Wi-Fi: Shell

The Shell sample allows you to test Nordic Semiconductor’s Wi-Fi® chipsets.

Requirements

The sample supports the following development kits:

Hardware platforms

PCA

Board name

Build target

Shields

Thingy:53

PCA20053

thingy53_nrf5340

thingy53_nrf5340_cpuapp

nrf7002eb

nRF9161 DK

nrf9161dk_nrf9161

nrf9161dk_nrf9161_ns

nrf7002ek_nrf7000

nRF9160 DK

PCA10090

nrf9160dk_nrf9160

nrf9160dk_nrf9160_ns

nrf7002ek_nrf7000

nRF7002 DK (emulating nRF7001)

PCA10143

nrf7002dk_nrf7001_nrf5340

nrf7002dk_nrf7001_nrf5340_cpuapp

nRF7002 DK

PCA10143

nrf7002dk_nrf5340

nrf7002dk_nrf5340_cpuapp_ns nrf7002dk_nrf5340_cpuapp

nRF5340 DK

PCA10095

nrf5340dk_nrf5340

nrf5340dk_nrf5340_cpuapp

nrf7002ek_nrf7000 nrf7002ek_nrf7001 nrf7002ek

nRF52840 DK

PCA10056

nrf52840dk_nrf52840

nrf52840dk_nrf52840

nrf7002ek_nrf7000 nrf7002ek_nrf7001 nrf7002ek

Overview

The sample can perform all Wi-Fi operations in the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands depending on the capabilities supported in the underlying chipset.

Using this sample, the development kit can associate with, and ping to, any Wi-Fi capable access point in STA mode.

Building and running

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

When built as firmware image for the _ns build target, 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 with Visual Studio Code, follow the steps listed on the How to build an application page in the nRF Connect for VS Code extension documentation. See Building and programming an application for other building and programming scenarios and Testing and debugging an application for general information about testing and debugging in the nRF Connect SDK.

Currently, the following configurations are supported:

  • nRF7002 DK + QSPI

  • nRF7002 EK + SPIM

  • nRF9160 DK + SPIM

To build for the nRF7002 DK, use the nrf7002dk_nrf5340_cpuapp build target. The following is an example of the CLI command:

west build -b nrf7002dk_nrf5340_cpuapp

To build for the nRF7002 EK with nRF5340 DK, use the nrf5340dk_nrf5340_cpuapp build target with the SHIELD CMake option set to nrf7002ek. The following is an example of the CLI command:

west build -b nrf5340dk_nrf5340_cpuapp -- -DSHIELD=nrf7002ek

To build for the nRF9160 DK, use the nrf9160dk_nrf9160_ns build target with the SHIELD CMake option set to nrf7002ek and scan-only overlay configuration. The following is an example of the CLI command:

west build -b nrf9160dk_nrf9160_ns -- -DOVERLAY_CONFIG=overlay-scan-only.conf -DSHIELD=nrf7002ek

See also Providing CMake options for instructions on how to provide CMake options.

Supported CLI commands

wifi is the Wi-Fi command line and supports the following UART CLI subcommands:

Wi-Fi shell subcommands

Subcommands

Description

scan

Scan for Wi-Fi APs
OPTIONAL PARAMETERS:
[-t, –type <active/passive>] : Preferred mode of scan. The actual mode
of scan can depend on factors such as the Wi-Fi chip implementation,
regulatory domain restrictions. Default type is active.
[-b, –bands <Comma separated list of band values (2/5/6)>] : Bands to be
scanned where 2: 2.4 GHz, 5: 5 GHz, 6: 6 GHz.
[-a, –dwell_time_active <val_in_ms>] : Active scan dwell time (in ms) on
a channel. Range 5 ms to 1000 ms.
[-p, –dwell_time_passive <val_in_ms>] : Passive scan dwell time (in ms)
on a channel. Range 10 ms to 1000 ms.
[-s, –ssids <Comma separate list of SSIDs>] : SSID list to scan for.
[-m, –max_bss <val>] : Maximum BSSes to scan for. Range 1 - 65535.
[-c, –chans <Comma separated list of channel ranges>] : Channels to be
scanned. The channels must be specified in the form
band1:chan1,chan2_band2:chan3,..etc. band1, band2 must be valid band
values and chan1, chan2, chan3 must be specified as a list of comma
separated values where each value is either a single channel or a channel
range specified as chan_start-chan_end. Each band channel set has to be
separated by a _. For example, a valid channel specification can be
2:1,6-11,14_5:36,149-165,44
[-h, –help] : Print out the help for the scan command.

