summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/Documentation/networking/phy.rst
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorDaniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>2024-04-07 18:49:45 +0000
committerDaniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>2024-04-07 18:49:45 +0000
commit2c3c1048746a4622d8c89a29670120dc8fab93c4 (patch)
tree848558de17fb3008cdf4d861b01ac7781903ce39 /Documentation/networking/phy.rst
parentInitial commit. (diff)
downloadlinux-upstream.tar.xz
linux-upstream.zip
Adding upstream version 6.1.76.upstream/6.1.76upstream
Signed-off-by: Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/networking/phy.rst')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/networking/phy.rst547
1 files changed, 547 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/networking/phy.rst b/Documentation/networking/phy.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d11329a08
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/networking/phy.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,547 @@
+=====================
+PHY Abstraction Layer
+=====================
+
+Purpose
+=======
+
+Most network devices consist of set of registers which provide an interface
+to a MAC layer, which communicates with the physical connection through a
+PHY. The PHY concerns itself with negotiating link parameters with the link
+partner on the other side of the network connection (typically, an ethernet
+cable), and provides a register interface to allow drivers to determine what
+settings were chosen, and to configure what settings are allowed.
+
+While these devices are distinct from the network devices, and conform to a
+standard layout for the registers, it has been common practice to integrate
+the PHY management code with the network driver. This has resulted in large
+amounts of redundant code. Also, on embedded systems with multiple (and
+sometimes quite different) ethernet controllers connected to the same
+management bus, it is difficult to ensure safe use of the bus.
+
+Since the PHYs are devices, and the management busses through which they are
+accessed are, in fact, busses, the PHY Abstraction Layer treats them as such.
+In doing so, it has these goals:
+
+#. Increase code-reuse
+#. Increase overall code-maintainability
+#. Speed development time for new network drivers, and for new systems
+
+Basically, this layer is meant to provide an interface to PHY devices which
+allows network driver writers to write as little code as possible, while
+still providing a full feature set.
+
+The MDIO bus
+============
+
+Most network devices are connected to a PHY by means of a management bus.
+Different devices use different busses (though some share common interfaces).
+In order to take advantage of the PAL, each bus interface needs to be
+registered as a distinct device.
+
+#. read and write functions must be implemented. Their prototypes are::
+
+ int write(struct mii_bus *bus, int mii_id, int regnum, u16 value);
+ int read(struct mii_bus *bus, int mii_id, int regnum);
+
+ mii_id is the address on the bus for the PHY, and regnum is the register
+ number. These functions are guaranteed not to be called from interrupt
+ time, so it is safe for them to block, waiting for an interrupt to signal
+ the operation is complete
+
+#. A reset function is optional. This is used to return the bus to an
+ initialized state.
+
+#. A probe function is needed. This function should set up anything the bus
+ driver needs, setup the mii_bus structure, and register with the PAL using
+ mdiobus_register. Similarly, there's a remove function to undo all of
+ that (use mdiobus_unregister).
+
+#. Like any driver, the device_driver structure must be configured, and init
+ exit functions are used to register the driver.
+
+#. The bus must also be declared somewhere as a device, and registered.
