MAC(9E) Driver Entry Points MAC(9E)

NAME

mac, GLDv3 - MAC networking device driver overview

SYNOPSIS

#include <sys/mac_provider.h>
#include <sys/mac_ether.h>

INTERFACE LEVEL

illumos DDI specific

DESCRIPTION

The MAC framework provides a means for implementing high-performance
networking device drivers. It is the successor to the GLD interfaces and
is sometimes referred to as the GLDv3. The remainder of this manual
introduces the aspects of writing devices drivers that leverage the MAC
framework. While both the GLDv3 and MAC framework refer to the same thing,
in this manual page we use the term the MAC framework to refer to the
device driver interface.

MAC device drivers are character devices. They define the standard
_init(9E), _fini(9E), and _info(9E) entry points to initialize the module,
as well as dev_ops(9S) and cb_ops(9S) structures.

The main interface with MAC is through a series of callbacks defined in a
mac_callbacks(9S) structure. These callbacks control all the aspects of
the device. They range from sending data, getting and setting of
properties, controlling mac address filters, and also managing promiscuous
mode.

The MAC framework takes care of many aspects of the device driver's
management. A device that uses the MAC framework does not have to worry
about creating device nodes or implementing open(9E) or close(9E) routines.
In addition, all of the work to interact with dlpi(4P) is taken care of
automatically and transparently.

High-Level Design
At a high-level, a device driver is chiefly concerned with three general
operations:

1. Sending frames

2. Receiving frames

3. Managing device configuration and metadata

When sending frames, the MAC framework always calls functions registered in
the mac_callbacks(9S) structure to have the driver transmit frames on
hardware. When receiving frames, the driver will generally receive an
interrupt which will cause it to check for incoming data and deliver it to
the MAC framework.

Configuration of a device, such as whether auto-negotiation should be
enabled, the speeds that the device supports, the MTU (maximum transmission
unit), and the generation of pause frames are all driven by properties.
The functions to get, set, and obtain information about properties are
defined through callback functions specified in the mac_callbacks(9S)
structure. The full list of properties and a description of the relevant
callbacks can be found in the PROPERTIES section.

The MAC framework is designed to take advantage of various modern features
provided by hardware, such as checksumming, segmentation offload, and
hardware filtering. The MAC framework assumes none of these advanced
features are present and allows device drivers to negotiate them through a
capability system. Drivers can declare that they support various
capabilities by implementing the optional mc_getcapab(9E) entry point.
Each capability has its associated entry points and structures to fill out.
The capabilities are detailed in the CAPABILITIES section.

The following sections describe the flow of a basic device driver. For
advanced device drivers, the flow is generally the same. The primary
distinction is in how frames are sent and received.

Initializing MAC Support

For a device to be used by the MAC framework, it must register with the
framework and take specific actions during _init(9E), attach(9E),
detach(9E), and _fini(9E).

All device drivers have to define a dev_ops(9S) structure which is pointed
to by a modldrv(9S) structure and the corresponding NULL-terminated
modlinkage(9S) structure. The dev_ops(9S) structure should have a
cb_ops(9S) structure defined for it; however, it does not need to implement
any of the standard cb_ops(9S) entry points unless it also exposes a custom
set of device nodes not otherwise managed by the MAC framework. See the
Custom Device Nodes section for more details.

Normally, in a driver's _init(9E) entry point, it passes its modlinkage(9S)
structure directly to mod_install(9F). To properly register with MAC, the
driver must call mac_init_ops(9F) before it calls mod_install(9F). If for
some reason the mod_install(9F) function fails, then the driver must be
removed by a call to mac_fini_ops(9F).

Conversely, in the driver's _fini(9E) routine, it should call
mac_fini_ops(9F) after it successfully calls mod_remove(9F). For an
example of how to use the mac_init_ops(9F) and mac_fini_ops(9F) functions,
see the examples section in mac_init_ops(9F).

Custom Device Nodes

A device may want to provide its own minor nodes as simple character or
block devices backed by the usual cb_ops(9S) routines. The MAC framework
allows for this by leaving a portion of the minor number space available
for private driver use. mac_private_minor(9F) returns the first minor
number a driver may use for its own purposes, e.g., to pass to
ddi_create_minor_node(9F).

A driver making use of this ability must provide its own getinfo(9E)
implementation that is aware of any such minor nodes. It must also
delegate back to the MAC framework as appropriate via either calls to
mac_getinfo(9F) or mac_devt_to_instance(9F) for MAC reserved minor nodes.
It should also take care to not affect MAC reserved minors, e.g., removing
all minor nodes associated with a device:

ddi_remove_minor_node(dip, NULL);

Registering with MAC

Every instance of a device should register separately with MAC. To
register with MAC, a driver must allocate a mac_register(9S) structure,
fill it in, and then call mac_register(9F). The mac_register_t structure
contains information about the device and all of the required function
pointers that will be used as callbacks by the framework.

These steps should all be taken during a device's attach(9E) entry point.
It is recommended that the driver perform this sequence of steps after the
device has finished its initialization of the chipset and interrupts,
though interrupts should not be enabled at that point. After it calls
mac_register(9F) it will start receiving callbacks from the MAC framework.

To allocate the registration structure, the driver should call
mac_alloc(9F). Device drivers should generally always pass the symbol
MAC_VERSION as the argument to mac_alloc(9F). Upon successful completion,
the driver will receive a mac_register_t structure which it should fill in.
The structure and its members are documented in mac_register(9S).

The mac_callbacks(9S) structure is not allocated as a part of the
mac_register(9S) structure. In general, device drivers declare this
statically. See the MAC Callbacks section for more information on how to
fill it out.

Once the structure has been filled in, the driver should call
mac_register(9F) to register itself with MAC. The handle that it uses to
register with should be part of the driver's soft state. It will be used
in various other support functions and callbacks.

If the call is successful, then the device driver should enable interrupts
and finish any other initialization required. If the call to
mac_register(9F) failed, then it should unwind its initialization and
should return DDI_FAILURE from its attach(9E) routine.

The driver does not need to hold onto an allocated mac_register(9S)
structure after it has called the mac_register(9F) function. Whether the
mac_register(9F) function returns successfully or not, the driver may free
its mac_register(9S) structure by calling the mac_free(9F) function.

MAC Callbacks

The MAC framework interacts with a device driver through a series of
callbacks. These callbacks are described in their individual manual pages
and the collection of callbacks is indicated in the mac_callbacks(9S)
manual page. This section does not focus on the specific functions, but
rather on interactions between them and the rest of the device driver
framework.

A device driver should make no assumptions about when the various callbacks
will be called and whether or not they will be called simultaneously. For
example, a device driver may be asked to transmit data through a call to
its mc_tx(9E) entry point while it is being asked to get a device property
through a call to its mc_getprop(9E) entry point. As such, while some
calls may be serialized to the device, such as setting properties, the
device driver should always presume that all of its data needs to be
protected with locks. While the device is holding locks, it is safe for it
call the following MAC routines:
+o mac_hcksum_get(9F)
+o mac_hcksum_set(9F)
+o mac_lso_get(9F)
+o mac_maxsdu_update(9F)
+o mac_prop_info_set_default_link_flowctrl(9F)
+o mac_prop_info_set_default_str(9F)
+o mac_prop_info_set_default_uint8(9F)
+o mac_prop_info_set_default_uint32(9F)
+o mac_prop_info_set_default_uint64(9F)
+o mac_prop_info_set_perm(9F)
+o mac_prop_info_set_range_uint32(9F)

Any other MAC related routines should not be called with locks held, such
as mac_link_update(9F) or mac_rx(9F). Other routines in the DDI may be
called while locks are held; however, device driver writers should be
careful about calling blocking routines while locks are held or in
interrupt context, even when it is legal to do so as this may cause all
other callers that need a given lock to back up behind such an operation.

Receiving Data

A device driver will often receive data through the means of an interrupt
or by being asked to poll for frames. When this occurs, zero or more
frames, each with optional metadata, may be ready for the device driver to
consume. Often each frame has a corresponding descriptor which has
information about whether or not there were errors or whether or not the
device successfully checksummed the packet. In addition to the per-packet
flow described below, there are certain requirements that drivers must
adhere to when programming the hardware to receive data. See the section
RECEIVE DESCRIPTOR LAYOUT for more information.

During a single interrupt or poll request, a device driver should process a
fixed number of frames. For each frame the device driver should:

1. Ensure that all of the DMA memory for the descriptor ring is
synchronized with the ddi_dma_sync(9F) function and check the
handle for errors if the device driver has enabled DMA error
reporting as part of the Fault Management Architecture (FMA).
If the driver does not rely on DMA, then it may skip this step.
It is recommended that this is performed once per interrupt or
poll for the entire region and not on a per-packet basis.

2. First check whether or not the frame has errors. If errors were
detected, then the frame should not be sent to the operating
system. It is recommended that devices keep kstats (see
kstat_create(9F) for more information) and bump the counter
whenever such an error is detected. If the device distinguishes
between the types of errors, then separate kstats for each class
of error are recommended. See the STATISTICS section for more
information on the various error cases that should be
considered.

3. Once the frame has been determined to be valid, the device
driver should transform the frame into a mblk(9S). See the
section MBLKS AND DMA for more information on how to transform
and prepare a message block.

4. If the device supports hardware checksumming (see the
CAPABILITIES section for more information on checksumming), then
the device driver should set the corresponding checksumming
information with a call to mac_hcksum_set(9F).

5. It should then append this new message block to the end of the
message block chain, linking it to the b_next pointer. It is
vitally important that all the frames be chained in the order
that they were received. If the device driver mistakenly
reorders frames, then it may cause performance impacts in the
TCP stack and potentially impact application correctness.

Once all the frames have been processed and assembled, the device driver
should deliver them to the rest of the operating system by calling
mac_rx(9F). The device driver should try to give as many mblk_t structures
to the system at once. It should not call mac_rx(9F) once for every
assembled mblk_t.

The device driver must not hold any locks across the call to mac_rx(9F).
When this function is called, received data will be pushed through the
networking stack and some replies may be generated and given to the driver
to send out.

It is not the device driver's responsibility to determine whether or not
the system can keep up with a driver's delivery rate of frames. The rest
of the networking stack will handle issues related to keeping up
appropriately and ensure that kernel memory is not exhausted by packets
that are not being processed.

If the device driver has negotiated the MAC_CAPAB_RINGS capability
(discussed in mac_capab_rings(9E)) then it should call mac_rx_ring(9F) and
not mac_rx(9F). A given interrupt may correspond to more than one ring
that needs to be checked. The set of rings is likely to span different
groups that were registered with MAC through the mr_gget(9E) interface. In
those cases, the driver should follow the above procedure independently for
each ring. That means it will call mac_rx_ring(9F) once for each ring
using the handle that it received from when MAC called the driver's
mr_rget(9E) entry point. When it is looking at the rings, the driver will
need to make sure that the ring has not had interrupts disabled (due to a
pending change to polling mode). This is discussed in greater detail in
the mac_capab_rings(9E) and mri_poll(9E) manual pages.

Finally, the device driver should make sure that any other housekeeping
activities required for the ring are taken care of such that more data can
be received.

Transmitting Data and Back Pressure

A device driver will be asked to transmit a message block chain by having
it's mc_tx(9E) entry point called. While the driver is processing the
message blocks, it may run out of resources. For example, a transmit
descriptor ring may become full. At that point, the device driver should
return the remaining unprocessed frames. The act of returning frames
indicates that the device has asserted flow control. Once this has been
done, no additional calls will be made to the driver's transmit entry point
and the back pressure will be propagated throughout the rest of the
networking stack.

