Diwaker Gupta
2005-Sep-07 00:06 UTC
[Xen-devel] understanding network split device drivers
I''m trying to understand the architecture for I/O devices (in
particular, the
network drivers) in Xen. I know the broad design and structure of the split
devices drivers. The following picture will hopefully make it easier for
people to answer my questions:
dom-0 dom-1
------------------------------------ --------------
device driver backend | | frontend
==> | ==> |
(eg: e1000) (eg: netback)| |(eg: netfront)
------------------------------------ --------------
||
\/
(questions!!)
I''m not very knowledgeable on the linux networking stack, so bear with
me if I
ask something obvious.
o where and how is this pipelining (between the actual device driver and the
backend) set up in the code?
o is it something xen specific, or is it done via standard linux networking?
o is there some buffer/queue between the backend and the actual device driver?
o does the backend get any kind of notification from the hardware in case the
send/recv fails (since IIUC netback queues requests asynchronous processing)
o where exactly do the bridge utils fit in this picture?
TIA
Diwaker
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