+
+As an example for how one driver implemented an mdio bus driver, see
+drivers/net/ethernet/freescale/fsl_pq_mdio.c and an associated DTS file
+for one of the users. (e.g. "git grep fsl,.*-mdio arch/powerpc/boot/dts/")
+
+(RG)MII/electrical interface considerations
+===========================================
+
+The Reduced Gigabit Medium Independent Interface (RGMII) is a 12-pin
+electrical signal interface using a synchronous 125Mhz clock signal and several
+data lines. Due to this design decision, a 1.5ns to 2ns delay must be added
+between the clock line (RXC or TXC) and the data lines to let the PHY (clock
+sink) have a large enough setup and hold time to sample the data lines correctly. The
+PHY library offers different types of PHY_INTERFACE_MODE_RGMII* values to let
+the PHY driver and optionally the MAC driver, implement the required delay. The
+values of phy_interface_t must be understood from the perspective of the PHY
+device itself, leading to the following:
+
+* PHY_INTERFACE_MODE_RGMII: the PHY is not responsible for inserting any
+ internal delay by itself, it assumes that either the Ethernet MAC (if capable)
+ or the PCB traces insert the correct 1.5-2ns delay
+
+* PHY_INTERFACE_MODE_RGMII_TXID: the PHY should insert an internal delay
+ for the transmit data lines (TXD[3:0]) processed by the PHY device
+
+* PHY_INTERFACE_MODE_RGMII_RXID: the PHY should insert an internal delay
+ for the receive data lines (RXD[3:0]) processed by the PHY device
+
+* PHY_INTERFACE_MODE_RGMII_ID: the PHY should insert internal delays for
+ both transmit AND receive data lines from/to the PHY device
+
+Whenever possible, use the PHY side RGMII delay for these reasons:
+
+* PHY devices may offer sub-nanosecond granularity in how they allow a
+ receiver/transmitter side delay (e.g: 0.5, 1.0, 1.5ns) to be specified. Such
+ precision may be required to account for differences in PCB trace lengths
+
+* PHY devices are typically qualified for a large range of applications
+ (industrial, medical, automotive...), and they provide a constant and
+ reliable delay across temperature/pressure/voltage ranges
+
+* PHY device drivers in PHYLIB being reusable by nature, being able to
+ configure correctly a specified delay enables more designs with similar delay
+ requirements to be operated correctly
+
+For cases where the PHY is not capable of providing this delay, but the
+Ethernet MAC driver is capable of doing so, the correct phy_interface_t value
+should be PHY_INTERFACE_MODE_RGMII, and the Ethernet MAC driver should be
+configured correctly in order to provide the required transmit and/or receive
+side delay from the perspective of the PHY device. Conversely, if the Ethernet
+MAC driver looks at the phy_interface_t value, for any other mode but
+PHY_INTERFACE_MODE_RGMII, it should make sure that the MAC-level delays are
+disabled.
+
+In case neither the Ethernet MAC, nor the PHY are capable of providing the
+required delays, as defined per the RGMII standard, several options may be
+available:
+
+* Some SoCs may offer a pin pad/mux/controller capable of configuring a given
+ set of pins' strength, delays, and voltage; and it may be a suitable
+ option to insert the expected 2ns RGMII delay.
+
+* Modifying the PCB design to include a fixed delay (e.g: using a specifically
+ designed serpentine), which may not require software configuration at all.
+
+Common problems with RGMII delay mismatch
+-----------------------------------------
+
+When there is a RGMII delay mismatch between the Ethernet MAC and the PHY, this
+will most likely result in the clock and data line signals to be unstable when
+the PHY or MAC take a snapshot of these signals to translate them into logical
+1 or 0 states and reconstruct the data being transmitted/received. Typical
+symptoms include:
+
+* Transmission/reception partially works, and there is frequent or occasional
+ packet loss observed
+
+* Ethernet MAC may report some or all packets ingressing with a FCS/CRC error,
+ or just discard them all
+
+* Switching to lower speeds such as 10/100Mbits/sec makes the problem go away
+ (since there is enough setup/hold time in that case)
+
+Connecting to a PHY
+===================
+
+Sometime during startup, the network driver needs to establish a connection
+between the PHY device, and the network device. At this time, the PHY's bus
+and drivers need to all have been loaded, so it is ready for the connection.
+At this point, there are several ways to connect to the PHY:
+
+#. The PAL handles everything, and only calls the network driver when
+ the link state changes, so it can react.
+
+#. The PAL handles everything except interrupts (usually because the
+ controller has the interrupt registers).
+
+#. The PAL handles everything, but checks in with the driver every second,
+ allowing the network driver to react first to any changes before the PAL
+ does.
+
+#. The PAL serves only as a library of functions, with the network device
+ manually calling functions to update status, and configure the PHY
+
+
+Letting the PHY Abstraction Layer do Everything
+===============================================
+
+If you choose option 1 (The hope is that every driver can, but to still be
+useful to drivers that can't), connecting to the PHY is simple:
+
+First, you need a function to react to changes in the link state. This
+function follows this protocol::
+
+ static void adjust_link(struct net_device *dev);
+
+Next, you need to know the device name of the PHY connected to this device.
+The name will look something like, "0:00", where the first number is the
+bus id, and the second is the PHY's address on that bus. Typically,
+the bus is responsible for making its ID unique.
+
+Now, to connect, just call this function::
+
+ phydev = phy_connect(dev, phy_name, &adjust_link, interface);
+
+*phydev* is a pointer to the phy_device structure which represents the PHY.