At some point in the future when resources have become available again, for
example after an interrupt indicating that some portion of the transmit
ring has been sent, then the device driver must notify the system that it
can continue transmission. To do this, the driver should call
mac_tx_update(9F). After that point, the driver will receive calls to its
mc_tx(9E) entry point again. As mentioned in the section on callbacks, the
device driver should avoid holding any particular locks across the call to
mac_tx_update(9F).

Interrupt Coalescing

For devices operating at higher data rates, interrupt coalescing is an
important part of a well functioning device and may impact the performance
of the device. Not all devices support interrupt coalescing. If interrupt
coalescing is supported on the device, it is recommended that device driver
writers provide private properties for their device to control the
interrupt coalescing rate. This will make it much easier to perform
experiments and observe the impact of different interrupt rates on the rest
of the system.

Polling

Even with interrupt coalescing, when there is a certain incoming packet
rate it can make more sense to just actively poll the device, asking for
more packets rather than constantly taking an interrupt. When a device
driver supports the mac_capab_rings(9E) capability and therefore polling on
receive rings, the MAC framework will ask the driver to disable interrupts,
with its mi_disable(9E) entry point, and then subsequently call its polling
entry point, mri_poll(9E).

As long as a device driver implements the needed entry points, then there
is nothing else that it needs to do to take advantage of polling. A driver
should not attempt to spin up its own threads, task queues, or creatively
use timeouts, to try to simulate polling for received packets.

MAC Address Filter Management

The MAC framework will attempt to use as many MAC address filters as a
device has. To program a multicast address filter, the driver's
mc_multicst(9E) entry point will be called. If the device driver runs out
of filters, it should not take any special action and just return the
appropriate error as documented in the corresponding manual pages for the
entry points. The framework will ensure that the device is placed in
promiscuous mode if it needs to.

If the hardware supports more than one unicast filter then the device
driver should consider implementing the MAC_CAPAB_RINGS capability, which
exposes a means for multiple unicast MAC address filters to be used by the
broader system. It is still useful to implement this on hardware which
only has a single ring. See mac_capab_rings(9E) for more information.

Receive Side Scaling

Receive side scaling is where a hardware device supports multiple,
independent queues of frames that can be received. Each of these queues is
generally associated with an independent interrupt and the hardware usually
performs some form of hash across the queues. Hardware which supports this
should look at implementing the MAC_CAPAB_RINGS capability and see
mac_capab_rings(9E) for more information.

Link Updates

It is the responsibility of the device driver to keep track of the data
link's state. Many devices provide a means of receiving an interrupt when
the state of the link changes. When such a change happens, the driver
should update its internal data structures and then call
mac_link_update(9F) to inform the MAC layer that this has occurred. If the
device driver does not properly inform the system about link changes, then
various features like link aggregations and other mechanisms that leverage
the link state will not work correctly.

Link Speed and Auto-negotiation
Many networking devices support more than one possible speed that they can
operate at. The selection of a speed is often performed through
auto-negotiation, though some devices allow the user to control what speeds
are advertised and used.

Logically, there are two different sets of things that the device driver
needs to keep track of while it's operating:

1. The supported speeds in hardware.

2. The enabled speeds from the user.

By default, when a link first comes up, the device driver should generally
configure the link to support the common set of speeds and perform auto-
negotiation.

A user can control what speeds a device advertises via auto-negotiation and
whether or not it performs auto-negotiation at all by using a series of
properties that have _EN_ in the name. These are read/write properties and
there is one for each speed supported in the operating system. For a full
list of them, see the PROPERTIES section.

In addition to these properties, there is a corresponding set of properties
with _ADV_ in the name. These are similar to the _EN_ family of
properties, but they are read-only and indicate what the device has
actually negotiated. While they are generally similar to the _EN_ family
of properties, they may change depending on power settings. See the
Ethernet Link Properties section in dladm(8) for more information.

It's worth discussing how these different values get used throughout the
different entry points. The first entry point to consider is the
mc_propinfo(9E) entry point. For a given speed, the driver should consult
whether or not the hardware supports this speed. If it does, it should
fill in the default value that the hardware takes and whether or not the
property is writable. The properties should also be updated to indicate
whether or not it is writable. This holds for both the _EN_ and _ADV_
family of properties.

The next entry point is mc_getprop(9E). Here, the device should first
consult whether the given speed is supported. If it is not, then the
driver should return ENOTSUP. If it does, then it should return the
current value of the property.

The last property endpoint is the mc_setprop(9E) entry point. Here, the
same logic applies. Before the driver considers whether or not the
property is writable, it should first check whether or not it's a supported
property. If it's not, then it should return ENOTSUP. Otherwise, it
should proceed to check whether the property is writable, and if it is and
a valid value, then it should update the property and restart the link's
negotiation.

Finally, there is the mc_getstat(9E) entry point. Several of the
statistics that are queried relate to auto-negotiation and hardware
capabilities. When a statistic relates to the hardware supporting a given
speed, the _EN_ properties should be ignored. The only thing that should
be consulted is what the hardware itself supports. Otherwise, the
statistics should look at what is currently being advertised by the device.

Unregistering from MAC

During a driver's detach(9E) routine, it should unregister the device
instance from MAC by calling mac_unregister(9F) on the handle that it
originally called it on. If the call to mac_unregister(9F) failed, then
the device is likely still in use and the driver should fail the call to
detach(9E).

Interacting with Devices

Administrators always interact with devices through the dladm(8) command
line interface. The state of devices such as whether the link is
considered up or down, various link properties such as the MTU, auto-
negotiation state, and flow control state, are all exposed. It is also the
preferred way that these properties are set and configured.

While device tunables may be presented in a driver.conf(5) file, it is
recommended instead to expose such things through dladm(8) private
properties, whether explicitly documented or not.

CAPABILITIES

Capabilities in the MAC Framework are optional features that a device
supports which indicate various hardware features that the device supports.
The two current capabilities that the system supports are related to being
able to hardware perform large send offloads (LSO), often also known as TCP
segmentation and the ability for hardware to calculate and verify the
checksums present in IPv4, IPV6, and protocol headers such as TCP and UDP.

The MAC framework will query a device for support of a capability through
the mc_getcapab(9E) function. Each capability has its own constant and may
have corresponding data that goes along with it and a specific structure
that the device is required to fill in. Note, the set of capabilities
changes over time and there are also private capabilities in the system.
Several of the capabilities are used in the implementation of the MAC
framework. Others, like MAC_CAPAB_RINGS, represent feature that have not
been stabilized and thus both API and binary compatibility for them is not
guaranteed. It is important that the device driver handles unknown
capabilities correctly. For more information, see mc_getcapab(9E).

The following capabilities are stable and defined in the system:

MAC_CAPAB_HCKSUM
The MAC_CAPAB_HCKSUM capability indicates to the system that the device
driver supports some amount of checksumming. The specific data for this
capability is a pointer to a uint32_t. To indicate no support for any kind
of checksumming, the driver should either set this value to zero or simply
return that it doesn't support the capability.

Note, the values that the driver declares in this capability indicate what
it can do when it transmits data. If the driver can only verify checksums
when receiving data, then it should not indicate that it supports this
capability. The following set of flags may be combined through a bitwise
inclusive OR:

HCKSUM_INET_PARTIAL
This indicates that the hardware can calculate a partial checksum
for both IPv4 and IPv6 UDP and TCP packets; however, it requires
the pseudo-header checksum be calculated for it. The pseudo-header
checksum will be available for the mblk_t when calling
mac_hcksum_get(9F). Note this does not imply that the hardware is
capable of calculating the partial checksum for other L4 protocols
or the IPv4 header checksum. That should be indicated with the
HCKSUM_IPHDRCKSUM flag.

HCKSUM_INET_FULL_V4
This indicates that the hardware will fully calculate the L4
checksum for outgoing IPv4 UDP or TCP packets only, and does not
require a pseudo-header checksum. Note this does not imply that
the hardware is capable of calculating the checksum for other L4
protocols or the IPv4 header checksum. That should be indicated
with the HCKSUM_IPHDRCKSUM.

HCKSUM_INET_FULL_V6
This indicates that the hardware will fully calculate the L4
checksum for outgoing IPv6 UDP or TCP packets only, and does not
require a pseudo-header checksum. Note this does not imply that
the hardware is capable of calculating the checksum for any other
L4 protocols.

HCKSUM_IPHDRCKSUM
This indicates that the hardware supports calculating the checksum
for the IPv4 header itself.

When in a driver's transmit function, the driver will be processing a
single frame. It should call mac_hcksum_get(9F) to see what checksum flags
are set on it. Note that the flags that are set on it are different from
the ones described above and are documented in its manual page. These
flags indicate how the driver is expected to program the hardware and what
checksumming is required. Not all frames will require hardware
checksumming or will ask the hardware to checksum it.

If a driver supports offloading the receive checksum and verification, it
should check to see what the hardware indicated was verified. The driver
should then call mac_hcksum_set(9F). The flags used are different from the
ones above and are discussed in detail in the mac_hcksum_set(9F) manual
page. If there is no checksum information available or the driver does not
support checksumming, then it should simply not call mac_hcksum_set(9F).

Note that the checksum flags should be set on the first mblk_t that makes
up a given message. In other words, if multiple mblk_t structures are
linked together by the b_cont member to describe a single frame, then it
should only be called on the first mblk_t of that set. However, each
distinct message should have the checksum bits set on it, if applicable.
In other words, each mblk_t that is linked together by the b_next pointer
may have checksum flags set.

It is recommended that device drivers provide a private property or
driver.conf(5) property to control whether or not checksumming is enabled
for both rx and tx; however, the default disposition is recommended to be
enabled for both. This way if hardware bugs are found in the checksumming
implementation, they can be disabled without requiring software updates.
The transmit property should be checked when determining how to reply to
mc_getcapab(9E) and the receive property should be checked in the context
of the receive function.

MAC_CAPAB_LSO
The MAC_CAPAB_LSO capability indicates that the driver supports various
forms of large send offload (LSO). The private data is a pointer to a
mac_capab_lso_t structure. The system currently supports offloading TCP
packets over both IPv4 and IPv6. This structure has the following members
which are used to indicate various types of LSO support.

t_uscalar_t lso_flags;
lso_basic_tcp_ivr4_t lso_basic_tcp_ipv4;
lso_basic_tcp_ipv6_t lso_basic_tcp_ipv6;

The lso_flags member is used to indicate which members are valid and should
be considered. Each flag represents a different form of LSO. The member
should be set to the bitwise inclusive OR of the following values:

LSO_TX_BASIC_TCP_IPV4
This indicates hardware support for performing TCP
segmentation offloading over IPv4. When this flag is
set, the lso_basic_tcp_ipv4 member must be filled in.

LSO_TX_BASIC_TCP_IPV6
This indicates hardware support for performing TCP
segmentation offloading over IPv6. The IPv6 packet
will have no extension headers present. When this flag
is set, the lso_basic_tcp_ipv6 member must be filled
in.

The lso_basic_tcp_ipv4 member is a structure with the following members:

t_uscalar_t lso_max

The lso_max member should be set to the maximum size of the TCP data
payload that can be offloaded to the hardware.

