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authorJohn W. Linville <linville@tuxdriver.com>2012-04-18 14:17:13 -0400
committerJohn W. Linville <linville@tuxdriver.com>2012-04-18 14:27:48 -0400
commit59ef43e681d103a51c3727dad0315e093f07ec61 (patch)
tree87f6320f1440ce3ce6c0c15ad3cef8bc98186f88 /Documentation
parent91fbe33034c184c6a60e31c2207a2f7ec2f180dc (diff)
parentb5abcf0219263f4e961dca71cbe26e06c5b0ee68 (diff)
Merge branch 'master' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/linville/wireless-next into for-davem
Conflicts: drivers/net/wireless/iwlwifi/iwl-testmode.c include/net/nfc/nfc.h net/nfc/netlink.c net/wireless/nl80211.c
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation')
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1HCI backend for NFC Core
2
3Author: Eric Lapuyade, Samuel Ortiz
4Contact: eric.lapuyade@intel.com, samuel.ortiz@intel.com
5
6General
7-------
8
9The HCI layer implements much of the ETSI TS 102 622 V10.2.0 specification. It
10enables easy writing of HCI-based NFC drivers. The HCI layer runs as an NFC Core
11backend, implementing an abstract nfc device and translating NFC Core API
12to HCI commands and events.
13
14HCI
15---
16
17HCI registers as an nfc device with NFC Core. Requests coming from userspace are
18routed through netlink sockets to NFC Core and then to HCI. From this point,
19they are translated in a sequence of HCI commands sent to the HCI layer in the
20host controller (the chip). The sending context blocks while waiting for the
21response to arrive.
22HCI events can also be received from the host controller. They will be handled
23and a translation will be forwarded to NFC Core as needed.
24HCI uses 2 execution contexts:
25- one if for executing commands : nfc_hci_msg_tx_work(). Only one command
26can be executing at any given moment.
27- one if for dispatching received events and responses : nfc_hci_msg_rx_work()
28
29HCI Session initialization:
30---------------------------
31
32The Session initialization is an HCI standard which must unfortunately
33support proprietary gates. This is the reason why the driver will pass a list
34of proprietary gates that must be part of the session. HCI will ensure all
35those gates have pipes connected when the hci device is set up.
36
37HCI Gates and Pipes
38-------------------
39
40A gate defines the 'port' where some service can be found. In order to access
41a service, one must create a pipe to that gate and open it. In this
42implementation, pipes are totally hidden. The public API only knows gates.
43This is consistent with the driver need to send commands to proprietary gates
44without knowing the pipe connected to it.
45
46Driver interface
47----------------
48
49A driver would normally register itself with HCI and provide the following
50entry points:
51
52struct nfc_hci_ops {
53 int (*open)(struct nfc_hci_dev *hdev);
54 void (*close)(struct nfc_hci_dev *hdev);
55 int (*xmit)(struct nfc_hci_dev *hdev, struct sk_buff *skb);
56 int (*start_poll)(struct nfc_hci_dev *hdev, u32 protocols);
57 int (*target_from_gate)(struct nfc_hci_dev *hdev, u8 gate,
58 struct nfc_target *target);
59};
60
61open() and close() shall turn the hardware on and off. xmit() shall simply
62write a frame to the chip. start_poll() is an optional entrypoint that shall
63set the hardware in polling mode. This must be implemented only if the hardware
64uses proprietary gates or a mechanism slightly different from the HCI standard.
65target_from_gate() is another optional entrypoint to return the protocols
66corresponding to a proprietary gate.
67
68On the rx path, the driver is responsible to push incoming HCP frames to HCI
69using nfc_hci_recv_frame(). HCI will take care of re-aggregation and handling
70This must be done from a context that can sleep.
71
72SHDLC
73-----
74
75Most chips use shdlc to ensure integrity and delivery ordering of the HCP
76frames between the host controller (the chip) and hosts (entities connected
77to the chip, like the cpu). In order to simplify writing the driver, an shdlc
78layer is available for use by the driver.
79When used, the driver actually registers with shdlc, and shdlc will register
80with HCI. HCI sees shdlc as the driver and thus send its HCP frames
81through shdlc->xmit.
82SHDLC adds a new execution context (nfc_shdlc_sm_work()) to run its state
83machine and handle both its rx and tx path.
84
85Included Drivers
86----------------
87
88An HCI based driver for an NXP PN544, connected through I2C bus, and using
89shdlc is included.
90
91Execution Contexts
92------------------
93
94The execution contexts are the following:
95- IRQ handler (IRQH):
96fast, cannot sleep. stores incoming frames into an shdlc rx queue
97
98- SHDLC State Machine worker (SMW)
99handles shdlc rx & tx queues. Dispatches HCI cmd responses.
100
101- HCI Tx Cmd worker (MSGTXWQ)
102Serialize execution of HCI commands. Complete execution in case of resp timeout.
103
104- HCI Rx worker (MSGRXWQ)
105Dispatches incoming HCI commands or events.
106
107- Syscall context from a userspace call (SYSCALL)
108Any entrypoint in HCI called from NFC Core
109
110Workflow executing an HCI command (using shdlc)
111-----------------------------------------------
112
113Executing an HCI command can easily be performed synchronously using the
114following API:
115
116int nfc_hci_send_cmd (struct nfc_hci_dev *hdev, u8 gate, u8 cmd,
117 const u8 *param, size_t param_len, struct sk_buff **skb)
118
119The API must be invoked from a context that can sleep. Most of the time, this
120will be the syscall context. skb will return the result that was received in
121the response.
122
123Internally, execution is asynchronous. So all this API does is to enqueue the
124HCI command, setup a local wait queue on stack, and wait_event() for completion.
125The wait is not interruptible because it is guaranteed that the command will
126complete after some short timeout anyway.
127
128MSGTXWQ context will then be scheduled and invoke nfc_hci_msg_tx_work().
129This function will dequeue the next pending command and send its HCP fragments
130to the lower layer which happens to be shdlc. It will then start a timer to be
131able to complete the command with a timeout error if no response arrive.
132
133SMW context gets scheduled and invokes nfc_shdlc_sm_work(). This function
134handles shdlc framing in and out. It uses the driver xmit to send frames and
135receives incoming frames in an skb queue filled from the driver IRQ handler.
136SHDLC I(nformation) frames payload are HCP fragments. They are agregated to
137form complete HCI frames, which can be a response, command, or event.
138
139HCI Responses are dispatched immediately from this context to unblock
140waiting command execution. Reponse processing involves invoking the completion
141callback that was provided by nfc_hci_msg_tx_work() when it sent the command.
142The completion callback will then wake the syscall context.
143
144Workflow receiving an HCI event or command
145------------------------------------------
146
147HCI commands or events are not dispatched from SMW context. Instead, they are
148queued to HCI rx_queue and will be dispatched from HCI rx worker
149context (MSGRXWQ). This is done this way to allow a cmd or event handler
150to also execute other commands (for example, handling the
151NFC_HCI_EVT_TARGET_DISCOVERED event from PN544 requires to issue an
152ANY_GET_PARAMETER to the reader A gate to get information on the target
153that was discovered).
154
155Typically, such an event will be propagated to NFC Core from MSGRXWQ context.