+If phy_connect is successful, it will return the pointer. dev, here, is the
+pointer to your net_device. Once done, this function will have started the
+PHY's software state machine, and registered for the PHY's interrupt, if it
+has one. The phydev structure will be populated with information about the
+current state, though the PHY will not yet be truly operational at this
+point.
+
+PHY-specific flags should be set in phydev->dev_flags prior to the call
+to phy_connect() such that the underlying PHY driver can check for flags
+and perform specific operations based on them.
+This is useful if the system has put hardware restrictions on
+the PHY/controller, of which the PHY needs to be aware.
+
+*interface* is a u32 which specifies the connection type used
+between the controller and the PHY. Examples are GMII, MII,
+RGMII, and SGMII. See "PHY interface mode" below. For a full
+list, see include/linux/phy.h
+
+Now just make sure that phydev->supported and phydev->advertising have any
+values pruned from them which don't make sense for your controller (a 10/100
+controller may be connected to a gigabit capable PHY, so you would need to
+mask off SUPPORTED_1000baseT*). See include/linux/ethtool.h for definitions
+for these bitfields. Note that you should not SET any bits, except the
+SUPPORTED_Pause and SUPPORTED_AsymPause bits (see below), or the PHY may get
+put into an unsupported state.
+
+Lastly, once the controller is ready to handle network traffic, you call
+phy_start(phydev). This tells the PAL that you are ready, and configures the
+PHY to connect to the network. If the MAC interrupt of your network driver
+also handles PHY status changes, just set phydev->irq to PHY_MAC_INTERRUPT
+before you call phy_start and use phy_mac_interrupt() from the network
+driver. If you don't want to use interrupts, set phydev->irq to PHY_POLL.
+phy_start() enables the PHY interrupts (if applicable) and starts the
+phylib state machine.
+
+When you want to disconnect from the network (even if just briefly), you call
+phy_stop(phydev). This function also stops the phylib state machine and
+disables PHY interrupts.
+
+PHY interface modes
+===================
+
+The PHY interface mode supplied in the phy_connect() family of functions
+defines the initial operating mode of the PHY interface. This is not
+guaranteed to remain constant; there are PHYs which dynamically change
+their interface mode without software interaction depending on the
+negotiation results.
+
+Some of the interface modes are described below:
+
+``PHY_INTERFACE_MODE_SMII``
+ This is serial MII, clocked at 125MHz, supporting 100M and 10M speeds.
+ Some details can be found in
+ https://opencores.org/ocsvn/smii/smii/trunk/doc/SMII.pdf
+
+``PHY_INTERFACE_MODE_1000BASEX``
+ This defines the 1000BASE-X single-lane serdes link as defined by the
+ 802.3 standard section 36. The link operates at a fixed bit rate of
+ 1.25Gbaud using a 10B/8B encoding scheme, resulting in an underlying
+ data rate of 1Gbps. Embedded in the data stream is a 16-bit control
+ word which is used to negotiate the duplex and pause modes with the
+ remote end. This does not include "up-clocked" variants such as 2.5Gbps
+ speeds (see below.)
+
+``PHY_INTERFACE_MODE_2500BASEX``
+ This defines a variant of 1000BASE-X which is clocked 2.5 times as fast
+ as the 802.3 standard, giving a fixed bit rate of 3.125Gbaud.
+
+``PHY_INTERFACE_MODE_SGMII``
+ This is used for Cisco SGMII, which is a modification of 1000BASE-X
+ as defined by the 802.3 standard. The SGMII link consists of a single
+ serdes lane running at a fixed bit rate of 1.25Gbaud with 10B/8B
+ encoding. The underlying data rate is 1Gbps, with the slower speeds of
+ 100Mbps and 10Mbps being achieved through replication of each data symbol.
+ The 802.3 control word is re-purposed to send the negotiated speed and
+ duplex information from to the MAC, and for the MAC to acknowledge
+ receipt. This does not include "up-clocked" variants such as 2.5Gbps
+ speeds.
+
+ Note: mismatched SGMII vs 1000BASE-X configuration on a link can
+ successfully pass data in some circumstances, but the 16-bit control
+ word will not be correctly interpreted, which may cause mismatches in
+ duplex, pause or other settings. This is dependent on the MAC and/or
+ PHY behaviour.
+
+``PHY_INTERFACE_MODE_5GBASER``
+ This is the IEEE 802.3 Clause 129 defined 5GBASE-R protocol. It is
+ identical to the 10GBASE-R protocol defined in Clause 49, with the
+ exception that it operates at half the frequency. Please refer to the
+ IEEE standard for the definition.
