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Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/networking/dsa/dsa.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/networking/dsa/dsa.rst | 64 |
1 files changed, 32 insertions, 32 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/networking/dsa/dsa.rst b/Documentation/networking/dsa/dsa.rst index 89bb4fa4c362..ddc1dd039337 100644 --- a/Documentation/networking/dsa/dsa.rst +++ b/Documentation/networking/dsa/dsa.rst @@ -10,21 +10,21 @@ in joining the effort. Design principles ================= -The Distributed Switch Architecture is a subsystem which was primarily designed -to support Marvell Ethernet switches (MV88E6xxx, a.k.a Linkstreet product line) -using Linux, but has since evolved to support other vendors as well. +The Distributed Switch Architecture subsystem was primarily designed to +support Marvell Ethernet switches (MV88E6xxx, a.k.a. Link Street product +line) using Linux, but has since evolved to support other vendors as well. The original philosophy behind this design was to be able to use unmodified Linux tools such as bridge, iproute2, ifconfig to work transparently whether they configured/queried a switch port network device or a regular network device. -An Ethernet switch is typically comprised of multiple front-panel ports, and one -or more CPU or management port. The DSA subsystem currently relies on the +An Ethernet switch typically comprises multiple front-panel ports and one +or more CPU or management ports. The DSA subsystem currently relies on the presence of a management port connected to an Ethernet controller capable of receiving Ethernet frames from the switch. This is a very common setup for all kinds of Ethernet switches found in Small Home and Office products: routers, -gateways, or even top-of-the rack switches. This host Ethernet controller will +gateways, or even top-of-rack switches. This host Ethernet controller will be later referred to as "master" and "cpu" in DSA terminology and code. The D in DSA stands for Distributed, because the subsystem has been designed @@ -33,14 +33,14 @@ using upstream and downstream Ethernet links between switches. These specific ports are referred to as "dsa" ports in DSA terminology and code. A collection of multiple switches connected to each other is called a "switch tree". -For each front-panel port, DSA will create specialized network devices which are +For each front-panel port, DSA creates specialized network devices which are used as controlling and data-flowing endpoints for use by the Linux networking stack. These specialized network interfaces are referred to as "slave" network interfaces in DSA terminology and code. The ideal case for using DSA is when an Ethernet switch supports a "switch tag" which is a hardware feature making the switch insert a specific tag for each -Ethernet frames it received to/from specific ports to help the management +Ethernet frame it receives to/from specific ports to help the management interface figure out: - what port is this frame coming from @@ -125,7 +125,7 @@ other switches from the same fabric, and in this case, the outermost switch ports must decapsulate the packet. Note that in certain cases, it might be the case that the tagging format used -by a leaf switch (not connected directly to the CPU) to not be the same as what +by a leaf switch (not connected directly to the CPU) is not the same as what the network stack sees. This can be seen with Marvell switch trees, where the CPU port can be configured to use either the DSA or the Ethertype DSA (EDSA) format, but the DSA links are configured to use the shorter (without Ethertype) @@ -270,21 +270,21 @@ These interfaces are specialized in order to: to/from specific switch ports - query the switch for ethtool operations: statistics, link state, Wake-on-LAN, register dumps... -- external/internal PHY management: link, auto-negotiation etc. +- manage external/internal PHY: link, auto-negotiation, etc. These slave network devices have custom net_device_ops and ethtool_ops function pointers which allow DSA to introduce a level of layering between the networking -stack/ethtool, and the switch driver implementation. +stack/ethtool and the switch driver implementation. Upon frame transmission from these slave network devices, DSA will look up which -switch tagging protocol is currently registered with these network devices, and +switch tagging protocol is currently registered with these network devices and invoke a specific transmit routine which takes care of adding the relevant switch tag in the Ethernet frames. These frames are then queued for transmission using the master network device -``ndo_start_xmit()`` function, since they contain the appropriate switch tag, the +``ndo_start_xmit()`` function. Since they contain the appropriate switch tag, the Ethernet switch will be able to process these incoming frames from the -management interface and delivers these frames to the physical switch port. +management interface and deliver them to the physical switch port. Graphical representation ------------------------ @@ -330,9 +330,9 @@ MDIO reads/writes towards specific PHY addresses. In most MDIO-connected switches, these functions would utilize direct or indirect PHY addressing mode to return standard MII registers from the switch builtin PHYs, allowing the PHY library and/or to return link status, link partner pages, auto-negotiation -results etc.. +results, etc. -For Ethernet switches which have both external and internal MDIO busses, the +For Ethernet switches which have both external and internal MDIO buses, the slave MII bus can be utilized to mux/demux MDIO reads and writes towards either internal or external MDIO devices this switch might be connected to: internal PHYs, external PHYs, or even external switches. @@ -349,7 +349,7 @@ DSA data structures are defined in ``include/net/dsa.h`` as well as table indication (when cascading switches) - ``dsa_platform_data``: platform device configuration data which can reference - a collection of dsa_chip_data structure if multiples switches are cascaded, + a