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Commit dd456d45 authored by alex.bluesman.smirnov@gmail.com's avatar alex.bluesman.smirnov@gmail.com Committed by David S. Miller
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Documentation/networking/ieee802154: update MAC chapter 



Update the documentation according to latest changes.

Signed-off-by: default avatarAlexander Smirnov <alex.bluesman.smirnov@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: default avatarDavid S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>
parent e1e49b64

Documentation/networking/ieee802154.txt

+59 −16
Original line number Diff line number Diff line
@@ -4,15 +4,22 @@ 


Introduction

============

The IEEE 802.15.4 working group focuses on standartization of bottom

two layers: Medium Accsess Control (MAC) and Physical (PHY). And there

are mainly two options available for upper layers:

 - ZigBee - proprietary protocol from ZigBee Alliance

 - 6LowPAN - IPv6 networking over low rate personal area networks



The Linux-ZigBee project goal is to provide complete implementation

of IEEE 802.15.4 / ZigBee / 6LoWPAN protocols. IEEE 802.15.4 is a stack

of IEEE 802.15.4 and 6LoWPAN protocols. IEEE 802.15.4 is a stack

of protocols for organizing Low-Rate Wireless Personal Area Networks.



Currently only IEEE 802.15.4 layer is implemented. We have chosen

to use plain Berkeley socket API, the generic Linux networking stack

to transfer IEEE 802.15.4 messages and a special protocol over genetlink

for configuration/management

The stack is composed of three main parts:

 - IEEE 802.15.4 layer;  We have chosen to use plain Berkeley socket API,

   the generic Linux networking stack to transfer IEEE 802.15.4 messages

   and a special protocol over genetlink for configuration/management

 - MAC - provides access to shared channel and reliable data delivery

 - PHY - represents device drivers





Socket API
@@ -29,15 +36,6 @@ or git tree at git://linux-zigbee.git.sourceforge.net/gitroot/linux-zigbee). 
One can use SOCK_RAW for passing raw data towards device xmit function. YMMV.





MLME - MAC Level Management

============================



Most of IEEE 802.15.4 MLME interfaces are directly mapped on netlink commands.

See the include/net/nl802154.h header. Our userspace tools package

(see above) provides CLI configuration utility for radio interfaces and simple

coordinator for IEEE 802.15.4 networks as an example users of MLME protocol.





Kernel side

=============
@@ -51,6 +49,15 @@ Like with WiFi, there are several types of devices implementing IEEE 802.15.4. 
Those types of devices require different approach to be hooked into Linux kernel.





MLME - MAC Level Management

============================



Most of IEEE 802.15.4 MLME interfaces are directly mapped on netlink commands.

See the include/net/nl802154.h header. Our userspace tools package

(see above) provides CLI configuration utility for radio interfaces and simple

coordinator for IEEE 802.15.4 networks as an example users of MLME protocol.





HardMAC

=======
@@ -73,11 +80,47 @@ We provide an example of simple HardMAC driver at drivers/ieee802154/fakehard.c 
SoftMAC

=======



We are going to provide intermediate layer implementing IEEE 802.15.4 MAC

in software. This is currently WIP.

The MAC is the middle layer in the IEEE 802.15.4 Linux stack. This moment it

provides interface for drivers registration and management of slave interfaces.



NOTE: Currently the only monitor device type is supported - it's IEEE 802.15.4

stack interface for network sniffers (e.g. WireShark).



This layer is going to be extended soon.



See header include/net/mac802154.h and several drivers in drivers/ieee802154/.





Device drivers API

==================



The include/net/mac802154.h defines following functions:

 - struct ieee802154_dev *ieee802154_alloc_device

   (size_t priv_size, struct ieee802154_ops *ops):

   allocation of IEEE 802.15.4 compatible device



 - void ieee802154_free_device(struct ieee802154_dev *dev):

   freeing allocated device



 - int ieee802154_register_device(struct ieee802154_dev *dev):

   register PHY in the system



 - void ieee802154_unregister_device(struct ieee802154_dev *dev):

   freeing registered PHY



Moreover IEEE 802.15.4 device operations structure should be filled.



Fake drivers

============



In addition there are two drivers available which simulate real devices with

HardMAC (fakehard) and SoftMAC (fakelb - IEEE 802.15.4 loopback driver)

interfaces. This option provides possibility to test and debug stack without

usage of real hardware.



See sources in drivers/ieee802154 folder for more details.





6LoWPAN Linux implementation

============================