blob: 0e58b4539176a7e04c78c15bdcfde7b14e3f7c64 [file] [log] [blame]
Patrick Ohlycb9eff02009-02-12 05:03:36 +00001The existing interfaces for getting network packages time stamped are:
2
3* SO_TIMESTAMP
4 Generate time stamp for each incoming packet using the (not necessarily
5 monotonous!) system time. Result is returned via recv_msg() in a
6 control message as timeval (usec resolution).
7
8* SO_TIMESTAMPNS
9 Same time stamping mechanism as SO_TIMESTAMP, but returns result as
10 timespec (nsec resolution).
11
12* IP_MULTICAST_LOOP + SO_TIMESTAMP[NS]
13 Only for multicasts: approximate send time stamp by receiving the looped
14 packet and using its receive time stamp.
15
16The following interface complements the existing ones: receive time
17stamps can be generated and returned for arbitrary packets and much
18closer to the point where the packet is really sent. Time stamps can
19be generated in software (as before) or in hardware (if the hardware
20has such a feature).
21
22SO_TIMESTAMPING:
23
24Instructs the socket layer which kind of information is wanted. The
25parameter is an integer with some of the following bits set. Setting
26other bits is an error and doesn't change the current state.
27
28SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_HARDWARE: try to obtain send time stamp in hardware
29SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_SOFTWARE: if SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_HARDWARE is off or
30 fails, then do it in software
31SOF_TIMESTAMPING_RX_HARDWARE: return the original, unmodified time stamp
32 as generated by the hardware
33SOF_TIMESTAMPING_RX_SOFTWARE: if SOF_TIMESTAMPING_RX_HARDWARE is off or
34 fails, then do it in software
35SOF_TIMESTAMPING_RAW_HARDWARE: return original raw hardware time stamp
36SOF_TIMESTAMPING_SYS_HARDWARE: return hardware time stamp transformed to
37 the system time base
38SOF_TIMESTAMPING_SOFTWARE: return system time stamp generated in
39 software
40
41SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX/RX determine how time stamps are generated.
42SOF_TIMESTAMPING_RAW/SYS determine how they are reported in the
43following control message:
44 struct scm_timestamping {
45 struct timespec systime;
46 struct timespec hwtimetrans;
47 struct timespec hwtimeraw;
48 };
49
50recvmsg() can be used to get this control message for regular incoming
51packets. For send time stamps the outgoing packet is looped back to
52the socket's error queue with the send time stamp(s) attached. It can
53be received with recvmsg(flags=MSG_ERRQUEUE). The call returns the
54original outgoing packet data including all headers preprended down to
55and including the link layer, the scm_timestamping control message and
56a sock_extended_err control message with ee_errno==ENOMSG and
57ee_origin==SO_EE_ORIGIN_TIMESTAMPING. A socket with such a pending
58bounced packet is ready for reading as far as select() is concerned.
Patrick Ohly51f31ca2009-02-12 05:03:39 +000059If the outgoing packet has to be fragmented, then only the first
60fragment is time stamped and returned to the sending socket.
Patrick Ohlycb9eff02009-02-12 05:03:36 +000061
62All three values correspond to the same event in time, but were
63generated in different ways. Each of these values may be empty (= all
64zero), in which case no such value was available. If the application
65is not interested in some of these values, they can be left blank to
66avoid the potential overhead of calculating them.
67
68systime is the value of the system time at that moment. This
69corresponds to the value also returned via SO_TIMESTAMP[NS]. If the
70time stamp was generated by hardware, then this field is
71empty. Otherwise it is filled in if SOF_TIMESTAMPING_SOFTWARE is
72set.
73
74hwtimeraw is the original hardware time stamp. Filled in if
75SOF_TIMESTAMPING_RAW_HARDWARE is set. No assumptions about its
76relation to system time should be made.
77
78hwtimetrans is the hardware time stamp transformed so that it
79corresponds as good as possible to system time. This correlation is
80not perfect; as a consequence, sorting packets received via different
81NICs by their hwtimetrans may differ from the order in which they were
82received. hwtimetrans may be non-monotonic even for the same NIC.