The lso_basic_tcp_ipv6 member is a structure with the following members:

t_uscalar_t lso_max

The lso_max member should be set to the maximum size of the TCP data
payload that can be offloaded to the hardware.

Like with checksumming, it is recommended that driver writers provide a
means for disabling the support of LSO even if it is enabled by default.
This deals with the case where issues that pop up for LSO may be worked
around without requiring additional driver work.

EVOLVING CAPABILITIES

The following capabilities are still evolving in the operating system.
They are documented such that device driver writers may experiment with
them. However, if such drivers are not present inside the core operating
system repository, they may be subject to API and ABI breakage.

MAC_CAPAB_RINGS
The MAC_CAPAB_RINGS capability is very important for implementing a high-
performing device driver. Networking hardware structures the queues of
packets to be sent and received into a ring. Each entry in this ring has a
descriptor, which describes the address and options for a packet which is
going to be transmitted or received. While simple networking devices only
have a single ring, most high-speed networking devices have support for
many rings.

Rings are used for two important purposes. The first is receive side
scaling (RSS), which is the ability to have the hardware hash the contents
of a packet based on some of the protocol headers, and send it to one of
several rings. These different rings may each have their own interrupt
associated with them, allowing the card to receive traffic in parallel.
Similar logic can be performed when sending traffic, to leverage multiple
hardware resources, thus increasing capacity.

The second use of rings is to group them together and apply filtering
rules. For example, if a packet matches a specific VLAN or MAC address,
then it can be sent to a specific ring or a specific group of rings. This
is especially useful when there are multiple different virtual NICs or
zones in play as the operating system will be able to use the hardware
classification features to already know where a given packet needs to be
delivered internally rather than having to determine that for each packet.

From the MAC framework's perspective, a driver can have one or more groups.
A group consists of the following:

+o One or more hardware rings.

+o One or more MAC address or VLAN filters.

The details around how a device driver changes when rings are employed, the
data structures that a driver must implement, and more are available in
mac_capab_rings(9E).

MAC_CAPAB_TRANSCEIVER
Many networking devices leverage external transceivers that adhere to
standards such as SFP, QSFP, QSFP-DD, etc., which often contain
standardized information in a EEPROM on the device. The
MAC_CAPAB_TRANSCEIVER capability provides a means of discovering the number
of transceivers, their types, and reading the data from a transceiver.
This allows administrators and users to determine if devices are present,
if the hardware can use them, and in many cases, detailed information about
the device ranging from its manufacturer and serial numbers to specific
information about its health. Implementing this capability will lead to
the operating system being able to discover and display transceivers as
part of its fault management topology.

See mac_capab_transceiver(9E) for more details on the capability structure
and the various function entry points that come along with it.

MAC_CAPAB_LED
The MAC_CAPAB_LED capability provides a means to access and control the
LEDs on a network interface card. This is then made available to the
broader operating system and consumed by facilities such as the Fault
Management Architecture. See mac_capab_led(9E) for more details on the
structure and requirements of the capability.

PROPERTIES

Properties in the MAC framework represent aspects of a link. These include
things like the link's current state and MTU. Many of the properties in
the system are focused around auto-negotiation and controlling what link
speeds are advertised. Information about properties is covered by three
different device entry points. The mc_propinfo(9E) entry point obtains
metadata about the property. The mc_getprop(9E) entry point obtains the
property. The mc_setprop(9E) entry point updates the property to a new
value.

Many of the properties listed below are read-only. Each property indicates
whether it's read-only or it's read/write. However, driver writers may not
implement the ability to set all writable properties. Many of these depend
on the card itself. In particular, all properties that relate to auto-
negotiation and are read/write may not be updated if the hardware in
question does not support toggling what link speeds are auto-negotiated.
While copper Ethernet often does not have this restriction, it often exists
with various fiber standards and phys.

The following properties are the subset of MAC framework properties that
driver writers should be aware of and handle. While other properties exist
in the system, driver writers should always return an error when a property
not listed below is encountered. See mc_getprop(9E) and mc_setprop(9E) for
more information on how to handle them.

MAC_PROP_DUPLEX
Type: link_duplex_t | Permissions: Read-Only

The MAC_PROP_DUPLEX property is used to indicate whether or not the
link is duplex. A duplex link may have traffic flowing in both
directions at the same time. The link_duplex_t is an enumeration
which may be set to any of the following values:

LINK_DUPLEX_UNKNOWN
The current state of the link is unknown. This may be
because the link has not negotiated to a specific speed or
it is down.

LINK_DUPLEX_HALF
The link is running at half duplex. Communication may
travel in only one direction on the link at a given time.

LINK_DUPLEX_FULL
The link is running at full duplex. Communication may
travel in both directions on the link simultaneously.

MAC_PROP_SPEED
Type: uint64_t | Permissions: Read-Only

The MAC_PROP_SPEED property stores the current link speed in bits
per second. A link that is running at 100 MBit/s would store the
value 100000000ULL. A link that is running at 40 Gbit/s would
store the value 40000000000ULL.

MAC_PROP_STATUS
Type: link_state_t | Permissions: Read-Only

The MAC_PROP_STATUS property is used to indicate the current state
of the link. It indicates whether the link is up or down. The
link_state_t is an enumeration which may be set to any of the
following values:

LINK_STATE_UNKNOWN
The current state of the link is unknown. This may be
because the driver's mc_start(9E) endpoint has not been
called so it has not attempted to start the link.

LINK_STATE_DOWN
The link is down. This may be because of a negotiation
problem, a cable problem, or some other device specific
issue.

LINK_STATE_UP
The link is up. If auto-negotiation is in use, it should
have completed. Traffic should be able to flow over the
link, barring other issues.

MAC_PROP_MEDIA
Type: uint32_t (Varies) | Permissions: Read-Only

The MAC_PROP_MEDIA property indicates the current type of media on
the link. The type of media is class-specific and determined based
on the m_type_ident field in the mac_register_t structure used when
calling mac_register(9F). The media is always read-only. This
property is not used to control how auto-negotiation should be
performed, instead the existing speed-based properties are used
instead. This property should be updated after auto-negotiation
has completed. If device hardware and firmware do not provide a
way to accurately determine this, then it is much better to return
that the media is unknown rather than to lie or guess. A common
case where this comes up is when a network card uses an SFP-based
device. If the underlying negotiated type of the link isn't made
available and therefore the driver can't distinguish between say
40GBASE-SR4 and 40GBASE-LR4, then drivers should return that the
media is unknown.

Similarly many types here represent an electrical interface that is
often used between a MAC and a PHY, but also for chip-to-chip
connectivity or on a backplane. When connecting to a PHY these
shouldn't generally be used as the user is concerned with what is
actually on the link they plug in, not the internals of the device.

Currently media values are defined for Ethernet-based devices and
use the enumeration mac_ether_media_t. These are defined in
<sys/mac_ether.h> and generally follow the IEEE standardized
physical medium dependent (PMD) layer in 802.3.

ETHER_MEDIA_UNKNOWN
This indicates that the type of the link media is unknown
to the driver. This may be because the link is in a state
where this information is unknown or the hardware,
firmware, and device driver cannot figure it out. If there
is no media present and the link is down, use
ETHER_MEDIA_NONE instead.

ETHER_MEDIA_NONE
Represents the case that there is no specific media in use.
This should generally be used when the link is down.

ETHER_MEDIA_10BASE_T
Traditional 10 Mbit/s Ethernet based utilizing CAT-3
cabling. Defined in 802.3i.

ETHER_MEDIA_10BASE_T1
A more recent variant of 10 Mbit/s Ethernet that uses a
single twisted pair. Defined in 802.3cg.

ETHER_MEDIA_100BASE_TX
The most common form of 100 Mbit/s Ethernet that utilizes
two twisted pairs over a CAT-5 cable. Defined in 802.3u.

ETHER_MEDIA_100BASE_FX
100 Mbit/s Ethernet operating over multi-mode fiber.
Defined in 802.3u.

ETHER_MEDIA_100BASE_X
This is a general term that covers operating in one of the
100BASE-?X variants. This is here because some PHYs do not
distinguish between operating in 100BASE-TX and 100BASE-FX.
If the driver can determine if it is operating with a BASE-
T or fiber based PHY, prefer the more specific types
instead.

ETHER_MEDIA_100BASE_T4
This is an uncommon half-duplex variant of 100 Mbit/s
Ethernet that operates over CAT-3 cable using four twisted
pairs. Defined in 802.3u.

ETHER_MEDIA_100BASE_T2
This is another uncommon variant of 100 Mbit/s Ethernet
that only requires two twisted pairs, but unlike 100BASE-TX
requires CAT-3 cables. Defined in 802.3y.

ETHER_MEDIA_100BASE_T1
A more recent form of 100 Mbit/s Ethernet that requires
only a single twisted pair. Defined in 802.3bw.

ETHER_MEDIA_100_SGMII
This form of 100 Mbit/s Ethernet is generally used for
chip-to-chip connectivity and utilizes the SGMII (Serial
gigabit media-independent interface) specification.

ETHER_MEDIA_1000BASE_X
This is a general catch-all for all 1 Gbit/s fiber-based
operation. This is here for compatibility with the generic
information returned by traditional 802.3-compatible PHYs.
When more specific information is available, that should be
used instead.

ETHER_MEDIA_1000BASE_T
Traditional 1 Gbit/s Ethernet that utilizes a CAT-5 cable
with four twisted pairs. Defined in 802.3ab.

ETHER_MEDIA_1000BASE_T1
A more recent form of 1 Gbit/s Ethernet that only requires
a single twisted pair.

ETHER_MEDIA_1000BASE_KX
This form of 1 Gbit/s Ethernet is designed for operating
over a backplane. Defined in 802.3ap.

ETHER_MEDIA_1000BASE_CX
An older form of 1 Gbit/s Ethernet that operates over
balanced copper cables. Defined in 802.3z.

ETHER_MEDIA_1000BASE_SX
1 Gbit/s Ethernet operating over a pair of multi-mode
fibers, one for each direction.

ETHER_MEDIA_1000BASE_LX
1 Gbit/s Ethernet operating over a pair of single-mode
fibers, one for each direction.

ETHER_MEDIA_1000BASE_BX
1 Gbit/s Ethernet operating over a single piece of single-
mode fiber. This media operates bi-directionally as
opposed to how 1000BASE-LX and 1000BASE-SX operate.

ETHER_MEDIA_1000_SGMII
A form of 1 Gbit/s Ethernet defined by Cisco that is used
for chip-to-chip connectivity.

ETHER_MEDIA_2500BASE_T
2.5 Gbit/s Ethernet based on four copper twisted-pairs.
Defined in 802.3bz.

ETHER_MEDIA_2500BASE_KX
2.5 Gbit/s Ethernet that is designed for operating over a
backplane interconnect. Defined in 802.3cb.

ETHER_MEDIA_2500BASE_X
This is a variant of 2.5 Gbit/s Ethernet that took the
1000BASE-X IEEE standard and ran it with a 2.5x faster
clock. It is a defacto standard.

ETHER_MEDIA_5000BASE_T
5.0 Gbit/s Ethernet based on four copper twisted-pairs.
Defined in 802.3bz.

ETHER_MEDIA_5000BASE_KR
5.0 Gbit/s Ethernet that is designed for operating over a
backplane interconnect. Defined in 802.3cb.

ETHER_MEDIA_10GBASE_T
10 Gbit/s Ethernet operating over four copper twisted pairs
utilizing CAT-6a cables. Defined in 802.3an.

