What does the Information Element with ElementID 221 represent in 802.11?

Hello

Please could some one shed light on what the Info Element with ID 221 represent? This element is found in beacons and probe responses. I searched the net anf found out that this element is generally used for WPA related stuff. But many places mention different uses for this element like for WMM, QOS. Some say it is a generic info elem which can be used for any stuff. If that is so then what is its format?

Nishchal

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NYA
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"NYA" hath wroth:

It appears (my guess) to be some type of catch all that's not owned by Cisco, Symbol, Philips, or Agere. About all I can deduce from the following is that the first 3 octets is an IEEE OUI (MAC address). Apparently 221 is a catch all for smaller vendors propietary data. There are notes in the IEEE-P80211-2003 minutes that underscore that Element 221 is *NOT* reserved (which makes it a free for all).

formatting link

Ethereal decodes it as: DLC: Element ID = 221 (Unknown Information Field) DLC: ...Length = 24 octet(s) DLC: ...[24 byte(s) of Unknown Information Field] which isn't terribly useful.

I tried to find a list of reserved element ID's in the various IEEE specs, but failed. I know such a list exists because I can find references to "table 20" in various IEEE proceedings. There's plenty on "table 20" in various IEEE 802.11 specs, but nothing specific to element id 221.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

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