Pico W firmware creates driverless USB WiFi bridge (Layer-2)

Summary

pico-usb-wifi is an open-source firmware project that converts the Raspberry Pi Pico W into a driverless USB WiFi adapter that works with Windows, Linux, macOS, and other operating systems with USB CDC-NCM support.The Infineon CYW43439 chip found in the SBC can’t be used directly as a USB to WiFi bridge, and instead, the firmware implements a transparent Layer-2 bridge between the Pico W’s wireless module and USB interfaces. It basically works as an Ethernet to WiFi gateway/bridge, which exposes an Ethernet connection through USB (aka USB gadget mode) used to route Wi-Fi packets from the network. Image source: project’s GitLab repo pico-usb-wifi highlights: Transparent Layer-2 Bridging between the Pico W’s wireless and USB interfaces Exposed as a USB CDC-NCM device IPv4 and IPv6 with no NAT, no private subnet, and no port-forwarding to configure Out-of-band management and debug consoles over CDC-ACM serial WPA2-PSK and WPA3-SAE authentication (and open networks) Throughput – Average 4.75 Mbits/sec; mostly limited by the 12 Mbps USB 1.1 interface Another AI-generated from the project’s repo showing the connection Considering a low-end WiFi USB dongle costs $2-$3 and up, and the limited performance of the solution, it’s mostly useful for an emergency when you need WiFi connectivity and have a spare Raspberry Pi Pico W lying around. I don’t think it’s possible to significantly improve the performance over the native USB port, but as noted by the developer (白一百, baiyibai), leveraging the programmable I/Os on the RP2040 might be an option, and the Pico-100BASE-TX project might be a starting point.WiFi credentials and other parameters can be configured through the management console: 12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728 picocom /dev/ttyACM0 -- pico-usb-wifi v1.1.0 -- profiles: 0 saved (active: none) ssid: (unset) pass: unset country: (unset) debug: off status: associating host IPv4: (not seen yet)(set|scan|list|use|save) # scan[*] scanning... networks (3): 1 My...