ETHER_MEDIA_10GBASE_SR
10 Gbit/s Ethernet operating over a pair of multi-mode
fibers, one for each direction. Defined in 802.3ae.

ETHER_MEDIA_10GBASE_LR
10 Gbit/s Ethernet operating over a pair of single-mode
fibers, one for each direction. The maximum fiber length
is 10km. Defined in 802.3ae.

ETHER_MEDIA_10GBASE_ER
10 Gbit/s Ethernet operating over a pair of single-mode
fibers, one for each direction. The maximum fiber length
is 30km. Defined in 802.3ae.

ETHER_MEDIA_10GBASE_LRM
10 Gbit/s Ethernet operating over a pair of multi-mode
fibers, one for each direction. This has a longer reach of
up to 220m and is a longer distance than 10GBASE-SR.
Defined in 802.3aq.

ETHER_MEDIA_10GBASE_KR
10 Gbit/s Ethernet operating over a single lane backplane.
Defined n 802.3ap.

ETHER_MEDIA_10GBASE_CX4
10 Gbit/s Ethernet operating over a group of four shielded
copper cables. Defined in 802.3ak.

ETHER_MEDIA_10GBASE_KX4
10 Gbit/s Ethernet operating over a four lane backplane.
Defined n 802.3ap.

ETHER_MEDIA_10GBASE_CR
10 Gbit/s Ethernet that is built using a passive copper
SFP-compatible cable. This is sometimes called 10GSFP+Cu
passive. Defined in SFF-8431.

ETHER_MEDIA_10GBASE_AOC
10 Gbit/s Ethernet that is built using a short-range active
optical cable that is SFP+-compatible. Defined in
SFF-8431.

ETHER_MEDIA_10GBASE_ACC
10 Gbit/s Ethernet based upon a single lane of copper cable
with an active component that allows it go longer distances
than 10GBASE-CR. Defined in SFF-8431.

ETHER_MEDIA_10G_XAUI
10 Gbit/s signalling that is defined for use between a MAC
and PHY. This is the roman numeral X and attachment unit
interface. Sometimes used for chip-to-chip interconnects.
Defined in 802.3ae.

ETHER_MEDIA_10G_SFI
10 Gbit/s signalling that is defined for use between a MAC
and an SFP-based transceiver. Defined in SFF-8431.

ETHER_MEDIA_10G_XFI
10 Gbit/s signalling that is defined for use between a MAC
and an XFP-based transceiver. Defined in INF-8077i (XFP
MSA).

ETHER_MEDIA_25GBASE_T
25 Gbit/s Ethernet based upon four twisted pair cables
using CAT-8 cable. Defined in 802.3bq.

ETHER_MEDIA_25GBASE_SR
25 Gbit/s Ethernet operating over a pair of multi-mode
fibers, one for each direction. Defined in 802.3by.

ETHER_MEDIA_25GBASE_LR
25 Gbit/s Ethernet operating over a pair of single-mode
fibers, one for each direction. The maximum fiber length
is 10km. Defined in 802.3cc.

ETHER_MEDIA_25GBASE_ER
25 Gbit/s Ethernet operating over a pair of single-mode
fibers, one for each direction. The maximum fiber length
is 30km. Defined in 802.3cc.

ETHER_MEDIA_25GBASE_KR
25 Gbit/s Ethernet operating over a backplane with a single
lane. Defined in 802.3by.

ETHER_MEDIA_25GBASE_CR
25 Gbit/s Ethernet operating over a single lane of copper
cable. Generally used with an SFP28 style connector.
Defined in 802.3by.

ETHER_MEDIA_25GBASE_AOC
25 Gbit/s Ethernet based that is built using a short-range
active optical cable that is SFP28-compatible. Defined
loosely by SFF-8402 and often utilizes 25GBASE-SR.

ETHER_MEDIA_25GBASE_ACC
25 Gbit/s Ethernet based upon a single lane of copper cable
with an active component that allows it go longer distances
than 25GBASE-CR. Defined loosely by SFF-8402.

ETHER_MEDIA_25G_AUI
25 Gbit/s signalling that is defined for use between a MAC
and PHY and for chip-to-chip connectivity. Defined by
802.3by.

ETHER_MEDIA_40GBASE_T
40 Gbit/s Ethernet based upon four twisted-pairs of CAT-8
cables. Defined in 802.3bq.

ETHER_MEDIA_40GBASE_CR4
40 Gbit/s Ethernet utilizing four lanes of twinaxial copper
cabling each operating at 10 Gbit/s. This is generally
used with a QSFP+ connector defined in SFF-8635. Defined
in 802.3ba.

ETHER_MEDIA_40GBASE_KR4
40 Gbit/s Ethernet utilizing four lanes over a copper
backplane each operating at 10 Gbit/s. Defined in 802.3ba.

ETHER_MEDIA_40GBASE_SR4
40 Gbit/s Ethernet based upon using four pairs of multi-
mode fiber, each operating at 10 Gbit/s, with one fiber in
the pair being used for transmit and the other for receive.
Generally utilizes a QSFP+ connector. Defined in 802.3ba.

ETHER_MEDIA_40GBASE_LR4
40 Gbit/s Ethernet based upon using one pair of single-mode
fibers, one for each direction. Utilizes wavelength
multiplexing as the electrical interface is four 10 Gbit/s
signals. The maximum fiber length is 10km. Defined in
802.3ba.

ETHER_MEDIA_40GBASE_ER4
40 Gbit/s Ethernet based upon using one pair of single-mode
fibers, one for each direction. Utilizes wavelength
multiplexing as the electrical interface is four 10 Gbit/s
signals and generally based upon a QSFP+ connector. The
maximum fiber length is 40km. Defined in 802.3bm.

ETHER_MEDIA_40GBASE_LM4
40 Gbit/s Ethernet based upon using one pair of multi-mode
fibers, one for each direction. Utilizes wavelength
multiplexing as the electrical interface is four 10 Gbit/s
signals and generally based upon a QSFP+ connector.
Defined by a specific MSA.

ETHER_MEDIA_40GBASE_AOC4
40 Gbit/s Ethernet based upon a QSFP+ based cable with
built-in optical transceivers. The electrical interface is
four lanes running at 10 Gbit/s.

ETHER_MEDIA_40GBASE_ACC4
40 Gbit/s Ethernet based upon four copper lanes each
running at 10 Gbit/s with some additional component
compared to 40GBASE-CR4.

ETHER_MEDIA_40G_XLAUI
40 Gbit/s signalling operating across four lanes that is
defined for use between a MAC and a PHY or for chip-to-chip
connectivity. Defined by 802.3ba.

ETHER_MEDIA_40G_XLPPI
40 Gbit/s signalling operating across four lanes that is
designed to connect between a chip and a module, generally
a QSFP+ based device. Defined in 802.3ba.

ETHER_MEDIA_50GBASE_KR2
50 Gbit/s Ethernet which operates over a two lane copper
backplane. Each lane operates at 25 Gbit/s. Defined by
the 25G and 50G Ethernet consortium. This did not become
an IEEE standard.

ETHER_MEDIA_50GBASE_CR2
50 Gbit/s Ethernet which operates over two lane copper
twinaxial cable, generally with a QSFP+ connector. Each
lane operates at 25 Gbit/s. Defined by the 25G and 50G
Ethernet consortium.

ETHER_MEDIA_50GBASE_SR2
50 Gbit/s Ethernet based upon using four pairs of multi-
mode fiber, each operating at 25 Gbit/s, with one fiber in
the pair being used for transmit and the other for receive.
Generally utilizes a QSFP+ connector. Defined by the 25G
and 50G Ethernet consortium.

ETHER_MEDIA_50GBASE_LR2
50 Gbit/s Ethernet based upon using one pair of single-mode
fibers, one for each direction. Utilizes wavelength
multiplexing as the electrical interface is two 25 Gbit/s
signals. Defined by the 25G and 50G Ethernet consortium.

ETHER_MEDIA_50GBASE_AOC2
50 Gbit/s Ethernet generally based upon a QSFP+ based cable
with built-in optical transceivers. The electrical
interface is two lanes running at 25 Gbit/s.

ETHER_MEDIA_50GBASE_ACC2
50 Gbit/s Ethernet based upon two copper twinaxial lanes
each running at 25 Gbit/s with some additional component
compared to 50GBASE-CR2.

ETHER_MEDIA_50GBASE_KR
50 Gbit/s Ethernet operating over a single lane backplane.
Defined by 802.3cd.

ETHER_MEDIA_50GBASE_CR
50 Gbit/s Ethernet operating over a single lane twinaxial
copper cable generally utilizing an SFP56 interface.
Defined by 802.3cd.

ETHER_MEDIA_50GBASE_SR
50 Gbit/s Ethernet operating over a pair of multi-mode
fibers, one for each direction. Defined by 802.3cd.

ETHER_MEDIA_50GBASE_LR
50 Gbit/s Ethernet operating over a pair of single-mode
fibers, one for each direction. The maximum fiber length
is 10km. Defined in 802.3cd.

ETHER_MEDIA_50GBASE_ER
50 Gbit/s Ethernet operating over a pair of single-mode
fibers, one for each direction. The maximum fiber length
is 40km. Defined in 802.3cd.

ETHER_MEDIA_50GBASE_FR
50 Gbit/s Ethernet operating over a pair of single-mode
fibers, one for each direction. The maximum fiber length
is 2km. Defined in 802.3cd.

ETHER_MEDIA_50GBASE_AOC
50 Gbit/s Ethernet that is built using a short-range active
optical cable that is generally SFP56 compatible. The
electrical interface operates at 25 Gbit/s PAM4 signaling.

ETHER_MEDIA_50GBASE_ACC
50 Gbit/s Ethernet that is built using a single lane
twinaxial cable that is generally SFP56 compatible but uses
an active component such as a retimer or redriver when
compared to 50GBASE-CR.

ETHER_MEDIA_100GBASE_CR10
100 Gbit/s Ethernet operating over ten lanes of shielded
twinaxial copper cable, each operating at 10 Gbit/s.
Defined in 802.3ba.

ETHER_MEDIA_100GBASE_SR10
100 Gbit/s Ethernet based upon using ten pairs of multi-
mode fiber, each operating at 10 Gbit/s, with one fiber in
the pair being used for transmit and the other for receive.

ETHER_MEDIA_100GBASE_SR4
100 Gbit/s Ethernet based upon using four pairs of multi-
mode fiber, each operating at 25 Gbit/s, with one fiber in
the pair being used for transmit and the other for receive.
Defined by 802.3bm.

ETHER_MEDIA_100GBASE_LR4
100 Gbit/s Ethernet based upon using one pair of single-
mode fibers, one for each direction. Utilizes wavelength
multiplexing as the electrical interface is four 25 Gbit/s
signals and generally based upon a QSFP28 connector. The
maximum fiber length is 10km. Defined by 802.3ba.

ETHER_MEDIA_100GBASE_ER4
100 Gbit/s Ethernet based upon using one pair of single-
mode fibers, one for each direction. Utilizes wavelength
multiplexing as the electrical interface is four 25 Gbit/s
signals and generally based upon a QSFP28 connector. The
maximum fiber length is 40km. Defined by 802.3ba.

ETHER_MEDIA_100GBASE_KR4
100 Gbit/s Ethernet based upon using a four lane copper
backplane. Each lane operates at 25 Gbit/s. Defined in
802.3bj.