connect

Connect to a Wi-Fi AP with the following parameters:
<SSID>
<Channel number> (optional: 0 means all)
<PSK> (optional: valid only for secured SSIDs)
<Security type> (optional: 0-None, 1-PSK, 2-PSK-256, 3-SAE)
<MFP> (optional: 0-Disable, 1-Optional, 2-Required)

disconnect

Disconnect from the Wi-Fi AP

status

Status of the Wi-Fi interface

statistics

Wi-Fi interface statistics

ap

Access Point mode commands
enable - Enable Access Point mode, with the following parameters:
<SSID>
<SSID length>
<channel> [optional]
<psk> [optional]
disable - Disable Access Point mode
(Note that the Access Point mode is presently not supported.)

ps

Configure power save
No argument - Prints current configuration
on - Turns on power save feature
off - Turns off power save feature

ps_mode

Configure Wi-Fi power save mode
0 - Legacy
1 - WMM

twt

Manage Target Wake Time (TWT) flows with below subcommands:

setup - Start a TWT flow:
<negotiation_type: 0 - Individual, 1 - Broadcast, 2 - Wake TBTT>
<setup_cmd: 0 - Request, 1 - Suggest, 2 - Demand>
<dialog_token: 1-255> <flow_id: 0-7> <responder: 0/1> <trigger: 0/1>
<implicit: 0/1> <announce: 0/1> <twt_wake_interval: 1-262144 µs>
<twt_interval: 1µs-2^31µs>

teardown - Teardown a TWT flow:
<negotiation_type: 0 - Individual, 1 - Broadcast, 2 - Wake TBTT>
<setup_cmd: 0 - Request, 1 - Suggest, 2 - Demand>
<dialog_token: 1-255> <flow_id: 0-7>

teardown_all - Teardown all TWT flows

reg_domain

Set or get Wi-Fi regulatory domain

Usage: wifi reg_domain [ISO/IEC 3166-1 alpha2] [-f]

-f: Force to use this regulatory hint over any other regulatory hints.
(Note that this may cause regulatory compliance issues.)

ps_timeout

Configure Wi-Fi power save inactivity timer (in ms)

ps_listen_interval

Configure Wi-Fi power save for the Listen interval
<0-65535>

ps_wakeup_mode

Configure Wi-Fi power save for wakeup mode
dtim - Wakeup mode for the DTIM interval
listen_interval - Wakeup mode for the Listen interval

wifi_cred is an extension to the Wi-Fi command line. It adds the following commands to interact with the Wi-Fi credentials library:

Wi-Fi credentials shell subcommands

Subcommands

Description

add

Add a network to the credentials storage with following parameters:
<SSID>
<Passphrase> (optional: valid only for secured SSIDs)
<BSSID> (optional)
<Band> (optional: 2.4GHz, 5GHz)
favorite (optional, makes the network higher priority in automatic connection)

delete <SSID>

Removes network from credentials storage.

list

Lists networks in credential storage.

auto_connect

Automatically connects to any stored network.

Testing

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, PuTTY). See How to connect with PuTTY for the required settings.

  3. Scan for the Wi-Fi networks in range using the following command:

    wifi scan
    

    The output should be similar to the following:

    Scan requested
    
    Num  | SSID                             (len) | Chan (Band)    | RSSI | Security        | BSSID
    1    | xyza                             4     | 1    (2.4GHz)  | -27  | WPA2-PSK        | xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
    2    | abcd                             4     | 149  (5GHz  )  | -28  | WPA2-PSK        | yy:yy:yy:yy:yy:yy
    
  4. Connect to your preferred network using the following command:

    wifi connect <SSID> <passphrase>
    

    <SSID> is the SSID of the network you want to connect to, and <passphrase> is its passphrase.

  5. Check the connection status after a while, using the following command:

    wifi status
    

    If the connection is established, you should see an output similar to the following:

    Status: successful
    ==================
    State: COMPLETED
    Interface Mode: STATION
    Link Mode: WIFI 6 (802.11ax/HE)
    SSID: OpenWrt
    BSSID: C0:06:C3:1D:CF:9E
    Band: 5GHz
    Channel: 157
    Security: WPA2-PSK
    PMF: Optional
    RSSI: 0
    
  6. Initiate a ping and verify data connectivity using the following commands:

    net dns <hostname>
    net ping <resolved hostname>
    

    See the following example:

    net dns google.com
     Query for 'google.com' sent.
     dns: 142.250.74.46
     dns: All results received
    
    net ping 10 142.250.74.46
     PING 142.250.74.46
     28 bytes from 142.250.74.46 to 192.168.50.199: icmp_seq=0 ttl=113 time=191 ms
     28 bytes from 142.250.74.46 to 192.168.50.199: icmp_seq=1 ttl=113 time=190 ms
     28 bytes from 142.250.74.46 to 192.168.50.199: icmp_seq=2 ttl=113 time=190 ms
    

Dependencies

This sample uses the following library:

This sample also uses modules found in the following locations in the nRF Connect SDK folder structure:

  • modules/lib/hostap

  • modules/mbedtls