WL1835MOD: Wi-Fi beacon loss while scanning with Bluetooth

Hi,

Can you pls test it with firmware versions 8.9.0.0.70 and 8.9.0.0.75 and let us know the results

Thanks

Saurabh

Hello Saurabh,

Thank you for your prompt response.  Our team has tested both version as you suggested and we are still experiencing the issue mentioned above where while the device is connected through WiFi and it is ordered to discover for nearby devices using Bluetopia the error "wlcore:  Beacon loss detected." still appears.  The mentioned error causes the WiFi connection to drop momentarily.  Is there another solution to this issue?  

Regards,

Jesus Pulido

Hi,

Can you pls confirm linux kernel and driver version that you are running ? Also , i have attached firmware-72 - can you pls test with it and let us know the results.

/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-discussions-components-files/968/2211.wl18xx_2D00_fw_2D00_4.bin

Thanks

Saurabh

Hello Saurabh,

After testing the firmware that you provided we discovered that for our solution; the provided firmware does not meet our expectations.  The following test was done:
Our custom board connected to our WiFi and simultaneously connected to a Bluetooth Hands Free speaker.
Our board was ordered to discover remote Bluetooth devices while also sending audio to the device that was already connected.  
Everything regarding Bluetooth is done with Bluetopia. 
The following command was used for WiFi benchmarking.

wget --output-document=/dev/null http://speedtest.wdc01.softlayer.com/downloads/test500.zip


And our test results were:

--2020-11-10 14:59:42--  speedtest.wdc01.softlayer.com/.../test500.zip
Resolving speedtest.wdc01.softlayer.com... 158.85.230.20, 2607:f0d0:3006:6c::4
Connecting to speedtest.wdc01.softlayer.com|158.85.230.20|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 524288000 (500M) [application/zip]
Saving to: '/dev/null'
/dev/null             1%[                    ]   5.41M   291KB/s    eta 40m 55s[ 1159.406440] wlcore: WARNING no fw rx ba on tid 2
/dev/null             1%[                    ]   6.27M   170KB/s[ 1164.343952] wlcore: WARNING no fw rx ba on tid 3
/dev/null             1%[                    ]   8.22M  79.1KB/s    eta 50m 31s[ 1183.365816] wlcore: WARNING no fw rx ba on tid 1
/dev/null             5%[>                   ]  29.81M  1.06MB/s    eta 23m 53s[ 1220.406022] wlcore: WARNING no fw rx ba on tid 2
/dev/null             7%[>                   ]  37.84M  1.74MB/s    eta 19m 25s[ 1225.416246] wlcore: WARNING no fw rx ba on tid 3
/dev/null            11%[=>                  ]  59.96M  1.50MB/s    eta 13m 41s[ 1244.440336] wlcore: WARNING no fw rx ba on tid 1
/dev/null            33%[=====>              ] 166.88M  1.47MB/s    eta 4m 58s [ 1281.471042] wlcore: WARNING no fw rx ba on tid 2
[ 1281.475834] ttyS ttyS5: 1 input overrun(s)
/dev/null            34%[=====>              ] 171.78M   963KB/s    eta 4m 55s [ 1286.587425] wlcore: WARNING no fw rx ba on tid 3
/dev/null            37%[======>             ] 187.00M  1.09MB/s    eta 4m 50s [ 1305.496584] wlcore: WARNING no fw rx ba on tid 1
/dev/null            84%[===============>    ] 420.11M   369KB/s    in 7m 48s
2020-11-10 15:07:30 (919 KB/s) - Connection closed at byte 440514056. Retrying.
--2020-11-10 15:07:31--  (try: 2)  speedtest.wdc01.softlayer.com/.../test500.zip
Connecting to speedtest.wdc01.softlayer.com|158.85.230.20|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 206 Partial Content
Length: 524288000 (500M), 83773944 (80M) remaining [application/zip]
Saving to: '/dev/null'
/dev/null           100%[++++++++++++++++===>] 500.00M   567KB/s    in 3m 23s
2020-11-10 15:10:54 (402 KB/s) - '/dev/null' saved [524288000/524288000]

As seen above, the WiFi connection fluctuated a lot and even at one point the connection was dropped causing the downloader to resume at a partial point.

Another test done without anything from Bluetopia:

--2020-11-10 17:05:12--  speedtest.wdc01.softlayer.com/.../test500.zip
Resolving speedtest.wdc01.softlayer.com... 158.85.230.20, 2607:f0d0:3006:6c::4
Connecting to speedtest.wdc01.softlayer.com|158.85.230.20|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 524288000 (500M) [application/zip]
Saving to: '/dev/null'
/dev/null                           1%[                                                              ]   6.93M  3.83MB/s               [  629.996815] wlcore: WARNING no fw rx ba on tid 1
/dev/null                          97%[===========================================================>  ] 488.67M  2.66MB/s    eta 3s     [  753.076401] wlcore: WARNING no fw rx ba on tid 1
/dev/null                         100%[=============================================================>] 500.00M  4.44MB/s    in 2m 7s
2020-11-10 17:07:20 (3.93 MB/s) - '/dev/null' saved [524288000/524288000]

Is there another firmware version for the WL18xx that will meet our requirement and resolve our situation?

Thanks, 
Jesus Pulido

Hi,

- Did you notice improvement with fwr-72 ?

-  I believe initial issue was that DUT lost connection to AP when BT was enabled ? in above test case , DUT probably lost connection to AP but it was able to download the file ok ?

- What linux kernel version are you running ? Host processor ?

Thanks

Saurabh

Hello,

- There is no noticeable improvement with the fwr-72 in regards to what we are trying to accomplish. 

- We are consistently observing that our DUT has issues with the WiFi while using Bluetopia functions (discover, connect, pair, etc.).  When only WiFi is being used, we see that WiFi works perfectly.  Our goal and requirement is to have no WiFi loss or drops while simultaneously using WiFi and Bluetooth. 
Is there currently a coexistence performance issue between WiFi and Bluetooth defined within the WL1835MOD combo?

- We use Kernel 5.4.20 without problems.  Our host processor is AM3358.

We would really appreciate to hear any and all of the recommendations you have for us.

Thanks,

Jesus Pulido

Hi,

Our latest release is on kernel 4.19. We have not tested it on kernel 5.x yet. In your test,  you start STA role, connect it to AP and simply run start discovery ? what interval do you use for start discovery command ? You see the issue right after to start discovery command ?

Thanks

Saurabh

Hello,

The issue is observed during any of the Bluetopia commands mentioned above (discovery, pair, or connect).  The interval is just regular usage as in wanting to just use the Bluetooth functionality while downloading a file while our device is connected through WiFi.  Nothing extreme is being done with either WiFi or Bluetooth.

Thanks,

Jesus

Hi Jesus,

I ran the same test on our EVM using release R8.8 on kernel 4.19 and did not see the issue. I connected WiLink8 STA to AP , ran background ping , and then ran discovery command  using Bluetopia stack. Ping kept running as expected and Bluetopia was able to run discovery command . 

As i mentioned before,  we have not tested the release yet on 5.x. Are you able to port these patches to your kernel :https://git.ti.com/cgit/wilink8-wlan/build-utilites/tree/patches/kernel_patches/4.19.38?h=r8.8

We are currently looking into a coex issue but that issue gets resolved with fwr-72

The one that you mentioned seems to run ok on our EVMs

/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-discussions-components-files/968/coex.log

Thanks

Saurabh