ETHER_MEDIA_100GBASE_CAUI4
100 Gbit/s signalling used for chip-to-chip and chip-to-
module connectivity. Defined in 802.3bm.

ETHER_MEDIA_100GBASE_CR4
100 Gbit/s Ethernet based upon using a four lane copper
twinaxial cable. Each lane operates at 25 Gbit/s and
generally utilizes a QSFP28 connector. Defined in 802.3bj.

ETHER_MEDIA_100GBASE_AOC4
100 Gbit/s Ethernet that utilizes an active optical cable
with short-range optical transceivers. Electrically
operates as four lanes of 25 Gbit/s and most commonly uses
a QSFP28 connector.

ETHER_MEDIA_100GBASE_ACC4
100 Gbit/s Ethernet that utilizes a four lane copper
twinaxial cable that unlike 100GBASE-CR4 has an active
component such as a retimer or redriver.

ETHER_MEDIA_100GBASE_KR2
100 Gbit/s Ethernet based upon using a two lane copper
backplane. Each lane operates at 50 Gbit/s. Defined in
802.3cd.

ETHER_MEDIA_100GBASE_CR2
100 Gbit/s Ethernet that utilizes a two lane copper
twinaxial cable. Each lane operates at 50 Gbit/s. Defined
by 802.3cd.

ETHER_MEDIA_100GBASE_SR2
100 Gbit/s Ethernet based upon using two pairs of multi-
mode fiber, each operating at 50 Gbit/s, with one fiber in
the pair being used for transmit and the other for receive.
Defined by 802.3cd.

ETHER_MEDIA_100GBASE_KR
100 Gbit/s Ethernet operating over a single lane copper
backplane. Defined by 802.3ck.

ETHER_MEDIA_100GBASE_CR
100 Gbit/s Ethernet operating over a single lane copper
twinaxial cable. Generally uses an SFP112 connector.
Defined by 802.3ck.

ETHER_MEDIA_100GBASE_SR
100 Gbit/s Ethernet operating over a pair of multi-mode
fibers, one for transmitting and one for receiving. The
maximum fiber length is 60-100m depending on the fiber type
(OM3, OM4). Defined by 802.3db.

ETHER_MEDIA_100GBASE_DR
100 Gbit/s Ethernet operating over a pair of single-mode
fibers, one for transmitting and one for receiving.
Designed to be used with a parallel DR4/DR8 interface. The
maximum fiber length is 500m. Defined by 802.3cd.

ETHER_MEDIA_100GBASE_LR
100 Gbit/s Ethernet operating over a pair of single-mode
fibers, one for transmitting and one for receiving. The
maximum fiber length is 10km. Defined by 802.3cu.

ETHER_MEDIA_100GBASE_FR
100 Gbit/s Ethernet operating over a pair of single-mode
fibers, one for transmitting and one for receiving. The
maximum fiber length is 2km. Defined by 802.3cu.

ETHER_MEDIA_200GBASE_CR4
200 Gbit/s Ethernet utilizing a four lane passive copper
twinaxial cable. Each lane operates at 50 Gbit/s and the
connector is generally based on QSFP56. Defined by
802.3cd.

ETHER_MEDIA_200GBASE_KR4
200 Gbit/s Ethernet utilizing four lanes over a copper
backplane each operating at 50 Gbit/s. Defined by 802.3cd.

ETHER_MEDIA_200GBASE_SR4
200 Gbit/s Ethernet based upon using four pairs of multi-
mode fiber, each operating at 50 Gbit/s, with one fiber in
the pair being used for transmit and the other for receive.
Defined by 802.3cd.

ETHER_MEDIA_200GBASE_DR4
200 Gbit/s Ethernet based upon using four pairs of single-
mode fiber, each operating at 50 Gbit/s, with one fiber in
the pair being used for transmit and the other for receive.
Defined by 802.3bs.

ETHER_MEDIA_200GBASE_FR4
200 Gbit/s Ethernet based upon using one pair of single-
mode fibers, one for transmitting and one for receiving.
Utilizes wavelength multiplexing as the electrical
interface is four 50 Gbit/s signals and generally based
upon a QSFP56 connector. The maximum fiber length is 2km.
Defined by 802.3bs.

ETHER_MEDIA_200GBASE_LR4
200 Gbit/s Ethernet based upon using one pair of single-
mode fibers, one for transmitting and one for receiving.
Utilizes wavelength multiplexing as the electrical
interface is four 50 Gbit/s signals and generally based
upon a QSFP56 connector. The maximum fiber length is 10km.
Defined by 802.3bs.

ETHER_MEDIA_200GBASE_ER4
200 Gbit/s Ethernet based upon using one pair of single-
mode fibers, one for transmitting and one for receiving.
Utilizes wavelength multiplexing as the electrical
interface is four 50 Gbit/s signals and generally based
upon a QSFP56 connector. The maximum fiber length is 40km.
Defined by 802.3bs.

ETHER_MEDIA_200GAUI_4
200 Gbit/s signalling utilizing four lanes each operating
at 50 Gbit/s. Used for chip-to-chip and chip-to-module
connections. Defined by 802.3bs.

ETHER_MEDIA_200GBASE_KR2
200 Gbit/s Ethernet utilizing two lanes over a copper
backplane each operating at 100 Gbit/s. Defined by
802.3ck.

ETHER_MEDIA_200GBASE_CR2
200 Gbit/s Ethernet utilizing a two lane passive copper
twinaxial cable. Each lane operates at 100 Gbit/s.
Defined by 802.3ck.

ETHER_MEDIA_200GBASE_SR2
200 Gbit/s Ethernet based upon using two pairs of multi-
mode fiber, each operating at 100 Gbit/s, with one fiber in
the pair being used for transmit and the other for receive.
Defined by 802.3db.

ETHER_MEDIA_200GAUI_2
200 Gbit/s signalling utilizing two lanes each operating at
100 Gbit/s. Used for chip-to-chip and chip-to-module
connections. Defined by 802.3ck.

ETHER_MEDIA_400GBASE_KR8
400 Gbit/s Ethernet utilizing eight lanes over a copper
backplane each operating at 50 Gbit/s. Defined by the
25/50 Gigabit Ethernet Consortium.

ETHER_MEDIA_400GBASE_FR8
200 Gbit/s Ethernet based upon using one pair of single-
mode fibers, one for transmitting and one for receiving.
Utilizes wavelength multiplexing as the electrical
interface is eight 50 Gbit/s signals and generally based
upon a QSFP-DD connector. The maximum fiber length is 2km.
Defined by 802.3bs.

ETHER_MEDIA_400GBASE_LR8
200 Gbit/s Ethernet based upon using one pair of single-
mode fibers, one for transmitting and one for receiving.
Utilizes wavelength multiplexing as the electrical
interface is eight 50 Gbit/s signals and generally based
upon a QSFP-DD connector. The maximum fiber length is
10km. Defined by 802.3bs.

ETHER_MEDIA_400GBASE_ER8
200 Gbit/s Ethernet based upon using one pair of single-
mode fibers, one for transmitting and one for receiving.
Utilizes wavelength multiplexing as the electrical
interface is eight 50 Gbit/s signals and generally based
upon a QSFP-DD connector. The maximum fiber length is
40km. Defined by 802.3cn.

ETHER_MEDIA_400GAUI_8
400 Gbit/s signalling utilizing eight lanes each operating
at 50 Gbit/s. Used for chip-to-chip and chip-to-module
connections. Defined by 802.3bs.

ETHER_MEDIA_400GBASE_KR4
400 Gbit/s Ethernet utilizing four lanes over a copper
backplane each operating at 100 Gbit/s. Defined by
802.3ck.

ETHER_MEDIA_400GBASE_CR4
200 Gbit/s Ethernet utilizing a two lane passive copper
twinaxial cable. Each lane operates at 100 Gbit/s and
generally uses a QSFP112 connector. Defined by 802.3ck.

ETHER_MEDIA_400GBASE_SR4
400 Gbit/s Ethernet based upon using four pairs of multi-
mode fiber, each operating at 100 Gbit/s, with one fiber in
the pair being used for transmit and the other for receive.
Defined by 802.3db.

ETHER_MEDIA_400GBASE_DR4
400 Gbit/s Ethernet based upon using four pairs of single-
mode fiber, each operating at 100 Gbit/s, with one fiber in
the pair being used for transmit and the other for receive.
The maximum fiber length is 500m. Defined by 802.3bs.

ETHER_MEDIA_400GBASE_FR4
400 Gbit/s Ethernet based upon using one pair of single-
mode fibers, one for transmitting and one for receiving.
Utilizes wavelength multiplexing as the electrical
interface is four 100 Gbit/s signals and generally based
upon a QSFP112 connector. The maximum fiber length is 2km.
Defined by 802.3cu.

ETHER_MEDIA_400GAUI_4
400 Gbit/s signalling utilizing four lanes each operating
at 100 Gbit/s. Used for chip-to-chip and chip-to-module
connections. Defined by 802.3ck.

MAC_PROP_AUTONEG
Type: uint8_t | Permissions: Read/Write

The MAC_PROP_AUTONEG property indicates whether or not the device
is currently configured to perform auto-negotiation. A value of 0
indicates that auto-negotiation is disabled. A non-zero value
indicates that auto-negotiation is enabled. Devices should
generally default to enabling auto-negotiation.

When getting this property, the device driver should return the
current state. When setting this property, if the device supports
operating in the requested mode, then the device driver should
reset the link to negotiate to the new speed after updating any
internal registers.

MAC_PROP_MTU
Type: uint32_t | Permissions: Read/Write

The MAC_PROP_MTU property determines the maximum transmission unit
(MTU). This indicates the maximum size packet that the device can
transmit, ignoring its own headers. For an Ethernet device, this
would exclude the size of the Ethernet header and any VLAN headers
that would be placed. It is up to the driver to ensure that any
MTU values that it accepts when adding in its margin and header
sizes does not exceed its maximum frame size.

By default, drivers for Ethernet should initialize this value and
the MTU to 1500. When getting this property, the driver should
return its current recorded MTU. When setting this property, the
driver should first validate that it is within the device's valid
range and then it must call mac_maxsdu_update(9F). Note that the
call may fail. If the call completes successfully, the driver
should update the hardware with the new value of the MTU and
perform any other work needed to handle it.

If the device does not support changing the MTU after the device's
mc_start(9E) entry point has been called, then driver writers
should return EBUSY.

MAC_PROP_FLOWCTRL
Type: link_flowctrl_t | Permissions: Read/Write

The MAC_PROP_FLOWCTRL property manages the configuration of pause
frames as part of Ethernet flow control. Note, this only describes
what this device will advertise. What is actually enabled may be
different and is subject to the rules of auto-negotiation. The
link_flowctrl_t is an enumeration that may be set to one of the
following values:

LINK_FLOWCTRL_NONE
Flow control is disabled. No pause frames should be
generated or honored.

LINK_FLOWCTRL_RX
The device can receive pause frames; however, it should not
generate them.

LINK_FLOWCTRL_TX
The device can generate pause frames; however, it does not
support receiving them.

LINK_FLOWCTRL_BI
The device supports both sending and receiving pause
frames.

When getting this property, the device driver should return the way
that it has configured the device, not what the device has actually
negotiated. When setting the property, it should update the
hardware and allow the link to potentially perform auto-negotiation
again.

MAC_PROP_EN_FEC_CAP
Type: link_fec_t | Permissions: Read/Write

The MAC_PROP_EN_FEC_CAP property indicates which Forward Error
Correction (FEC) code is advertised by the device.

