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Message-Id: <1486498990-76562-2-git-send-email-niranjana.vishwanathapura@intel.com>
Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2017 12:23:00 -0800
From: "Vishwanathapura, Niranjana" <niranjana.vishwanathapura@...el.com>
To: dledford@...hat.com
Cc: linux-rdma@...r.kernel.org, netdev@...r.kernel.org,
dennis.dalessandro@...el.com, ira.weiny@...el.com,
Niranjana Vishwanathapura <niranjana.vishwanathapura@...el.com>
Subject: [RFC v3 01/11] IB/hfi-vnic: Virtual Network Interface Controller (VNIC) documentation
Add HFI VNIC design document explaining the VNIC architecture and the
driver design.
Reviewed-by: Dennis Dalessandro <dennis.dalessandro@...el.com>
Reviewed-by: Ira Weiny <ira.weiny@...el.com>
Signed-off-by: Niranjana Vishwanathapura <niranjana.vishwanathapura@...el.com>
---
Documentation/infiniband/hfi_vnic.txt | 102 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 102 insertions(+)
create mode 100644 Documentation/infiniband/hfi_vnic.txt
diff --git a/Documentation/infiniband/hfi_vnic.txt b/Documentation/infiniband/hfi_vnic.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c6c801e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/infiniband/hfi_vnic.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,102 @@
+Intel Omni-Path Host Fabric Interface (HFI) Virtual Network Interface
+Controller (VNIC) feature supports Ethernet functionality over Omni-Path
+fabric by encapsulating the Ethernet packets between HFI nodes.
+
+The patterns of exchanges of Omni-Path encapsulated Ethernet packets
+involves one or more virtual Ethernet switches overlaid on the Omni-Path
+fabric topology. A subset of HFI nodes on the Omni-Path fabric are
+permitted to exchange encapsulated Ethernet packets across a particular
+virtual Ethernet switch. The virtual Ethernet switches are logical
+abstractions achieved by configuring the HFI nodes on the fabric for
+header generation and processing. In the simplest configuration all HFI
+nodes across the fabric exchange encapsulated Ethernet packets over a
+single virtual Ethernet switch. A virtual Ethernet switch, is effectively
+an independent Ethernet network. The configuration is performed by an
+Ethernet Manager (EM) which is part of the trusted Fabric Manager (FM)
+application. HFI nodes can have multiple VNICs each connected to a
+different virtual Ethernet switch. The below diagram presents a case
+of two virtual Ethernet switches with two HFI nodes.
+
+ +-------------------+
+ | Subnet/ |
+ | Ethernet |
+ | Manager |
+ +-------------------+
+ / /
+ / /
+ / /
+ / /
++-----------------------------+ +------------------------------+
+| Virtual Ethernet Switch | | Virtual Ethernet Switch |
+| +---------+ +---------+ | | +---------+ +---------+ |
+| | VPORT | | VPORT | | | | VPORT | | VPORT | |
++--+---------+----+---------+-+ +-+---------+----+---------+---+
+ | \ / |
+ | \ / |
+ | \/ |
+ | / \ |
+ | / \ |
+ +-----------+------------+ +-----------+------------+
+ | VNIC | VNIC | | VNIC | VNIC |
+ +-----------+------------+ +-----------+------------+
+ | HFI | | HFI |
+ +------------------------+ +------------------------+
+
+
+Intel HFI VNIC software design is presented in the below diagram.
+HFI VNIC functionality has a HW dependent component and a HW
+independent component.
+
+The support has been added for IB device to allocate and free the RDMA
+netdev devices. The RDMA netdev supports interfacing with the network
+stack thus creating standard network interfaces. HFI_VNIC is an RDMA
+netdev device type.
+
+The HW dependent VNIC functionality is part of the HFI1 driver. It
+implements the verbs to allocate and free the HFI_VNIC RDMA netdev.
+It involves HW resource allocation/management for VNIC functionality.
+It interfaces with the network stack and implements the required
+net_device_ops functions. It expects Omni-Path encapsulated Ethernet
+packets in the transmit path and provides HW access to them. It strips
+the Omni-Path header from the received packets before passing them up
+the network stack. It also implements the RDMA netdev control operations.
+
+The HFI VNIC module implements the HW independent VNIC functionality.
+It consists of two parts. The VNIC Ethernet Management Agent (VEMA)
+registers itself with IB core as an IB client and interfaces with the
+IB MAD stack. It exchanges the management information with the Ethernet
+Manager (EM) and the VNIC netdev. The VNIC netdev part allocates and frees
+the HFI_VNIC RDMA netdev devices. It overrides the net_device_ops functions
+set by HW dependent VNIC driver where required to accommodate any control
+operation. It also handles the encapsulation of Ethernet packets with an
+Omni-Path header in the transmit path. For each VNIC interface, the
+information required for encapsulation is configured by the EM via VEMA MAD
+interface. It also passes any control information to the HW dependent driver
+by invoking the RDMA netdev control operations.
+
+ +-------------------+ +----------------------+
+ | | | Linux |
+ | IB MAD | | Network |
+ | | | Stack |
+ +-------------------+ +----------------------+
+ | | |
+ | | |
+ +----------------------------+ |
+ | | |
+ | HFI VNIC Module | |
+ | (HFI VNIC RDMA Netdev | |
+ | & EMA functions) | |
+ | | |
+ +----------------------------+ |
+ | |
+ | |
+ +------------------+ |
+ | IB core | |
+ +------------------+ |
+ | |
+ | |
+ +--------------------------------------------+
+ | |
+ | HFI1 Driver with VNIC support |
+ | |
+ +--------------------------------------------+
--
1.8.3.1
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