83Filled in if SOF_TIMESTAMPING_SYS_HARDWARE is set. Requires support
84by the network device and will be empty without that support.
85
86
87SIOCSHWTSTAMP:
88
89Hardware time stamping must also be initialized for each device driver
90that is expected to do hardware time stamping. The parameter is:
91
92struct hwtstamp_config {
93 int flags; /* no flags defined right now, must be zero */
94 int tx_type; /* HWTSTAMP_TX_* */
95 int rx_filter; /* HWTSTAMP_FILTER_* */
96};
97
98Desired behavior is passed into the kernel and to a specific device by
99calling ioctl(SIOCSHWTSTAMP) with a pointer to a struct ifreq whose
100ifr_data points to a struct hwtstamp_config. The tx_type and
101rx_filter are hints to the driver what it is expected to do. If
102the requested fine-grained filtering for incoming packets is not
103supported, the driver may time stamp more than just the requested types
104of packets.
105
106A driver which supports hardware time stamping shall update the struct
107with the actual, possibly more permissive configuration. If the
108requested packets cannot be time stamped, then nothing should be
109changed and ERANGE shall be returned (in contrast to EINVAL, which
110indicates that SIOCSHWTSTAMP is not supported at all).
111
112Only a processes with admin rights may change the configuration. User
113space is responsible to ensure that multiple processes don't interfere
114with each other and that the settings are reset.
115
116/* possible values for hwtstamp_config->tx_type */
117enum {
118 /*
119 * no outgoing packet will need hardware time stamping;
120 * should a packet arrive which asks for it, no hardware
121 * time stamping will be done
122 */
123 HWTSTAMP_TX_OFF,
124
125 /*
126 * enables hardware time stamping for outgoing packets;
127 * the sender of the packet decides which are to be
128 * time stamped by setting SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_SOFTWARE
129 * before sending the packet
130 */
131 HWTSTAMP_TX_ON,
132};
133
134/* possible values for hwtstamp_config->rx_filter */
135enum {
136 /* time stamp no incoming packet at all */
137 HWTSTAMP_FILTER_NONE,
138
139 /* time stamp any incoming packet */
140 HWTSTAMP_FILTER_ALL,
141
142 /* return value: time stamp all packets requested plus some others */
143 HWTSTAMP_FILTER_SOME,
144
145 /* PTP v1, UDP, any kind of event packet */
146 HWTSTAMP_FILTER_PTP_V1_L4_EVENT,
147
148 ...
149};
150
151
152DEVICE IMPLEMENTATION
153
154A driver which supports hardware time stamping must support the
155SIOCSHWTSTAMP ioctl. Time stamps for received packets must be stored
156in the skb with skb_hwtstamp_set().
157
158Time stamps for outgoing packets are to be generated as follows:
159- In hard_start_xmit(), check if skb_hwtstamp_check_tx_hardware()
160 returns non-zero. If yes, then the driver is expected
161 to do hardware time stamping.
162- If this is possible for the skb and requested, then declare
163 that the driver is doing the time stamping by calling
164 skb_hwtstamp_tx_in_progress(). A driver not supporting
165 hardware time stamping doesn't do that. A driver must never
166 touch sk_buff::tstamp! It is used to store how time stamping
167 for an outgoing packets is to be done.
168- As soon as the driver has sent the packet and/or obtained a
169 hardware time stamp for it, it passes the time stamp back by
170 calling skb_hwtstamp_tx() with the original skb, the raw
171 hardware time stamp and a handle to the device (necessary
172 to convert the hardware time stamp to system time). If obtaining
173 the hardware time stamp somehow fails, then the driver should
174 not fall back to software time stamping. The rationale is that
175 this would occur at a later time in the processing pipeline
176 than other software time stamping and therefore could lead
177 to unexpected deltas between time stamps.
178- If the driver did not call skb_hwtstamp_tx_in_progress(), then
179 dev_hard_start_xmit() checks whether software time stamping
180 is wanted as fallback and potentially generates the time stamp.