Wi-Fi: SoftAP based provision

This sample demonstrates how to use the SoftAP Wi-Fi provision library to provision credentials to a Nordic Semiconductor Wi-Fi® device.

Cellular connectivity is supported on the nRF91 Series SiPs, while Wi-Fi connectivity is supported on the nRF52 or nRF53 Series SoCs hosting the nRF70 Series Wi-Fi companion ICs.

The sample uses the connection manager that provides a common connectivity API for LTE and Wi-Fi stacks.

Requirements

The sample supports the following development kits:

Hardware platforms

PCA

Board name

Board target

nRF7002 DK

PCA10143

nrf7002dk

nrf7002dk/nrf5340/cpuapp/ns

When built for a board target with the */ns variant, the sample is configured to compile and run as a non-secure application with Cortex-M Security Extensions enabled. Therefore, it automatically includes Trusted Firmware-M that prepares the required peripherals and secure services to be available for the application.

Overview

After boot, the device starts advertising in SoftAP mode with the SSID name set by the CONFIG_SOFTAP_WIFI_PROVISION_SSID option (default is nrf-wifiprov), allowing clients (STA) to connect to it and provide Wi-Fi credentials. See SoftAP Wi-Fi Provision library HTTP resources for more information on how to configure the SoftAP network and the HTTP resources that are available.

User interface

During provisioning, the device’s LEDs indicate the current state of the provisioning process.

LEDs

LED 1:

Turns on, then the device is advertising the SoftAP network.

LED 2:

Turns on when the device is connected to the provisioned Wi-Fi network.

Configuration

See Configuring and building an application for information about how to permanently or temporarily change the configuration.

Configuration files

The sample includes the following pre-configured configuration file for the development kits that are supported:

  • prj.conf - Configuration file for all build targets.

Building and running

This sample can be found under samples/wifi/provisioning/softap in the nRF Connect SDK folder structure.

When built as firmware image for a board target with the */ns variant, the sample has Cortex-M Security Extensions (CMSE) enabled and separates the firmware between Non-Secure Processing Environment (NSPE) and Secure Processing Environment (SPE). Because of this, it automatically includes the Trusted Firmware-M (TF-M). To read more about CMSE, see Processing environments.

To build the sample, follow the instructions in Configuring and building an application for your preferred building environment. See also Programming an application for programming steps and Testing and optimization for general information about testing and debugging in the nRF Connect SDK.

Note

When building repository applications in the SDK repositories, building with sysbuild is enabled by default. If you work with out-of-tree freestanding applications, you need to manually pass the --sysbuild parameter to every build command or configure west to always use it.

Testing

To test the sample, you can use the nRF Wi-Fi Provisioner mobile app for Android or nRF Wi-Fi Provisioner mobile app for iOS to provision the device with Wi-Fi credentials.

The following are the source code for these:

Alternatively, you can use the provided Python script by completing the following steps:

After programming the sample to your development kit, complete the following steps to test it:

  1. Connect the kit to the computer using a USB cable. The kit is assigned a COM port (Windows) or ttyACM device (Linux), which is visible in the Device Manager.

  2. Connect to the kit with a terminal emulator (for example, nRF Connect Serial Terminal). See Testing and optimization for the required settings and steps.

    The sample shows the following output:

    *** Using Zephyr OS v3.6.99-25fbeabe9004 ***
    [00:00:00.662,811] <inf> softap_wifi_provision_sample: SoftAP Wi-Fi provision sample started
    [00:00:00.673,187] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: init_entry: Registering self-signed server certificate
    [00:00:08.612,731] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: certificate_register: Self-signed server certificate provisioned
    [00:00:08.652,038] <inf> softap_wifi_provision_sample: Network interface brought up
    [00:00:08.660,858] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: process_tcp4: Waiting for IPv4 HTTP connections on port 443
    [00:00:08.671,020] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: wifi_scan: Scanning for Wi-Fi networks...
    [00:00:13.301,605] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: net_mgmt_wifi_event_handler: NET_EVENT_WIFI_SCAN_DONE
    [00:00:13.311,401] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: unprovisioned_exit: Scanning for Wi-Fi networks completed, preparing protobuf payload
    [00:00:13.324,523] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: unprovisioned_exit: Protobuf payload prepared, scan results encoded, size: 212
    [00:00:13.336,212] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: provisioning_entry: Enabling AP mode to allow client to connect and provide Wi-Fi credentials.
    [00:00:13.349,273] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: provisioning_entry: Waiting for Wi-Fi credentials...
    [00:00:14.034,057] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: net_mgmt_wifi_event_handler: NET_EVENT_WIFI_AP_ENABLE_RESULT
    [00:00:14.046,051] <inf> softap_wifi_provision_sample: Provisioning started
    [00:00:14.054,565] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: dhcp_server_start: IPv4 address added to interface
    [00:00:14.063,964] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: dhcp_server_start: IPv4 netmask set
    [00:00:14.072,296] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: dhcp_server_start: DHCPv4 server started
    
  3. Connect to the softAP Wi-Fi network, the default SSID is nrf-wifiprov, and observe the following output:

    [00:01:18.940,307] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: net_mgmt_wifi_event_handler: NET_EVENT_WIFI_AP_STA_CONNECTED
    [00:01:18.950,469] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: print_mac: Client STA connected, MAC: 04:00:91:9E:31:EA
    [00:01:18.960,174] <inf> softap_wifi_provision_sample: Client connected
    
  4. Generate python structures from the protobuf schema by running the following command:

    cd <sample-dir>/scripts
    protoc --proto_path=<nrf-sdk-dir>/subsys/net/lib/softap_wifi_provision/proto --python_out=. common.proto
    
