Note

This is the documentation for the latest development branch and may refer to features that are not available in released versions. If you are looking for a specific release, use the drop-down menu on the left.

Supported Network Devices

Wi-Fi

Model or Solution	Transport	Main Features
RTL8189FTV	SDIO	2.4 GHz Wi-Fi 4, STA/SoftAP; model name rtl8189ftv
RTL8733BS	SDIO	Wi-Fi 4 with 5 GHz support, STA/SoftAP; model name rtl8733bs
Broadcom BCM43430A1	SDIO	2.4 GHz Wi-Fi 4, STA/SoftAP and single-channel concurrency; brcmfmac model name BCM43430A1
RW007	SPI Mode 0	STA/SoftAP; model name rw007
AIC8800/AIC8801	USB, SDIO	Wi-Fi 6 series; specific frequency bands depend on the chip and firmware
AIC8800D80/D40/D80X2/DC/DW/DL	USB; D80, DC/DW/DL support SDIO	DC/DW/DL SDIO use c8a1:c08d and c8a1:c18d dual function; USB composite devices optionally support BLE HCI
ESP-Hosted-FG/NG	SPI Full-Duplex, SDIO	ESP serves as a Wi-Fi coprocessor and connects to WLAN offload
ESP-Hosted-MCU	SPI Full-Duplex, Dual/Quad SPI Half-Duplex	RPC Wi-Fi control, optional BLE HCI

Note

The chip families in the table do not mean that all commercially available modules have the same capabilities. AIC8800D40 and D80 may use the same USB ID; ESP-Hosted must select the FG, NG, or MCU protocol consistent with the slave firmware.

The WLAN driver registers STA/AP devices by physical radio. Management devices are typically phyN-sta and phyN-ap, netdevs are typically wlanN and wlanNap, and the offload control device is /dev/wlanctlN. Numbers are assigned by probe order, and applications should query the actual names through wifi devices or NetMgmt.

When multiple Wi-Fi devices are present, selection can be based on USB, SDIO, or SPI transport. RT-Smart shell examples:

wifi devices
wifi -i sdio scan
wifi -i usb join <ssid> <password>

See all drivers, common SDIO board-level configuration, and RW007 wiring in the Wi-Fi Driver Selection and Board-Level Configuration. For firmware details on AIC8800 and ESP-Hosted, see AIC8800 Wi-Fi Driver User Guide and ESP-Hosted Wi-Fi Coprocessor User Guide, respectively.

Low-Power Bluetooth (BLE)

Controller Backend	Transport	Main Features
AIC8800 series composite devices	USB	Registers a dynamic /dev/hciN H:4 device; SCO audio is not implemented
ESP-Hosted-MCU	SPI Full/Half-Duplex	Optional HCI channel; starts and stops the controller through FeatureControl RPC

The RT-Smart HCI framework only provides controller transport, while GAP, GATT, L2CAP, and SMP are provided by host stacks such as NimBLE. Neither the current Broadcom brcmfmac nor the legacy CYW43xx port provides Bluetooth, and Realtek, RW007, AIC SDIO, and ESP-Hosted-FG/NG do not provide an HCI backend. For configuration, see Bluetooth HCI and NimBLE User Guide.

USB Ethernet Adapters

Model	Main Features
RTL8152	USB 2.0 100 Mbps NIC (including compatible chips)
CH397	USB 2.0 100 Mbps NIC (ECM generic driver)

USB Ethernet devices are uniformly managed as LAN devices, and an available name from eth0 to eth9 is dynamically assigned upon connection. Applications should use the RT_NET_DEV_LAN or NetMgmt device query interface and should not select an interface based on the chip model or a fixed device name.

For compilation options and runtime verification methods for CherryUSB Host, RTL8152, and CH397 ECM/NCM, see the USB Host NIC Configuration Guide.

4G LTE USB Modules

Model	Main Features
Quectel EC200 series	Cat.1 LTE module (compatible series), ECM generic driver
China Mobile ML307	Cat.1 LTE module (compatible series), ECM generic driver

LTE modules also require USB composite mode, SIM, APN, and network registration configuration. For selection of ECM/NCM and optional AT serial port drivers, see USB Host NIC Configuration Guide.