collection of dsa_chip_data structures if multiple switches are cascaded, the master network device this switch tree is attached to needs to be referenced @@ -426,7 +426,7 @@ logic basically looks like this: "phy-handle" property, if found, this PHY device is created and registered using ``of_phy_connect()`` -- if Device Tree is used, and the PHY device is "fixed", that is, conforms to +- if Device Tree is used and the PHY device is "fixed", that is, conforms to the definition of a non-MDIO managed PHY as defined in ``Documentation/devicetree/bindings/net/fixed-link.txt``, the PHY is registered and connected transparently using the special fixed MDIO bus driver @@ -481,7 +481,7 @@ Device Tree DSA features a standardized binding which is documented in ``Documentation/devicetree/bindings/net/dsa/dsa.txt``. PHY/MDIO library helper functions such as ``of_get_phy_mode()``, ``of_phy_connect()`` are also used to query -per-port PHY specific details: interface connection, MDIO bus location etc.. +per-port PHY specific details: interface connection, MDIO bus location, etc. Driver development ================== @@ -509,7 +509,7 @@ Switch configuration - ``setup``: setup function for the switch, this function is responsible for setting up the ``dsa_switch_ops`` private structure with all it needs: register maps, - interrupts, mutexes, locks etc.. This function is also expected to properly + interrupts, mutexes, locks, etc. This function is also expected to properly configure the switch to separate all network interfaces from each other, that is, they should be isolated by the switch hardware itself, typically by creating a Port-based VLAN ID for each port and allowing only the CPU port and the @@ -526,13 +526,13 @@ PHY devices and link management - ``get_phy_flags``: Some switches are interfaced to various kinds of Ethernet PHYs, if the PHY library PHY driver needs to know about information it cannot obtain on its own (e.g.: coming from switch memory mapped registers), this function - should return a 32-bits bitmask of "flags", that is private between the switch + should return a 32-bit bitmask of "flags" that is private between the switch driver and the Ethernet PHY driver in ``drivers/net/phy/\*``. - ``phy_read``: Function invoked by the DSA slave MDIO bus when attempting to read the switch port MDIO registers. If unavailable, return 0xffff for each read. For builtin switch Ethernet PHYs, this function should allow reading the link - status, auto-negotiation results, link partner pages etc.. + status, auto-negotiation results, link partner pages, etc. - ``phy_write``: Function invoked by the DSA slave MDIO bus when attempting to write to the switch port MDIO registers. If unavailable return a negative error @@ -554,7 +554,7 @@ Ethtool operations ------------------ - ``get_strings``: ethtool function used to query the driver's strings, will - typically return statistics strings, private flags strings etc. + typically return statistics strings, private flags strings, etc. - ``get_ethtool_stats``: ethtool function used to query per-port statistics and return their values. DSA overlays slave network devices general statistics: @@ -564,7 +564,7 @@ Ethtool operations - ``get_sset_count``: ethtool function used to query the number of statistics items - ``get_wol``: ethtool function used to obtain Wake-on-LAN settings per-port, this - function may, for certain implementations also query the master network device + function may for certain implementations also query the master network device Wake-on-LAN settings if this interface needs to participate in Wake-on-LAN - ``set_wol``: ethtool function used to configure Wake-on-LAN settings per-port, @@ -607,14 +607,14 @@ Power management in a fully active state - ``port_enable``: function invoked by the DSA slave network device ndo_open - function when a port is administratively brought up, this function should be - fully enabling a given switch port. DSA takes care of marking the port with + function when a port is administratively brought up, this function should + fully enable a given switch port. DSA takes care of marking the port with ``BR_STATE_BLOCKING`` if the port is a bridge member, or ``BR_STATE_FORWARDING`` if it was not, and propagating these changes down to the hardware - ``port_disable``: function invoked by the DSA slave network device ndo_close - function when a port is administratively brought down, this function should be - fully disabling a given switch port. DSA takes care of marking the port with + function when a port is administratively brought down, this function should + fully disable a given switch port. DSA takes care of marking the port with ``BR_STATE_DISABLED`` and propagating changes to the hardware if this port is disabled while being a bridge member @@ -622,12 +622,12 @@ Bridge layer ------------ - ``port_bridge_join``: bridge layer function invoked when a given switch port is - added to a bridge, this function should be doing the necessary at the switch - level to permit the joining port from being added to the relevant logical + added to a bridge, this function should do what's necessary at the switch + level to permit the joining port to be added to the relevant logical domain for it to ingress/egress traffic with other members of the bridge. - ``port_bridge_leave``: bridge layer function invoked when a given switch port is - removed from a bridge, this function should be doing the necessary at the + removed from a bridge, this function should do what's necessary at the switch level to deny the leaving port from ingress/egress traffic from the remaining bridge members. When the port leaves the bridge, it should be aged out at the switch hardware for the switch to (re) learn MAC addresses behind @@ -663,7 +663,7 @@ Bridge layer point for drivers that need to configure the hardware for enabling this feature. -- ``port_bridge_tx_fwd_unoffload``: bridge layer function invoken when a driver +- ``port_bridge_tx_fwd_unoffload``: bridge layer function invoked when a driver leaves a bridge port which had the TX forwarding offload feature enabled. Bridge VLAN filtering |