TOE & RDMA support for NetXen hardwar

[Kip Macy]

>
> -  Ability to configure which connections are offloaded. Rather than
>
>    offloading all connections by default, the connections are offloaded
>
>    based on administrative action. The system admin can decide whether
>
>    to offload based on TCP port, TCP tuple, IP address, application
>
>    name, etc.

I've largely assumed in porting over the Chelsio driver that the
currently supported features are what their customers want. Providing
a policy mechanism was not one of the apparent requirements. However,
I have no issues with adding a mechanism for tying it in to
PF/IPF/IPFW. I simply have not thought about an API for that at this
time. If you have suggestions I'm more than happy to give them close
consideration.



> -  libpcap / tcpdump capability.

This is not implemented in the Linux driver yet. Their hardware
supports this and obviously I will need to extend the BPF interface to
provide support for this. I have not given a great deal of thought to
functionality not supported by the Linux driver.


>
> Our customers do like the ability to control which connections get
>
> offloaded, so offloading all by default is not desirable.

I understand.  I'm open to suggestions on how to extend the API to
support this cleanly in conjunction with the various firewalls.


> I could not make out how libpcap / tcpdump would be supported in the
>
> TOE API.


As mentioned above that has not yet been addressed.


> Regarding the hardware filters, how are those hooked to the kernel
>
> infrastructure ? Is that expected to be a separate user program
>
> to control the hardware filter ?

Presumably it will be tied in to the firewall rules. Chelsio wishes to
license that as separate functionality and have not yet resolved the
specifics, so it is not yet available.


>
> We also have RDMA support in the hardware and will be interested in
> a RDMA driver.

I don't think that will involve much kernel change as it will re-use
most of the OFED framework.

Thanks for your input.

 -Kip