The link_fec_t is an enumeration that may be a combination of the
following bit values:

LINK_FEC_NONE
No FEC over the link.

LINK_FEC_AUTO
The FEC coding to use is auto-negotiated, LINK_FEC_AUTO
cannot be set along with any of the other values. This is
the default setting the device driver should use.

LINK_FEC_RS
The link may use Reed-Solomon FEC coding.

LINK_FEC_BASE_R
The link may use Base-R coding, also common referred to as
FireCode.

When setting the property, it should update the hardware with the
requested, or combination of requested codings. If a particular
combination of codings is not supported by the hardware, the device
driver should return EINVAL. When retrieving this property, the
device driver should return the current value of the property.

MAC_PROP_ADV_FEC_CAP
Type: link_fec_t | Permissions: Read-Only

The MAC_PROP_ADV_FEC_CAP has the same values as
MAC_PROP_EN_FEC_CAP. The property indicates which Forward Error
Correction (FEC) code has been negotiated over the link.

The remaining properties are all about various auto-negotiation link
speeds. They fall into two different buckets: properties with _ADV_ in the
name and properties with _EN_ in the name. For any given supported speed,
there is one of each. The _EN_ set of properties are read/write properties
that control what should be advertised by the device. When these are
retrieved, they should return the current value of the property. When they
are set, they should change how the hardware advertises the specific speed
and trigger any kind of link reset and auto-negotiation, if enabled, to
occur.

The _ADV_ set of properties are read-only properties. They are meant to
reflect what has actually been negotiated. These may be different from the
_EN_ family of properties, especially when different power management
settings are at play.

See the Link Speed and Auto-negotiation section for more information.

The properties are ordered in increasing link speed:

MAC_PROP_ADV_10HDX_CAP
Type: uint8_t | Permissions: Read-Only

The MAC_PROP_ADV_10HDX_CAP property describes whether or not 10
Mbit/s half-duplex support is advertised.

MAC_PROP_EN_10HDX_CAP
Type: uint8_t | Permissions: Read/Write

The MAC_PROP_EN_10HDX_CAP property describes whether or not 10
Mbit/s half-duplex support is enabled.

MAC_PROP_ADV_10FDX_CAP
Type: uint8_t | Permissions: Read-Only

The MAC_PROP_ADV_10FDX_CAP property describes whether or not 10
Mbit/s full-duplex support is advertised.

MAC_PROP_EN_10FDX_CAP
Type: uint8_t | Permissions: Read/Write

The MAC_PROP_EN_10FDX_CAP property describes whether or not 10
Mbit/s full-duplex support is enabled.

MAC_PROP_ADV_100HDX_CAP
Type: uint8_t | Permissions: Read-Only

The MAC_PROP_ADV_100HDX_CAP property describes whether or not 100
Mbit/s half-duplex support is advertised.

MAC_PROP_EN_100HDX_CAP
Type: uint8_t | Permissions: Read/Write

The MAC_PROP_EN_100HDX_CAP property describes whether or not 100
Mbit/s half-duplex support is enabled.

MAC_PROP_ADV_100FDX_CAP
Type: uint8_t | Permissions: Read-Only

The MAC_PROP_ADV_100FDX_CAP property describes whether or not 100
Mbit/s full-duplex support is advertised.

MAC_PROP_EN_100FDX_CAP
Type: uint8_t | Permissions: Read/Write

The MAC_PROP_EN_100FDX_CAP property describes whether or not 100
Mbit/s full-duplex support is enabled.

MAC_PROP_ADV_100T4_CAP
Type: uint8_t | Permissions: Read-Only

The MAC_PROP_ADV_100T4_CAP property describes whether or not 100
Mbit/s Ethernet using the 100BASE-T4 standard is advertised.

MAC_PROP_EN_100T4_CAP
Type: uint8_t | Permissions: Read/Write

The MAC_PROP_EN_100T4_CAP property describes whether or not 100
Mbit/s Ethernet using the 100BASE-T4 standard is enabled.

MAC_PROP_ADV_1000HDX_CAP
Type: uint8_t | Permissions: Read-Only

The MAC_PROP_ADV_1000HDX_CAP property describes whether or not 1
Gbit/s half-duplex support is advertised.

MAC_PROP_EN_1000HDX_CAP
Type: uint8_t | Permissions: Read/Write

The MAC_PROP_EN_1000HDX_CAP property describes whether or not 1
Gbit/s half-duplex support is enabled.

MAC_PROP_ADV_1000FDX_CAP
Type: uint8_t | Permissions: Read-Only

The MAC_PROP_ADV_1000FDX_CAP property describes whether or not 1
Gbit/s full-duplex support is advertised.

MAC_PROP_EN_1000FDX_CAP
Type: uint8_t | Permissions: Read/Write

The MAC_PROP_EN_1000FDX_CAP property describes whether or not 1
Gbit/s full-duplex support is enabled.

MAC_PROP_ADV_2500FDX_CAP
Type: uint8_t | Permissions: Read-Only

The MAC_PROP_ADV_2500FDX_CAP property describes whether or not 2.5
Gbit/s full-duplex support is advertised.

MAC_PROP_EN_2500FDX_CAP
Type: uint8_t | Permissions: Read/Write

The MAC_PROP_EN_2500FDX_CAP property describes whether or not 2.5
Gbit/s full-duplex support is enabled.

MAC_PROP_ADV_5000FDX_CAP
Type: uint8_t | Permissions: Read-Only

The MAC_PROP_ADV_5000FDX_CAP property describes whether or not 5.0
Gbit/s full-duplex support is advertised.

MAC_PROP_EN_5000FDX_CAP
Type: uint8_t | Permissions: Read/Write

The MAC_PROP_EN_5000FDX_CAP property describes whether or not 5.0
Gbit/s full-duplex support is enabled.

MAC_PROP_ADV_10GFDX_CAP
Type: uint8_t | Permissions: Read-Only

The MAC_PROP_ADV_10GFDX_CAP property describes whether or not 10
Gbit/s full-duplex support is advertised.

MAC_PROP_EN_10GFDX_CAP
Type: uint8_t | Permissions: Read/Write

The MAC_PROP_EN_10GFDX_CAP property describes whether or not 10
Gbit/s full-duplex support is enabled.

MAC_PROP_ADV_40GFDX_CAP
Type: uint8_t | Permissions: Read-Only

The MAC_PROP_ADV_40GFDX_CAP property describes whether or not 40
Gbit/s full-duplex support is advertised.

MAC_PROP_EN_40GFDX_CAP
Type: uint8_t | Permissions: Read/Write

The MAC_PROP_EN_40GFDX_CAP property describes whether or not 40
Gbit/s full-duplex support is enabled.

MAC_PROP_ADV_100GFDX_CAP
Type: uint8_t | Permissions: Read-Only

The MAC_PROP_ADV_100GFDX_CAP property describes whether or not 100
Gbit/s full-duplex support is advertised.

MAC_PROP_EN_100GFDX_CAP
Type: uint8_t | Permissions: Read/Write

The MAC_PROP_EN_100GFDX_CAP property describes whether or not 100
Gbit/s full-duplex support is enabled.

MAC_PROP_ADV_200GFDX_CAP
Type: uint8_t | Permissions: Read-Only

The MAC_PROP_ADV_200GFDX_CAP property describes whether or not 200
Gbit/s full-duplex support is advertised.

MAC_PROP_EN_200GFDX_CAP
Type: uint8_t | Permissions: Read/Write

The MAC_PROP_EN_200GFDX_CAP property describes whether or not 200
Gbit/s full-duplex support is enabled.

MAC_PROP_ADV_400GFDX_CAP
Type: uint8_t | Permissions: Read-Only

The MAC_PROP_ADV_400GFDX_CAP property describes whether or not 400
Gbit/s full-duplex support is advertised.

MAC_PROP_EN_400GFDX_CAP
Type: uint8_t | Permissions: Read/Write

The MAC_PROP_EN_400GFDX_CAP property describes whether or not 400
Gbit/s full-duplex support is enabled.

Private Properties

In addition to the defined properties above, drivers are allowed to define
private properties. These private properties are device-specific
properties. All private properties share the same constant,
MAC_PROP_PRIVATE. Properties are distinguished by a name, which is a
character string. The list of such private properties is defined when
registering with mac in the m_priv_props member of the mac_register(9S)
structure.

The driver may define whatever semantics it wants for these private
properties. They will not be listed when running dladm(8), unless
explicitly requested by name. All such properties should start with a
leading underscore character and then consist of alphanumeric ASCII
characters and additional underscores or hyphens.

Properties of type MAC_PROP_PRIVATE may show up in all three property
related entry points: mc_propinfo(9E), mc_getprop(9E), and mc_setprop(9E).
Device drivers should tell the different properties apart by using the
strcmp(9F) function to compare it to the set of properties that it knows
about. When encountering properties that it doesn't know, it should treat
them like all other unknown properties.

STATISTICS

The MAC framework defines a couple different sets of statistics which are
based on various standards for devices to implement. Statistics are
retrieved through the mc_getstat(9E) entry point. There are both
statistics that are required for all devices and then there is a separate
set of Ethernet specific statistics. Not all devices will support every
statistic. In many cases, several device registers will need to be
combined to create the proper stat.

In general, if the device is not keeping track of these statistics, then it
is recommended that the driver store these values as a uint64_t to ensure
that overflow does not occur.

If a device does not support a specific statistic, then it is fine to
return that it is not supported. The same should be used for unrecognized
statistics. See mc_getstat(9E) for more information on the proper way to
handle these.

General Device Statistics

The following statistics are based on MIB-II statistics from both RFC 1213
and RFC 1573.

MAC_STAT_IFSPEED
The device's current speed in bits per second.

MAC_STAT_MULTIRCV
The total number of received multicast packets.

MAC_STAT_BRDCSTRCV
The total number of received broadcast packets.

MAC_STAT_MULTIXMT
The total number of transmitted multicast packets.

MAC_STAT_BRDCSTXMT
The total number of received broadcast packets.

MAC_STAT_NORCVBUF
The total number of packets discarded by the hardware due to a lack
of receive buffers.

MAC_STAT_IERRORS
The total number of errors detected on input.

MAC_STAT_UNKNOWNS
The total number of received packets that were discarded because
they were of an unknown protocol.

MAC_STAT_NOXMTBUF
The total number of outgoing packets dropped due to a lack of
transmit buffers.

MAC_STAT_OERRORS
The total number of outgoing packets that resulted in errors.

MAC_STAT_COLLISIONS
Total number of collisions encountered by the transmitter.

MAC_STAT_RBYTES
The total number of bytes received by the device, regardless of
packet type.

MAC_STAT_IPACKETS
The total number of packets received by the device, regardless of
packet type.

MAC_STAT_OBYTES
The total number of bytes transmitted by the device, regardless of
packet type.

MAC_STAT_OPACKETS
The total number of packets sent by the device, regardless of
packet type.

MAC_STAT_UNDERFLOWS
The total number of packets that were smaller than the minimum
sized packet for the device and were therefore dropped.

MAC_STAT_OVERFLOWS
The total number of packets that were larger than the maximum sized
packet for the device and were therefore dropped.

Ethernet Specific Statistics

The following statistics are specific to Ethernet devices. They refer to
values from RFC 1643 and include various MII/GMII specific stats. Many of
these are also defined in IEEE 802.3.

