Open-Source Wi-Fi MAC Layer for ESP32 Takes Flight
2025-03-09
An ambitious open-source project is underway to create a fully open-source Wi-Fi MAC layer for the popular low-cost ESP32 microcontroller. Currently, the ESP32's Wi-Fi MAC layer is closed-source, limiting security audits, feature enhancements, and interoperability. This project reverse-engineers the hardware registers and software, resulting in two open-source MAC layer implementations in C and Rust. One utilizes FreeRTOS tasks, while the other is a pure async Rust implementation built on Embassy. The goal is to enhance ESP32's security, functionality, and research accessibility, paving the way for features like standards-compliant mesh networking.
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Hardware