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From: Jamal Hadi Salim <jhs@mojatatu•com>
To: Neil Horman <nhorman@tuxdriver•com>
Cc: Jiri Pirko <jiri@resnulli•us>,
	Florian Fainelli <f.fainelli@gmail•com>,
	netdev <netdev@vger•kernel.org>,
	David Miller <davem@davemloft•net>,
	andy@greyhouse•net, tgraf@suug•ch, dborkman@redhat•com,
	ogerlitz@mellanox•com, jesse@nicira•com, pshelar@nicira•com,
	azhou@nicira•com, Ben Hutchings <ben@decadent•org.uk>,
	Stephen Hemminger <stephen@networkplumber•org>,
	jeffrey.t.kirsher@intel•com, vyasevic <vyasevic@redhat•com>,
	Cong Wang <xiyou.wangcong@gmail•com>,
	John Fastabend <john.r.fastabend@intel•com>,
	Eric Dumazet <edumazet@google•com>,
	Scott Feldman <sfeldma@cumulusnetworks•com>,
	Lennert Buytenhek <buytenh@wantstofly•org>
Subject: Re: [patch net-next RFC 0/4] introduce infrastructure for support of switch chip datapath
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 16:46:44 -0400	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <5331EB34.4060500@mojatatu.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20140325173927.GE8102@hmsreliant.think-freely.org>

On 03/25/14 13:39, Neil Horman wrote:

> No, but it would be really nice if these smaller devices could take advantage of
> this infrastructure.

Indeed.

> Looking at it, I don't see why thats not possible.  The
> big trick (as we've discussed in the past), is using a net_device structure to
> take advantage of all the features that net_devices offer while not enabling the
> device specific features that some hardware doesn't allow.
>

Exactly. And i dont think thats hard to do. I do think for capabilities,
netdev->features is insufficient (example I cant export to user space
the size of my h/w fdb table etc). But those things can be easily
ironed out.

> For instance the broadcom chips that live in many wireless routers would be well
> served by the model jiri has here as far as Media level interface control is
> concerned (i.e. ifup/down/speed/duplex/etc), but its a bit lacking in that
> net_devices are assumed to support L3 protocol configuration (i.e. they can have
> ip addresses assigned to them), which you can't IIRC do on these chips.
>

This is part of the challenge i was talking about and why the lowest
common denominator is just ports and L2 bridging.

> Would it be worth considering a private interface model?  That is to say:
>
> 1) Ports on a switch chip are accessed using net_device structures, but
> registered to a private list contained within the switch device, rather than to
> the net namespaces device list.
>
> 2) Access to the switch ports via user space is done through the master switch
> interface with additional netlink attributes specifying the port on the switch
> to access (or not to access the master switch device directly)
>
>
> Such a model I think might fit well with Jiri's code here and provide greater
> flexibility for a wider range of devices.  It would of course require
> augmentation for user space, but the changes would be additive, so I think they
> would be reasonable.  This would also allow the switch device to have a hook in
> the control path to block or allow features that the hardware may or may not
> support while still being able to use the existing net_device infrastructure to
> support these operations as they are normally carried out.
>

I think Jiri's model is upside down (Yes, I was on that boat as well
earlier)
What needs to be exposed are ports. Something like #1 above which is not
a netdev but rather the conduit to the chip.
Note: We already an above working model with bridging today. If i attach
a port to a bridge I can infact get/set the fdb entries from/to the 
bridge as well as ones offloaded on the chip/hware.
I should be able to do the same with stats etc.
Seems to make sense we to extend it to other features.
The litmus test is: Can i have my iproute2 please? If you can do that
then you are allowing me to do bridges, routes, ports, vxlan, tunnels
qos etc. Whatever the chips  capabilities allow for otherwise I am
terminating at the CPU level.