ETHER_STAT_ADV_CAP_1000FDX
Indicates that the device is advertising support for 1 Gbit/s full-
duplex operation.

ETHER_STAT_ADV_CAP_1000HDX
Indicates that the device is advertising support for 1 Gbit/s half-
duplex operation.

ETHER_STAT_ADV_CAP_100FDX
Indicates that the device is advertising support for 100 Mbit/s
full-duplex operation.

ETHER_STAT_ADV_CAP_100GFDX
Indicates that the device is advertising support for 100 Gbit/s
full-duplex operation.

ETHER_STAT_ADV_CAP_100HDX
Indicates that the device is advertising support for 100 Mbit/s
half-duplex operation.

ETHER_STAT_ADV_CAP_100T4
Indicates that the device is advertising support for 100 Mbit/s
100BASE-T4 operation.

ETHER_STAT_ADV_CAP_10FDX
Indicates that the device is advertising support for 10 Mbit/s
full-duplex operation.

ETHER_STAT_ADV_CAP_10GFDX
Indicates that the device is advertising support for 10 Gbit/s
full-duplex operation.

ETHER_STAT_ADV_CAP_10HDX
Indicates that the device is advertising support for 10 Mbit/s
half-duplex operation.

ETHER_STAT_ADV_CAP_2500FDX
Indicates that the device is advertising support for 2.5 Gbit/s
full-duplex operation.

ETHER_STAT_ADV_CAP_40GFDX
Indicates that the device is advertising support for 40 Gbit/s
full-duplex operation.

ETHER_STAT_ADV_CAP_5000FDX
Indicates that the device is advertising support for 5.0 Gbit/s
full-duplex operation.

ETHER_STAT_ADV_CAP_ASMPAUSE
Indicates that the device is advertising support for receiving
pause frames.

ETHER_STAT_ADV_CAP_AUTONEG
Indicates that the device is advertising support for auto-
negotiation.

ETHER_STAT_ADV_CAP_PAUSE
Indicates that the device is advertising support for generating
pause frames.

ETHER_STAT_ADV_REMFAULT
Indicates that the device is advertising support for detecting
faults in the remote link peer.

ETHER_STAT_ALIGN_ERRORS
Indicates the number of times an alignment error was generated by
the Ethernet device. This is a count of packets that were not an
integral number of octets and failed the FCS check.

ETHER_STAT_CAP_1000FDX
Indicates the device supports 1 Gbit/s full-duplex operation.

ETHER_STAT_CAP_1000HDX
Indicates the device supports 1 Gbit/s half-duplex operation.

ETHER_STAT_CAP_100FDX
Indicates the device supports 100 Mbit/s full-duplex operation.

ETHER_STAT_CAP_100GFDX
Indicates the device supports 100 Gbit/s full-duplex operation.

ETHER_STAT_CAP_100HDX
Indicates the device supports 100 Mbit/s half-duplex operation.

ETHER_STAT_CAP_100T4
Indicates the device supports 100 Mbit/s 100BASE-T4 operation.

ETHER_STAT_CAP_10FDX
Indicates the device supports 10 Mbit/s full-duplex operation.

ETHER_STAT_CAP_10GFDX
Indicates the device supports 10 Gbit/s full-duplex operation.

ETHER_STAT_CAP_10HDX
Indicates the device supports 10 Mbit/s half-duplex operation.

ETHER_STAT_CAP_2500FDX
Indicates the device supports 2.5 Gbit/s full-duplex operation.

ETHER_STAT_CAP_40GFDX
Indicates the device supports 40 Gbit/s full-duplex operation.

ETHER_STAT_CAP_5000FDX
Indicates the device supports 5.0 Gbit/s full-duplex operation.

ETHER_STAT_CAP_ASMPAUSE
Indicates that the device supports the ability to receive pause
frames.

ETHER_STAT_CAP_AUTONEG
Indicates that the device supports the ability to perform link
auto-negotiation.

ETHER_STAT_CAP_PAUSE
Indicates that the device supports the ability to transmit pause
frames.

ETHER_STAT_CAP_REMFAULT
Indicates that the device supports the ability of detecting a
remote fault in a link peer.

ETHER_STAT_CARRIER_ERRORS
Indicates the number of times that the Ethernet carrier sense
condition was lost or not asserted.

ETHER_STAT_DEFER_XMTS
Indicates the number of frames for which the device was unable to
transmit the frame due to being busy and had to try again.

ETHER_STAT_EX_COLLISIONS
Indicates the number of frames that failed to send due to an
excessive number of collisions.

ETHER_STAT_FCS_ERRORS
Indicates the number of times that a frame check sequence failed.

ETHER_STAT_FIRST_COLLISIONS
Indicates the number of times that a frame was eventually
transmitted successfully, but only after a single collision.

ETHER_STAT_JABBER_ERRORS
Indicates the number of frames that were received that were both
larger than the maximum packet size and failed the frame check
sequence.

ETHER_STAT_LINK_ASMPAUSE
Indicates whether the link is currently configured to accept pause
frames.

ETHER_STAT_LINK_AUTONEG
Indicates whether the current link state is a result of auto-
negotiation.

ETHER_STAT_LINK_DUPLEX
Indicates the current duplex state of the link. The values used
here should be the same as documented for MAC_PROP_DUPLEX.

ETHER_STAT_LINK_PAUSE
Indicates whether the link is currently configured to generate
pause frames.

ETHER_STAT_LP_CAP_1000FDX
Indicates the remote device supports 1 Gbit/s full-duplex
operation.

ETHER_STAT_LP_CAP_1000HDX
Indicates the remote device supports 1 Gbit/s half-duplex
operation.

ETHER_STAT_LP_CAP_100FDX
Indicates the remote device supports 100 Mbit/s full-duplex
operation.

ETHER_STAT_LP_CAP_100GFDX
Indicates the remote device supports 100 Gbit/s full-duplex
operation.

ETHER_STAT_LP_CAP_100HDX
Indicates the remote device supports 100 Mbit/s half-duplex
operation.

ETHER_STAT_LP_CAP_100T4
Indicates the remote device supports 100 Mbit/s 100BASE-T4
operation.

ETHER_STAT_LP_CAP_10FDX
Indicates the remote device supports 10 Mbit/s full-duplex
operation.

ETHER_STAT_LP_CAP_10GFDX
Indicates the remote device supports 10 Gbit/s full-duplex
operation.

ETHER_STAT_LP_CAP_10HDX
Indicates the remote device supports 10 Mbit/s half-duplex
operation.

ETHER_STAT_LP_CAP_2500FDX
Indicates the remote device supports 2.5 Gbit/s full-duplex
operation.

ETHER_STAT_LP_CAP_40GFDX
Indicates the remote device supports 40 Gbit/s full-duplex
operation.

ETHER_STAT_LP_CAP_5000FDX
Indicates the remote device supports 5.0 Gbit/s full-duplex
operation.

ETHER_STAT_LP_CAP_ASMPAUSE
Indicates that the remote device supports the ability to receive
pause frames.

ETHER_STAT_LP_CAP_AUTONEG
Indicates that the remote device supports the ability to perform
link auto-negotiation.

ETHER_STAT_LP_CAP_PAUSE
Indicates that the remote device supports the ability to transmit
pause frames.

ETHER_STAT_LP_CAP_REMFAULT
Indicates that the remote device supports the ability of detecting
a remote fault in a link peer.

ETHER_STAT_MACRCV_ERRORS
Indicates the number of times that the internal MAC layer
encountered an error when attempting to receive and process a
frame.

ETHER_STAT_MACXMT_ERRORS
Indicates the number of times that the internal MAC layer
encountered an error when attempting to process and transmit a
frame.

ETHER_STAT_MULTI_COLLISIONS
Indicates the number of times that a frame was eventually
transmitted successfully, but only after more than one collision.

ETHER_STAT_SQE_ERRORS
Indicates the number of times that an SQE error occurred. The
specific conditions for this error are documented in IEEE 802.3.

ETHER_STAT_TOOLONG_ERRORS
Indicates the number of frames that were received that were longer
than the maximum frame size supported by the device.

ETHER_STAT_TOOSHORT_ERRORS
Indicates the number of frames that were received that were shorter
than the minimum frame size supported by the device.

ETHER_STAT_TX_LATE_COLLISIONS
Indicates the number of times a collision was detected late on the
device.

ETHER_STAT_XCVR_ADDR
Indicates the address of the MII/GMII receiver address.

ETHER_STAT_XCVR_ID
Indicates the id of the MII/GMII receiver address.

ETHER_STAT_XCVR_INUSE
Indicates what kind of transceiver is in use. Use the
mac_ether_media_t enumeration values described in the discussion of
MAC_PROP_MEDIA above. These definitions are compatible with the
older subset of XCVR_* macros.

Device Specific kstats

In addition to the defined statistics above, if the device driver maintains
additional statistics or the device provides additional statistics, it
should create its own kstats through the kstat_create(9F) function to allow
operators to observe them.

RECEIVE DESCRIPTOR LAYOUT

One of the important things that a device driver must do is lay out DMA
memory, generally in a ring of descriptors, into which received Ethernet
frames will be placed. When performing this, there are a few things that
drivers should generally do:

1. Drivers should lay out memory so that the IP header will be
4-byte aligned. The IP stack expects that the beginning of an
IP header will be at a 4-byte aligned address; however, a DMA
allocation will be at a 4- or 8-byte aligned address by default.
The IP header is at a 14 byte offset from the beginning of the
Ethernet frame, leaving the IP header at a 2-byte alignment if
the Ethernet frame starts at the beginning of the DMA buffer.
If VLAN tagging is in place, then each VLAN tag adds 4 bytes,
which doesn't change the alignment the IP header is found at.

As a solution to this, the driver should program the device to
start placing the received Ethernet frame at two bytes off of
the start of the DMA buffer. This will make sure that no matter
whether or not VLAN tags are present, that the IP header will be
4-byte aligned.

2. Drivers should try to allocate the DMA memory used for receiving
frames as a continuous buffer. If for some reason that would
not be possible, the driver should try to ensure that there is
enough space for all of the initial Ethernet and any possible
layer three and layer four headers (such as IP, TCP, or UDP) in
the initial descriptor.

3. As discussed in the MBLKS AND DMA section, there are multiple
strategies for managing the relationship between DMA data,
receive descriptors, and the operating system representation of
a packet in the mblk(9S) structure. Drivers must limit their
resource consumption. See the Considerations section of MBLKS
AND DMA for more on this.

TX STALL DETECTION, DEVICE RESETS, AND FAULT MANAGEMENT
Device drivers are the first line of defense for dealing with broken
devices and bugs in their firmware. While most devices will rarely fail,
it is important that when designing and implementing the device driver that
particular attention is paid in the design with respect to RAS
(Reliability, Availability, and Serviceability). While everything
described in this section is optional, it is highly recommended that all
new device drivers follow these guidelines.

The Fault Management Architecture (FMA) provides facilities for detecting
and reporting various classes of defects and faults. Specifically for
networking device drivers, issues that should be detected and reported
include:

+o Device internal uncorrectable errors

+o Device internal correctable errors

+o PCI and PCI Express transport errors

+o Device temperature alarms

+o Device transmission stalls

+o Device communication timeouts

+o High invalid interrupts

All such errors fall into three primary categories:

1. Errors detected by the Fault Management Architecture

2. Errors detected by the device and indicated to the device driver

3. Errors detected by the device driver

Fault Management Setup and Teardown

Drivers should initialize support for the fault management framework by
calling ddi_fm_init(9F) from their attach(9E) routine. By registering with
the fault management framework, a device driver is given the chance to
detect and notice transport errors as well as report other errors that
exist. While a device driver does not need to indicate that it is capable
of all such capabilities described in ddi_fm_init(9F), we suggest that
device drivers at least register the DDI_FM_EREPORT_CAPABLE so as to allow
the driver to report issues that it detects.

