FullMAC

A FullMAC wifi device (also known as HardMAC)) is a device that performs MAC Sublayer Management Entity (MLME) in hardware/firmware

A FullMAC device hides the complexity of the 802.11 protocol from the main CPU, instead providing an 802.3 (ethernet) interface.

FullMAC chips are typically used in mobile devices is three-fold: (1) easier to integrate in complete products, (2) power savings (by having a specialized CPU perform the 802.11 processing), and (3) tighter firmware control by the chip vendor.

See also

• SoftMAC
• Media Access Control
• IEEE 802.11s