cheers,
jamal

  parent reply	other threads:[~2014-03-25 20:46 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 125+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2014-03-19 15:33 [patch net-next RFC 0/4] introduce infrastructure for support of switch chip datapath Jiri Pirko
2014-03-19 15:33 ` [patch net-next RFC 1/4] openvswitch: split flow structures into ovs specific and generic ones Jiri Pirko
2014-03-20 13:04   ` Thomas Graf
2014-03-19 15:33 ` [patch net-next RFC 2/4] net: introduce switchdev API Jiri Pirko
2014-03-20 13:59   ` Thomas Graf
2014-03-20 14:18     ` Jiri Pirko
2014-03-20 14:43   ` Nikolay Aleksandrov
2014-03-20 15:42     ` Jiri Pirko
2014-03-19 15:33 ` [patch net-next RFC 3/4] openvswitch: Introduce support for switchdev based datapath Jiri Pirko
2014-03-19 15:33 ` [patch net-next RFC 4/4] net: introduce dummy switch Jiri Pirko
2014-03-20 11:49 ` [patch net-next RFC 0/4] introduce infrastructure for support of switch chip datapath Jamal Hadi Salim
2014-03-20 12:40   ` Jiri Pirko
2014-03-20 17:21     ` Florian Fainelli
2014-03-21 12:04       ` Jamal Hadi Salim
2014-03-22  9:48         ` Jiri Pirko
2014-03-24 23:07           ` Jamal Hadi Salim
2014-03-25 17:39             ` Neil Horman
2014-03-25 18:00               ` Thomas Graf
2014-03-25 19:35                 ` Neil Horman
2014-03-25 20:11                   ` Florian Fainelli
2014-03-25 20:31                     ` Neil Horman
2014-03-25 21:22                       ` Jamal Hadi Salim
2014-03-25 21:26                     ` Thomas Graf
2014-03-25 21:42                       ` Florian Fainelli
2014-03-25 21:54                         ` Thomas Graf
2014-03-26 10:55                           ` Neil Horman
2014-03-26  5:37                     ` Roopa Prabhu
2014-03-26 10:54                       ` Jamal Hadi Salim
2014-03-26 15:31                         ` John W. Linville
2014-03-26 16:54                         ` Roopa Prabhu
2014-03-26 16:59                           ` Jiri Pirko
2014-03-26 17:29                             ` Florian Fainelli
2014-03-26 17:35                               ` Jiri Pirko
2014-03-26 17:58                                 ` Florian Fainelli
2014-03-26 18:14                                   ` Jiri Pirko
2014-03-26 18:29                                     ` Hannes Frederic Sowa
2014-03-26 18:30                                     ` Florian Fainelli
2014-03-26 21:51                                     ` Jamal Hadi Salim
2014-03-26 22:22                                       ` Florian Fainelli
2014-03-26 22:53                                         ` Jamal Hadi Salim
2014-03-26 23:16                                           ` Florian Fainelli
2014-03-27  6:56                                         ` Jiri Pirko
2014-03-27 10:39                                           ` Jamal Hadi Salim
2014-03-27 10:50                                             ` Jiri Pirko
2014-03-27 11:12                                               ` Jamal Hadi Salim
2014-03-27 11:16                                                 ` Jiri Pirko
2014-03-27 14:10                                           ` Sergey Ryazanov
2014-03-27 16:41                                             ` Florian Fainelli
2014-03-27 16:57                                               ` Jiri Pirko
2014-03-27 16:59                                               ` Thomas Graf
2014-03-27 20:32                                               ` Sergey Ryazanov
2014-03-27 21:20                                                 ` Florian Fainelli
2014-03-27 21:55                                                   ` Jamal Hadi Salim
2014-03-28  6:28                                                   ` Jiri Pirko
2014-03-30 12:08                                                     ` Alon Harel
2014-03-27 21:41                                               ` Jamal Hadi Salim
2014-03-27 16:55                                             ` Jiri Pirko
2014-03-27 19:58                                               ` Sergey Ryazanov
2014-03-27 20:01                                                 ` Florian Fainelli
2014-03-27 20:04                                                   ` Sergey Ryazanov
