A detailed picture of how

nl80211 and cfg80211 work with other parts of the system (user space, kernel, and hardware). nl80211is the interface between user space software (iw,wpa_supplicant, etc.) and the kernel (cfg80211andmac80211kernel modules, and specific drivers).- The WiFi drivers and hardware could be Full-MAC or Soft-MAC (see Wireless_network_interface_controller).
cfg80211_opsis a set of operations that Full-MAC drivers andmac80211module register tocfg80211module.ieee80211_opsis a set of operations that Soft-MAC drivers register tomac80211module.

