LAPB parameters. To be defined.
+Requirements for the device driver
+----------------------------------
-Possible Problems
-=================
-
-(Henner Eisen, 2000-10-28)
-
-The X.25 packet layer protocol depends on a reliable datalink service.
-The LAPB protocol provides such reliable service. But this reliability
-is not preserved by the Linux network device driver interface:
-
-- With Linux 2.4.x (and above) SMP kernels, packet ordering is not
- preserved. Even if a device driver calls netif_rx(skb1) and later
- netif_rx(skb2), skb2 might be delivered to the network layer
- earlier that skb1.
-- Data passed upstream by means of netif_rx() might be dropped by the
- kernel if the backlog queue is congested.
-
-The X.25 packet layer protocol will detect this and reset the virtual
-call in question. But many upper layer protocols are not designed to
-handle such N-Reset events gracefully. And frequent N-Reset events
-will always degrade performance.
-
-Thus, driver authors should make netif_rx() as reliable as possible:
-
-SMP re-ordering will not occur if the driver's interrupt handler is
-always executed on the same CPU. Thus,
-
-- Driver authors should use irq affinity for the interrupt handler.
-
-The probability of packet loss due to backlog congestion can be
-reduced by the following measures or a combination thereof:
-
-(1) Drivers for kernel versions 2.4.x and above should always check the
- return value of netif_rx(). If it returns NET_RX_DROP, the
- driver's LAPB protocol must not confirm reception of the frame
- to the peer.
- This will reliably suppress packet loss. The LAPB protocol will
- automatically cause the peer to re-transmit the dropped packet
- later.
- The lapb module interface was modified to support this. Its
- data_indication() method should now transparently pass the
- netif_rx() return value to the (lapb module) caller.
-(2) Drivers for kernel versions 2.2.x should always check the global
- variable netdev_dropping when a new frame is received. The driver
- should only call netif_rx() if netdev_dropping is zero. Otherwise
- the driver should not confirm delivery of the frame and drop it.
- Alternatively, the driver can queue the frame internally and call
- netif_rx() later when netif_dropping is 0 again. In that case, delivery
- confirmation should also be deferred such that the internal queue
- cannot grow to much.
- This will not reliably avoid packet loss, but the probability
- of packet loss in netif_rx() path will be significantly reduced.
-(3) Additionally, driver authors might consider to support
- CONFIG_NET_HW_FLOWCONTROL. This allows the driver to be woken up
- when a previously congested backlog queue becomes empty again.
- The driver could uses this for flow-controlling the peer by means
- of the LAPB protocol's flow-control service.
+Packets should not be reordered or dropped when delivering between the
+Packet Layer and the device driver.
+
+To avoid packets from being reordered or dropped when delivering from
+the device driver to the Packet Layer, the device driver should not
+call "netif_rx" to deliver the received packets. Instead, it should
+call "netif_receive_skb_core" from softirq context to deliver them.
projects / linux-2.6-microblaze.git / blobdiff