Windows 11 Wi-Fi software stack / architecture

Question

I am planning to develop a Wi-Fi miniport device driver for Windows 11 for a 802.11ax chip-set based PCIe card. I have worked on NDIS based Wi-Fi miniport device driver in the distant past. I came across Windows Wi-Fi software stack / architecture diagram at learn.microsoft.com, which is based on WDF. But I am confused about role of each of the software components (nWiFi, WiFiCx, WLANSVC) of Windows 11 Wi-Fi software stack.

1. How does the whole Wi-Fi software stack and components work in Windows 11?
2. More specifically - what does WiFiCx software component do?
3. What does nWiFi software component do?
4. Is WLANSVC the Wi-Fi supplicant?

Answer 1

Hi @jitesh verma

I can recommend as a place to start, and that may answer most of your questions, the next official documentation about Wi-Fi WDM class and WiFiCx:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/netcx/wifi-wdf-class-extension-wificx

Hope this helps with your query,

--
--If the reply is helpful, please Upvote and Accept as answer--