The networking subsystem changes have been merged for Linux 7.2 with a lot happening around the core networking code as well as the many wired and wireless networking device drivers.

Linux 7.2 networking continues working on Neighbor Awareness Networking, or now formally known as WiFi Aware, for securely discovering, pairing, and interfacing with nearby devices without relying on traditional WiFi routers / Bluetooth or an Internet connection. There have been multicast additions, schedule improvements, multi-station work, etc. WiFi Aware should be useful for smart home integration, local gaming and file sharing purposes, and more.

Also on the WiFi side for Linux 7.2 is continuing to enable around Ultra High Reliability (UHR) / WiFi 802.11bn support. There has been UHR work within the mac80211 and cfg80211 code as well as preparations in the Intel IWLWIFI driver for their upcoming WiFi 8 hardware.

On the wired networking side, the Realtek R8152 USB driver now supports 10Gbit link speeds and Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE). The R8152 driver also adds support for the Realtek RTL8159 chipset. The RTL8159 is already found in some 10Gbps USB network adapters for under $100 USD.

The Intel IXGBE driver also added Energy Efficient Ethernet support for Intel E610 chipsets.

On the wireless networking driver side, the MediaTek MT76 driver adds support for the MT7927 chipset. The Realttek RT89 driver added support for the RTL8922AU wireless chipset plus preparations for supporting the RTL8922DE too. The Qualcomm Ath12k driver has landed thermal throttling / cooling device support.

New networking drivers include the Alibaba Elastic Ethernet Adapter, the NXP i.MX94 NETC switch, and Airoha AN8801R Gigabit Ethernet PHYs.

There have also been some notable removals in the networking code this cycle such as removing the AppleTalk protocol, dropping support for TLS offload with the TCP Offload Engine, and retiring 5/10MHz support from the cfg80211/mac80211 code.

The lengthy list of networking changes in full for the Linux 7.2 merge window can be found via this pull that has already been merged into the Linux Git codebase.