2014-03-27 21:47                                                   ` Jamal Hadi Salim
2014-03-27 21:54                                                     ` Florian Fainelli
2014-03-27 21:59                                                       ` Jamal Hadi Salim
2014-03-27 22:19                                                         ` Florian Fainelli
2014-03-27 23:42                                                         ` Thomas Graf
2014-03-27 23:46                                                           ` Florian Fainelli
2014-03-26 17:57                               ` Roopa Prabhu
2014-03-26 18:09                                 ` Florian Fainelli
2014-03-27 13:46                                   ` John W. Linville
2014-03-26 17:47                             ` Roopa Prabhu
2014-03-26 18:03                               ` Jiri Pirko
2014-03-26 21:27                                 ` Roopa Prabhu
2014-03-26 21:31                                   ` Jiri Pirko
2014-03-27 15:35                                     ` Roopa Prabhu
2014-03-27 16:10                                       ` Jiri Pirko
2014-04-01 19:13                                 ` Scott Feldman
2014-04-02  6:41                                   ` Jiri Pirko
2014-04-02 15:37                                     ` Scott Feldman
2014-04-02 14:32                                   ` Andy Gospodarek
2014-04-02 15:25                                     ` John W. Linville
2014-04-02 16:15                                       ` Scott Feldman
2014-04-02 16:47                                         ` Florian Fainelli
2014-04-02 21:52                                           ` Thomas Graf
2014-04-02 19:29                                         ` John W. Linville
2014-04-02 19:54                                           ` Scott Feldman
2014-04-02 20:06                                             ` John W. Linville
2014-04-02 20:04                                           ` Stephen Hemminger
2014-04-02 20:23                                             ` Jiri Pirko
2014-04-02 20:38                                               ` John W. Linville
2014-04-02 21:36                                                 ` Thomas Graf
2014-03-25 20:56                   ` Jamal Hadi Salim
2014-03-25 21:19                     ` Thomas Graf
2014-03-25 21:24                       ` Jamal Hadi Salim
2014-03-26  7:21                       ` Jiri Pirko
2014-03-26 11:00                         ` Jamal Hadi Salim
2014-03-26 11:06                           ` Jamal Hadi Salim
2014-03-26 11:31                             ` Jamal Hadi Salim
2014-03-26 13:20                             ` Jiri Pirko
2014-03-26 13:23                               ` Jamal Hadi Salim
2014-03-26 13:17                           ` Jiri Pirko
2014-03-26 11:10                     ` Neil Horman
2014-03-26 11:29                       ` Thomas Graf
2014-03-26 12:58                         ` Jamal Hadi Salim
2014-03-26 15:22                         ` John W. Linville
2014-03-26 21:36                           ` Jamal Hadi Salim
2014-03-26 18:21                         ` Neil Horman
2014-03-26 19:11                           ` Florian Fainelli
2014-03-26 22:44                             ` Jamal Hadi Salim
2014-03-26 23:15                               ` Thomas Graf
2014-03-26 23:21                                 ` Florian Fainelli
2014-03-27 15:26                               ` Neil Horman
2014-03-27 21:33                                 ` Jamal Hadi Salim
2014-03-26 19:24                           ` Hannes Frederic Sowa
2014-03-27 13:43                           ` John W. Linville
2014-03-26 12:19                       ` Jamal Hadi Salim
2014-03-26 15:27                       ` John W. Linville
2014-03-25 18:33               ` Florian Fainelli
2014-03-25 19:40                 ` Neil Horman
2014-03-25 20:00                   ` Florian Fainelli
2014-03-25 21:39                     ` tgraf
2014-03-25 22:08                       ` Jamal Hadi Salim
2014-03-26  5:48                         ` Roopa Prabhu
2014-03-25 20:46               ` Jamal Hadi Salim [this message]
2014-03-26  7:24               ` Jiri Pirko
2014-03-22  9:40       ` Jiri Pirko

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