![Sjur Braendeland](/assets/img/avatar_default.png)
Documentation of the CAIF Protocol. Signed-off-by: Sjur Braendeland <sjur.brandeland@stericsson.com> Signed-off-by: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>
213 lines
7.1 KiB
Plaintext
213 lines
7.1 KiB
Plaintext
Linux CAIF
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===========
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copyright (C) ST-Ericsson AB 2010
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Author: Sjur Brendeland/ sjur.brandeland@stericsson.com
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License terms: GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2
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Introduction
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------------
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CAIF is a MUX protocol used by ST-Ericsson cellular modems for
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communication between Modem and host. The host processes can open virtual AT
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channels, initiate GPRS Data connections, Video channels and Utility Channels.
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The Utility Channels are general purpose pipes between modem and host.
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ST-Ericsson modems support a number of transports between modem
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and host. Currently, UART and Loopback are available for Linux.
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Architecture:
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------------
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The implementation of CAIF is divided into:
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* CAIF Socket Layer, Kernel API, and Net Device.
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* CAIF Core Protocol Implementation
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* CAIF Link Layer, implemented as NET devices.
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RTNL
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!
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! +------+ +------+ +------+
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! +------+! +------+! +------+!
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! ! Sock !! !Kernel!! ! Net !!
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! ! API !+ ! API !+ ! Dev !+ <- CAIF Client APIs
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! +------+ +------! +------+
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! ! ! !
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! +----------!----------+
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! +------+ <- CAIF Protocol Implementation
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+-------> ! CAIF !
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! Core !
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+------+
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+--------!--------+
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! !
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+------+ +-----+
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! ! ! TTY ! <- Link Layer (Net Devices)
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+------+ +-----+
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Using the Kernel API
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----------------------
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The Kernel API is used for accessing CAIF channels from the
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kernel.
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The user of the API has to implement two callbacks for receive
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and control.
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The receive callback gives a CAIF packet as a SKB. The control
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callback will
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notify of channel initialization complete, and flow-on/flow-
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off.
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struct caif_device caif_dev = {
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.caif_config = {
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.name = "MYDEV"
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.type = CAIF_CHTY_AT
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}
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.receive_cb = my_receive,
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.control_cb = my_control,
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};
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caif_add_device(&caif_dev);
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caif_transmit(&caif_dev, skb);
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See the caif_kernel.h for details about the CAIF kernel API.
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I M P L E M E N T A T I O N
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===========================
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===========================
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CAIF Core Protocol Layer
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=========================================
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CAIF Core layer implements the CAIF protocol as defined by ST-Ericsson.
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It implements the CAIF protocol stack in a layered approach, where
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each layer described in the specification is implemented as a separate layer.
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The architecture is inspired by the design patterns "Protocol Layer" and
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"Protocol Packet".
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== CAIF structure ==
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The Core CAIF implementation contains:
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- Simple implementation of CAIF.
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- Layered architecture (a la Streams), each layer in the CAIF
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specification is implemented in a separate c-file.
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- Clients must implement PHY layer to access physical HW
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with receive and transmit functions.
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- Clients must call configuration function to add PHY layer.
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- Clients must implement CAIF layer to consume/produce
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CAIF payload with receive and transmit functions.
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- Clients must call configuration function to add and connect the
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Client layer.
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- When receiving / transmitting CAIF Packets (cfpkt), ownership is passed
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to the called function (except for framing layers' receive functions
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or if a transmit function returns an error, in which case the caller
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must free the packet).
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Layered Architecture
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--------------------
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The CAIF protocol can be divided into two parts: Support functions and Protocol
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Implementation. The support functions include:
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- CFPKT CAIF Packet. Implementation of CAIF Protocol Packet. The
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CAIF Packet has functions for creating, destroying and adding content
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and for adding/extracting header and trailers to protocol packets.
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- CFLST CAIF list implementation.
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- CFGLUE CAIF Glue. Contains OS Specifics, such as memory
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allocation, endianness, etc.
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The CAIF Protocol implementation contains:
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- CFCNFG CAIF Configuration layer. Configures the CAIF Protocol
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Stack and provides a Client interface for adding Link-Layer and
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Driver interfaces on top of the CAIF Stack.
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- CFCTRL CAIF Control layer. Encodes and Decodes control messages
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such as enumeration and channel setup. Also matches request and
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response messages.
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- CFSERVL General CAIF Service Layer functionality; handles flow
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control and remote shutdown requests.
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- CFVEI CAIF VEI layer. Handles CAIF AT Channels on VEI (Virtual
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External Interface). This layer encodes/decodes VEI frames.
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- CFDGML CAIF Datagram layer. Handles CAIF Datagram layer (IP
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traffic), encodes/decodes Datagram frames.
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- CFMUX CAIF Mux layer. Handles multiplexing between multiple
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physical bearers and multiple channels such as VEI, Datagram, etc.
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The MUX keeps track of the existing CAIF Channels and
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Physical Instances and selects the apropriate instance based
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on Channel-Id and Physical-ID.
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- CFFRML CAIF Framing layer. Handles Framing i.e. Frame length
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and frame checksum.
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- CFSERL CAIF Serial layer. Handles concatenation/split of frames
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into CAIF Frames with correct length.
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+---------+
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| Config |
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| CFCNFG |
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+---------+
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!
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+---------+ +---------+ +---------+
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| AT | | Control | | Datagram|
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| CFVEIL | | CFCTRL | | CFDGML |
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+---------+ +---------+ +---------+
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\_____________!______________/
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!
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+---------+
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| MUX |
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| |
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+---------+
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_____!_____
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/ \
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+---------+ +---------+
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| CFFRML | | CFFRML |
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| Framing | | Framing |
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+---------+ +---------+
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! !
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+---------+ +---------+
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| | | Serial |
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| | | CFSERL |
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+---------+ +---------+
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In this layered approach the following "rules" apply.
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- All layers embed the same structure "struct cflayer"
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- A layer does not depend on any other layer's private data.
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- Layers are stacked by setting the pointers
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layer->up , layer->dn
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- In order to send data upwards, each layer should do
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layer->up->receive(layer->up, packet);
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- In order to send data downwards, each layer should do
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layer->dn->transmit(layer->dn, packet);
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Linux Driver Implementation
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===========================
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Linux GPRS Net Device and CAIF socket are implemented on top of the
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CAIF Core protocol. The Net device and CAIF socket have an instance of
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'struct cflayer', just like the CAIF Core protocol stack.
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Net device and Socket implement the 'receive()' function defined by
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'struct cflayer', just like the rest of the CAIF stack. In this way, transmit and
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receive of packets is handled as by the rest of the layers: the 'dn->transmit()'
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function is called in order to transmit data.
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The layer on top of the CAIF Core implementation is
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sometimes referred to as the "Client layer".
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Configuration of Link Layer
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---------------------------
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The Link Layer is implemented as Linux net devices (struct net_device).
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Payload handling and registration is done using standard Linux mechanisms.
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The CAIF Protocol relies on a loss-less link layer without implementing
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retransmission. This implies that packet drops must not happen.
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Therefore a flow-control mechanism is implemented where the physical
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interface can initiate flow stop for all CAIF Channels.
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