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Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/infiniband/ipoib.txt')
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diff --git a/Documentation/infiniband/ipoib.txt b/Documentation/infiniband/ipoib.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f2cfe265e --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/infiniband/ipoib.txt @@ -0,0 +1,105 @@ +IP OVER INFINIBAND + + The ib_ipoib driver is an implementation of the IP over InfiniBand + protocol as specified by RFC 4391 and 4392, issued by the IETF ipoib + working group. It is a "native" implementation in the sense of + setting the interface type to ARPHRD_INFINIBAND and the hardware + address length to 20 (earlier proprietary implementations + masqueraded to the kernel as ethernet interfaces). + +Partitions and P_Keys + + When the IPoIB driver is loaded, it creates one interface for each + port using the P_Key at index 0. To create an interface with a + different P_Key, write the desired P_Key into the main interface's + /sys/class/net/<intf name>/create_child file. For example: + + echo 0x8001 > /sys/class/net/ib0/create_child + + This will create an interface named ib0.8001 with P_Key 0x8001. To + remove a subinterface, use the "delete_child" file: + + echo 0x8001 > /sys/class/net/ib0/delete_child + + The P_Key for any interface is given by the "pkey" file, and the + main interface for a subinterface is in "parent." + + Child interface create/delete can also be done using IPoIB's + rtnl_link_ops, where childs created using either way behave the same. + +Datagram vs Connected modes + + The IPoIB driver supports two modes of operation: datagram and + connected. The mode is set and read through an interface's + /sys/class/net/<intf name>/mode file. + + In datagram mode, the IB UD (Unreliable Datagram) transport is used + and so the interface MTU has is equal to the IB L2 MTU minus the + IPoIB encapsulation header (4 bytes). For example, in a typical IB + fabric with a 2K MTU, the IPoIB MTU will be 2048 - 4 = 2044 bytes. + + In connected mode, the IB RC (Reliable Connected) transport is used. + Connected mode takes advantage of the connected nature of the IB + transport and allows an MTU up to the maximal IP packet size of 64K, + which reduces the number of IP packets needed for handling large UDP + datagrams, TCP segments, etc and increases the performance for large + messages. + + In connected mode, the interface's UD QP is still used for multicast + and communication with peers that don't support connected mode. In + this case, RX emulation of ICMP PMTU packets is used to cause the + networking stack to use the smaller UD MTU for these neighbours. + +Stateless offloads + + If the IB HW supports IPoIB stateless offloads, IPoIB advertises + TCP/IP checksum and/or Large Send (LSO) offloading capability to the + network stack. + + Large Receive (LRO) offloading is also implemented and may be turned + on/off using ethtool calls. Currently LRO is supported only for + checksum offload capable devices. + + Stateless offloads are supported only in datagram mode. + +Interrupt moderation + + If the underlying IB device supports CQ event moderation, one can + use ethtool to set interrupt mitigation parameters and thus reduce + the overhead incurred by handling interrupts. The main code path of + IPoIB doesn't use events for TX completion signaling so only RX + moderation is supported. + +Debugging Information + + By compiling the IPoIB driver with CONFIG_INFINIBAND_IPOIB_DEBUG set + to 'y', tracing messages are compiled into the driver. They are + turned on by setting the module parameters debug_level and + mcast_debug_level to 1. These parameters can be controlled at + runtime through files in /sys/module/ib_ipoib/. + + CONFIG_INFINIBAND_IPOIB_DEBUG also enables files in the debugfs + virtual filesystem. By mounting this filesystem, for example with + + mount -t debugfs none /sys/kernel/debug + + it is possible to get statistics about multicast groups from the + files /sys/kernel/debug/ipoib/ib0_mcg and so on. + + The performance impact of this option is negligible, so it + is safe to enable this option with debug_level set to 0 for normal + operation. + + CONFIG_INFINIBAND_IPOIB_DEBUG_DATA enables even more debug output in + the data path when data_debug_level is set to 1. However, even with + the output disabled, enabling this configuration option will affect + performance, because it adds tests to the fast path. + +References + + Transmission of IP over InfiniBand (IPoIB) (RFC 4391) + http://ietf.org/rfc/rfc4391.txt + IP over InfiniBand (IPoIB) Architecture (RFC 4392) + http://ietf.org/rfc/rfc4392.txt + IP over InfiniBand: Connected Mode (RFC 4755) + http://ietf.org/rfc/rfc4755.txt |