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Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/networking/x25-iface.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/networking/x25-iface.rst | 65 |
1 files changed, 9 insertions, 56 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/networking/x25-iface.rst b/Documentation/networking/x25-iface.rst index df401891dce6..f34e9ec64937 100644 --- a/Documentation/networking/x25-iface.rst +++ b/Documentation/networking/x25-iface.rst @@ -70,60 +70,13 @@ First Byte = 0x03 (X25_IFACE_PARAMS) 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. |