  5. Start provisioning by calling the following command:

    python3 provision.py --certificate ../certs/server_certificate.pem
    

    The script performs HTTP calls to the device, fetches the Wi-Fi networks that are available to it, parses the response using the supported protobuf schema, and displays the networks to you. It prompts you to select a network and enter the password for it.

    python3 provision.py --certificate ../certs/server_certificate.pem
    0: SSID: cia-linksys, BSSID: d8ec5e8f6619, RSSI: -49, Band: BAND_5_GHZ, Channel: 112, Auth: WPA_WPA2_PSK
    1: SSID: cia-asusgold, BSSID: c87f54de23b8, RSSI: -49, Band: BAND_2_4_GHZ, Channel: 9, Auth: WPA_WPA2_PSK
    2: SSID: cia-linksys, BSSID: d8ec5e8f6618, RSSI: -50, Band: BAND_5_GHZ, Channel: 44, Auth: WPA_WPA2_PSK
    3: SSID: NORDIC-GUEST, BSSID: 2436da11c0af, RSSI: -52, Band: BAND_5_GHZ, Channel: 60, Auth: WPA_WPA2_PSK
    4: SSID: NORDIC-INTERNAL, BSSID: 2436da11c0ae, RSSI: -53, Band: BAND_5_GHZ, Channel: 60, Auth: WPA_WPA2_PSK
    Select the network (number): 1
    Enter the passphrase for the network: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
    Length of serialized data:  47
    Configuration successful!
    
  6. Observe the following output from the device and see that it connects to the selected network.

    [00:00:21.947,784] <inf> softap_wifi_provision_sample: Client connected
    [00:00:26.947,174] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: process_tcp: [15] Connection from 192.168.0.2 accepted
    [00:00:27.018,859] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: on_message_begin: on_message_begin, method: 1
    [00:00:27.027,770] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: on_url: on_url, method: 1
    [00:00:27.034,881] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: on_url: > /prov/networks
    [00:00:27.042,053] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: on_headers_complete: on_headers_complete, method: GET
    [00:00:27.051,574] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: on_message_complete: on_message_complete, method: 1
    [00:00:27.062,408] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: process_tcp: Closing listening socket: 15
    [00:00:37.169,372] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: process_tcp: [15] Connection from 192.168.0.2 accepted
    [00:00:37.243,316] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: on_message_begin: on_message_begin, method: 3
    [00:00:37.252,197] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: on_url: on_url, method: 3
    [00:00:37.259,338] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: on_url: > /prov/configure
    [00:00:37.266,632] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: on_headers_complete: on_headers_complete, method: POST
    [00:00:37.281,585] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: on_body: on_body: 3
    [00:00:37.288,177] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: on_body: on_body length: 38
    [00:00:37.295,532] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: on_body: on_body: 3
    [00:00:37.302,124] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: on_body: on_body length: 47
    [00:00:37.309,448] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: on_message_complete: on_message_complete, method: 3
    [00:00:37.318,847] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: parse_and_store_credentials: HTTP body
                                                    0a 1c 0a 0c 63 69 61 2d  61 73 75 73 67 6f 6c 64 |....cia- asusgold
                                                    12 06 c8 7f 54 de 23 b8  18 01 20 01 28 04 12 0f |....T.#. .. .(...
                                                    74 68 69 6e 67 79 77 6f  72 6c 64 32 30 32 34    |xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx
    [00:00:37.357,513] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: parse_and_store_credentials: Received Wi-Fi credentials: ssid: cia-asusgold, bssid: C8:7F:54:DE:23:B8, passphrase: xxxxxx, sectype: 4, channel: 1, band: 1
    [00:00:37.468,536] <inf> softap_wifi_provision_sample: Wi-Fi credentials received
    [00:00:37.477,172] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: process_tcp: Closing listening socket: 15
    [00:00:37.490,356] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: process_tcp4: Credentials stored, stop processing of incoming requests
    [00:00:37.501,342] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: process_tcp4: Leaving server socket open to keep mDNS SD functioning
    [00:00:37.512,695] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: provisioning_exit: Credentials received, cleaning up...
    [00:00:38.534,362] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: net_mgmt_wifi_event_handler: NET_EVENT_WIFI_AP_STA_DISCONNECTED
    [00:00:38.544,769] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: print_mac: Client STA disconnected, MAC: 00:00:91:9E:31:EA
    [00:00:38.554,718] <inf> softap_wifi_provision_sample: Client disconnected
    [00:00:38.718,566] <dbg> softap_wifi_provision: net_mgmt_wifi_event_handler: NET_EVENT_WIFI_AP_DISABLE_RESULT
    [00:00:38.728,881] <inf> softap_wifi_provision_sample: Provisioning completed
    [00:00:40.377,868] <inf> wifi_mgmt_ext: Connection requested
    [00:00:40.389,312] <inf> softap_wifi_provision_sample: PSM disabled
    [00:00:40.819,732] <inf> softap_wifi_provision_sample: Network connected
    [00:02:40.399,627] <inf> softap_wifi_provision_sample: PSM enabled
    

Troubleshooting

For issues related to the library and nRF Connect SDK in general, refer to Known issues.

If the hostname is changed by updating the CONFIG_NET_HOSTNAME Kconfig option, the server certificate must be re-generated with the Subject Alternate Name (SAN) field set to the new hostname. This is to ensure that Server Name Indication (SNI) succeeds during the TLS handshake.

Dependencies

This sample uses the following nRF Connect SDK and Zephyr libraries: