some longstanding issues:
o pass the vap since it's now the "coin of the realm" and required
to do things like set initial tx parameters in private node
state for use prior to association
o pass the mac address as cards that maintain outboard station
tables require this to create an entry (e.g. in ibss mode)
o remove the node table reference, we only have one node table
and it's unlikely this will change so this is not needed to
find the com structure