and new requirements are introduced to
projects, there is the potential for the addition
of new development tools. New engineers tend to
advocate the use of a 'personal favorite' tool.
When evaluating new requirements, engineers have a
tendency to look for a 'best' application-specific
tool. Tool proliferation has the detrimental
effect of adding complexity and learning-curve
cost to the technology base of companies and
products. AVS actively combats this problem by
explicitly stating and controlling the allowed
toolset. This policy allows AVS to function
efficiently and shortens the learning curve for
customers who purchase AVS technology products.
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No 'disposable' technology development.
AVS develops every solution with a focus on
long-term maintenance and incremental improvement.
One-off 'throwaway' development efforts leave
customers with dead-end solutions. By designing
all of our solutions for easy maintenance and
modification, AVS extends the value of investment
in our products.
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Always provide a fall-back mode.
Unless a closed-system is guaranteed (and actively
enforced in the protocol design), no extensions to
standard protocols are designed without the
ability to "fall-back" and use the baseline
standard for interoperability with 3rd party
equipment. Fall-back modes are of the greatest
value when end-user customers deploy equipment in
unexpected ways or if a product design must be
retasked for a different market.
By rigorously applying these principles, AVS develops
technology in an efficient manner and maintains a high
standard of value for our customers.
linux-wlan (dot11Core), Foundation Linux, and
dot11Linux
AVS technology is built around three fundamental technologies:
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linux-wlan™
(marketed under the tradename
dot11Core),
-
Foundation Linux, and
-
dot11Linux.
linux-wlan (dot11Core)
AVS has developed and maintains an advanced IEEE 802.11 software stack called
linux-wlan™.
Development on
linux-wlan™
immediately began in late 1996 when AVS received two
early-evalution PRISM wireless LAN
NICs (max
2Mbps) from Harris Semiconductor. The
linux-wlan™
software was released under a
FOSS
license in Q2 of 1997 as a Linux device driver specifically for
these PRISM devices. The original PRISM devices were built
according to a
"thin MAC"
design model. AVS continued to commercially and publicly support
the original
linux-wlan™
codebase until the introduction of the
"thick MAC"
PRISM2 802.11b chipset in late 1999. Due to the requirements of
handling a
"thick MAC"
device, we concluded that a significant redesign of the
linux-wlan™
codebase would be necessary. The primary goals of this redesign
were to:
-
factor out device independent 802.11 code into a
'library' layer whose functions could be used with
any 802.11 device,
-
to improve the configurability of 802.11 devices
in a manner that would also be device
independent,
-
and abstract the differences between handling "thin MAC"
and "thick
MAC" devices.
The development of the redesigned
linux-wlan™
software to support PRISM2 led to the creation and release of the
linux-wlan™-ng
codebase in Q2 of 2000. The
linux-wlan™-ng
codebase provided the basis for the
FOSS
linux-wlan™-ng
project and also the advanced AVS commercial codebase currently
marketed under the tradename
dot11Core.
Foundation Linux
In late 1997, AVS began the development on our first Linux-based
embedded system. To create that system, AVS invested in the
development of an in-house embedded Linux distribution which is
referred to internally as Foundation Linux. Like linux-wlan™, Foundation
Linux has been continuously updated and improved. Designed to
be small and portable, Foundation Linux is a complete
embedded Linux distribution with all of the features required for
modern network device products. Foundation Linux is is
maintained solely for integration into customer unique development
activities and for integration into the commercially available
dot11Linux product. Although AVS' does not offer
Foundation Linux as a commercially available Linux
distribution, the full source code to Foundation Linux is
included in our dot11Linux product. Foundation
Linux provides the following key features:
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target CPU/board abstraction,
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CVS and subversion integration,
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cross-toolchain selection and construction,
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integrated build tree with dependencies,
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root filesystem construction and thinning, and
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final flash memory image preparation for both
manufacturing and field in-system updates.
dot11Linux
The AVS dot11Linux product is the collection and
productization of the full source code for dot11Core,
Foundation Linux, user-interface, network applications,
system configuration management, flash memory management, and
system initialization and shutdown management. The
dot11Linux product package is shipped with all of the
source code, comprehensive documentation, and reference hardware
allowing engineers to rapidly bring up a turn-key system and begin
value-add development. The dot11Linux package also
includes significant features to improve the supportability of the
product by providing tools which aid in the flow of information
between customer engineering staff and AVS support personnel.
Additionally, dot11Linux is always shipped with
reference hardware to guarantee that a known configuration is
available to both the customer and AVS support personnel. A
common system configuration allows AVS support personnel to
rapidly reproduce customer observations and provide faster
responses to customer questions.