If the driver registers with the fault management framework during its
attach(9E) entry point, it must call ddi_fm_fini(9F) during its detach(9E)
entry point.

Transport Errors

Many modern networking devices leverage PCI or PCI Express. As such, there
are two primary ways that device drivers access data: they either memory
map device registers and use routines like ddi_get8(9F) and ddi_put8(9F) or
they use direct memory access (DMA). New device drivers should always
enable checking of the transport layer by marking their support in the
ddi_device_acc_attr(9S) structure and using routines like
ddi_fm_acc_err_get(9F) and ddi_fm_dma_err_get(9F) to detect if errors have
occurred.

Device Indicated Errors

Many devices have capabilities to announce to a device driver that a fatal
correctable error or uncorrectable error has occurred. Other devices have
the ability to indicate that various physical issues have occurred such as
a fan failing or a temperature sensor having fired.

Drivers should wire themselves to receive notifications when these events
occur. The means and capabilities will vary from device to device. For
example, some devices will generate information about these notifications
through special interrupts. Other devices may have a register that
software can poll. In the cases where polling is required, driver writers
should try not to poll too frequently and should generally only poll when
the device is actively being used, e.g. between calls to the mc_start(9E)
and mc_stop(9E) entry points.

Driver Transmit Stall Detection

One of the primary responsibilities of a hardened device driver is to
perform transmit stall detection. The core idea behind tx stall detection
is that the driver should record when it's getting activity related to when
data has been successfully transmitted. Most devices should be
transmitting data on a regular basis as long as the link is up. If it is
not, then this may indicate that the device is stuck and needs to be reset.
At this time, the MAC framework does not provide any resources for
performing these checks; however, polling on each individual transmit ring
for the last completion time while something is actively being transmitted
through the use of routines such as timeout(9F) may be a reasonable
starting point.

Driver Command Timeout Detection

Each device is programmed in different ways. Some devices are programmed
through asynchronous commands while others are programmed by writing
directly to memory mapped registers. If a device receives asynchronous
replies to commands, then the device driver should set reasonable timeouts
for all such commands and plan on detecting them. If a timeout occurs, the
driver should presume that there is an issue with the hardware and proceed
to abort the command or reset the device.

Many devices do not have such a communication mechanism. However, whenever
there is some activity where the device driver must wait, then it should be
prepared for the fact that the device may never get back to it and react
appropriately by performing some kind of device reset.

Reacting to Errors

When any of the above categories of errors has been triggered, the behavior
that the device driver should take depends on the kind of error. If a
fatal error, for example, a transport error, a transmit stall was detected,
or the device indicated an uncorrectable error was detected, then it is
important that the driver take the following steps:

1. Set a flag in the device driver's state that indicates that it
has hit an error condition. When this error condition flag is
asserted, transmitted packets should be accepted and dropped and
actions that would require writing to the device state should
fail with an error. This flag should remain until the device
has been successfully restarted.

2. If the error was not a transport error that was indicated by the
fault management architecture, e.g. a transport error that was
detected, then the device driver should post an ereport
indicating what has occurred with the ddi_fm_ereport_post(9F)
function.

3. The device driver should indicate that the device's service was
lost with a call to ddi_fm_service_impact(9F) using the symbol
DDI_SERVICE_LOST.

4. At this point the device driver should issue a device reset
through some device-specific means.

5. When the device reset has been completed, then the device driver
should restore all of the programmed state to the device. This
includes things like the current MTU, advertised auto-
negotiation speeds, MAC address filters, and more.

6. Finally, when service has been restored, the device driver
should call ddi_fm_service_impact(9F) using the symbol
DDI_SERVICE_RESTORED.

When a non-fatal error occurs, then the device driver should submit an
ereport and should optionally mark the device degraded using
ddi_fm_service_impact(9F) with the DDI_SERVICE_DEGRADED value depending on
the nature of the problem that has occurred.

Device drivers should never make the decision to remove a device from
service based on errors that have occurred nor should they panic the
system. Rather, the device driver should always try to notify the
operating system with various ereports and allow its policy decisions to
occur. The decision to retire a device lies in the hands of the fault
management architecture. It knows more about the operator's intent and the
surrounding system's state than the device driver itself does and it will
make the call to offline and retire the device if it is required.

Device Resets

When resetting a device, a device driver must exercise caution. If a
device driver has not been written to plan for a device reset, then it may
not correctly restore the device's state after such a reset. Such state
should be stored in the instance's private state data as the MAC framework
does not know about device resets and will not inform the device again
about the expected, programmed state.

One wrinkle with device resets is that many networking cards show up as
multiple PCI functions on a single device, for example, each port may show
up as a separate function and thus have a separate instance of the device
driver attached. When resetting a function, device driver writers should
carefully read the device programming manuals and verify whether or not a
reset impacts only the stalled function or if it impacts all function
across the device.

If the only way to reset a given function is through the device, then this
may require more coordination and work on the part of the device driver to
ensure that all the other instances are correctly restored. In cases where
this occurs, some devices offer ways of injecting interrupts onto those
other functions to notify them that this is occurring.

MBLKS AND DMA

The networking stack manages framed data through the use of the mblk(9S)
structure. The mblk allows for a single message to be made up of
individual blocks. Each part is linked together through its b_cont member.
However, it also allows for multiple messages to be chained together
through the use of the b_next member. While the networking stack works
with these structures, device drivers generally work with DMA regions.
There are two different strategies that device drivers use for handling
these two different cases: copying and binding.

Copying Data

The first way that device drivers handle interfacing between the two is by
having two separate regions of memory. One part is memory which has been
allocated for DMA through a call to ddi_dma_mem_alloc(9F) and the other is
memory associated with the memory block.

In this case, a driver will use bcopy(9F) to copy memory between the two
distinct regions. When transmitting a packet, it will copy the memory from
the mblk_t to the DMA region. When receiving memory, it will allocate a
mblk_t through the allocb(9F) routine, copy the memory across with
bcopy(9F), and then increment the mblk_t's b_wptr structure.

If, when receiving, memory is not available for a new message block, then
the frame should be skipped and effectively dropped. A kstat should be
bumped when such an occasion occurs.

Binding Data

An alternative approach to copying data is to use DMA binding. When using
DMA binding, the OS takes care of mapping between DMA memory and normal
device memory. The exact process is a bit different between transmit and
receive.

When transmitting a device driver has an mblk_t and needs to call the
ddi_dma_addr_bind_handle(9F) function to bind it to an already existing DMA
handle. At that point, it will receive various DMA cookies that it can use
to obtain the addresses to program the device with for transmitting data.
Once the transmit is done, the driver must then make sure to call
freemsg(9F) to release the data. It must not call freemsg(9F) before it
receives an interrupt from the device indicating that the data has been
transmitted, otherwise it risks sending arbitrary kernel memory.

When receiving data, the device can perform a similar operation. First, it
must bind the DMA memory into the kernel's virtual memory address space
through a call to the ddi_dma_addr_bind_handle(9F) function if it has not
already. Once it has, it must then call desballoc(9F) to try and create a
new mblk_t which leverages the associated memory. It can then pass that
mblk_t up to the stack.

Considerations

When deciding which of these options to use, there are many different
considerations that must be made. The answer as to whether to bind memory
or to copy data is not always simpler.

The first thing to remember is that DMA resources may be finite on a given
platform. Consider the case of receiving data. A device driver that binds
one of its receive descriptors may not get it back for quite some time as
it may be used by the kernel until an application actually consumes it.
Device drivers that try to bind memory for receive, often work with the
constraint that they must be able to replace that DMA memory with another
DMA descriptor. If they were not replaced, then eventually the device
would not be able to receive additional data into the ring.

On the other hand, particularly for larger frames, copying every packet
from one buffer to another can be a source of additional latency and memory
waste in the system. For larger copies, the cost of copying may dwarf any
potential cost of performing DMA binding.

For device driver authors that are unsure of what to do, they should first
employ the copying method to simplify the act of writing the device driver.
The copying method is simpler and also allows the device driver author not
to worry about allocated DMA memory that is still outstanding when it is
asked to unload.

If device driver writers are worried about the cost, it is recommended to
make the decision as to whether or not to copy or bind DMA data a separate
private property for both transmitting and receiving. That private
property should indicate the size of the received frame at which to switch
from one format to the other. This way, data can be gathered to determine
what the impact of each method is on a given platform.

SEE ALSO

dlpi(4P), driver.conf(5), ieee802.3(7), dladm(8), _fini(9E), _info(9E),
_init(9E), attach(9E), close(9E), detach(9E), mac_capab_led(9E),
mac_capab_rings(9E), mac_capab_transceiver(9E), mc_close(9E),
mc_getcapab(9E), mc_getprop(9E), mc_getstat(9E), mc_multicst(9E),
mc_open(9E), mc_propinfo(9E), mc_setpromisc(9E), mc_setprop(9E),
mc_start(9E), mc_stop(9E), mc_tx(9E), mc_unicst(9E), open(9E), allocb(9F),
bcopy(9F), ddi_dma_addr_bind_handle(9F), ddi_dma_mem_alloc(9F),
ddi_fm_acc_err_get(9F), ddi_fm_dma_err_get(9F), ddi_fm_ereport_post(9F),
ddi_fm_fini(9F), ddi_fm_init(9F), ddi_fm_service_impact(9F), ddi_get8(9F),
ddi_put8(9F), desballoc(9F), freemsg(9F), kstat_create(9F), mac_alloc(9F),
mac_devt_to_instance(9F), mac_fini_ops(9F), mac_free(9F), mac_getinfo(9F),
mac_hcksum_get(9F), mac_hcksum_set(9F), mac_init_ops(9F),
mac_link_update(9F), mac_lso_get(9F), mac_maxsdu_update(9F),
mac_private_minor(9F), mac_prop_info_set_default_link_flowctrl(9F),
mac_prop_info_set_default_str(9F), mac_prop_info_set_default_uint32(9F),
mac_prop_info_set_default_uint64(9F), mac_prop_info_set_default_uint8(9F),
mac_prop_info_set_perm(9F), mac_prop_info_set_range_uint32(9F),
mac_register(9F), mac_rx(9F), mac_unregister(9F), mod_install(9F),
mod_remove(9F), strcmp(9F), timeout(9F), cb_ops(9S),
ddi_device_acc_attr(9S), dev_ops(9S), mac_callbacks(9S), mac_register(9S),
mblk(9S), modldrv(9S), modlinkage(9S)

McCloghrie, K. and Rose, M., RFC 1213 Management Information Base for
Network Management of, TCP/IP-based internets: MIB-II, March 1991.

McCloghrie, K. and Kastenholz, F., RFC 1573 Evolution of the Interfaces
Group of MIB-II, January 1994.

Kastenholz, F., RFC 1643 Definitions of Managed Objects for the Ethernet-
like, Interface Types.

IEEE Computer Standard, IEEE 802.3, IEEE Standard for Ethernet, 2022.

illumos July 17, 2023 illumos