+
+``PHY_INTERFACE_MODE_10GBASER``
+ This is the IEEE 802.3 Clause 49 defined 10GBASE-R protocol used with
+ various different mediums. Please refer to the IEEE standard for a
+ definition of this.
+
+ Note: 10GBASE-R is just one protocol that can be used with XFI and SFI.
+ XFI and SFI permit multiple protocols over a single SERDES lane, and
+ also defines the electrical characteristics of the signals with a host
+ compliance board plugged into the host XFP/SFP connector. Therefore,
+ XFI and SFI are not PHY interface types in their own right.
+
+``PHY_INTERFACE_MODE_10GKR``
+ This is the IEEE 802.3 Clause 49 defined 10GBASE-R with Clause 73
+ autonegotiation. Please refer to the IEEE standard for further
+ information.
+
+ Note: due to legacy usage, some 10GBASE-R usage incorrectly makes
+ use of this definition.
+
+``PHY_INTERFACE_MODE_25GBASER``
+ This is the IEEE 802.3 PCS Clause 107 defined 25GBASE-R protocol.
+ The PCS is identical to 10GBASE-R, i.e. 64B/66B encoded
+ running 2.5 as fast, giving a fixed bit rate of 25.78125 Gbaud.
+ Please refer to the IEEE standard for further information.
+
+``PHY_INTERFACE_MODE_100BASEX``
+ This defines IEEE 802.3 Clause 24. The link operates at a fixed data
+ rate of 125Mpbs using a 4B/5B encoding scheme, resulting in an underlying
+ data rate of 100Mpbs.
+
+``PHY_INTERFACE_MODE_QUSGMII``
+ This defines the Cisco the Quad USGMII mode, which is the Quad variant of
+ the USGMII (Universal SGMII) link. It's very similar to QSGMII, but uses
+ a Packet Control Header (PCH) instead of the 7 bytes preamble to carry not
+ only the port id, but also so-called "extensions". The only documented
+ extension so-far in the specification is the inclusion of timestamps, for
+ PTP-enabled PHYs. This mode isn't compatible with QSGMII, but offers the
+ same capabilities in terms of link speed and negociation.
+
+``PHY_INTERFACE_MODE_1000BASEKX``
+ This is 1000BASE-X as defined by IEEE 802.3 Clause 36 with Clause 73
+ autonegotiation. Generally, it will be used with a Clause 70 PMD. To
+ contrast with the 1000BASE-X phy mode used for Clause 38 and 39 PMDs, this
+ interface mode has different autonegotiation and only supports full duplex.
+
+Pause frames / flow control
+===========================
+
+The PHY does not participate directly in flow control/pause frames except by
+making sure that the SUPPORTED_Pause and SUPPORTED_AsymPause bits are set in
+MII_ADVERTISE to indicate towards the link partner that the Ethernet MAC
+controller supports such a thing. Since flow control/pause frames generation
+involves the Ethernet MAC driver, it is recommended that this driver takes care
+of properly indicating advertisement and support for such features by setting
+the SUPPORTED_Pause and SUPPORTED_AsymPause bits accordingly. This can be done
+either before or after phy_connect() and/or as a result of implementing the
+ethtool::set_pauseparam feature.
+
+
+Keeping Close Tabs on the PAL
+=============================
+
+It is possible that the PAL's built-in state machine needs a little help to
+keep your network device and the PHY properly in sync. If so, you can
+register a helper function when connecting to the PHY, which will be called
+every second before the state machine reacts to any changes. To do this, you
+need to manually call phy_attach() and phy_prepare_link(), and then call
+phy_start_machine() with the second argument set to point to your special
+handler.
+
+Currently there are no examples of how to use this functionality, and testing
+on it has been limited because the author does not have any drivers which use
+it (they all use option 1). So Caveat Emptor.
+
+Doing it all yourself
+=====================
+
+There's a remote chance that the PAL's built-in state machine cannot track
+the complex interactions between the PHY and your network device. If this is
+so, you can simply call phy_attach(), and not call phy_start_machine or
+phy_prepare_link(). This will mean that phydev->state is entirely yours to
+handle (phy_start and phy_stop toggle between some of the states, so you
+might need to avoid them).
+
+An effort has been made to make sure that useful functionality can be
+accessed without the state-machine running, and most of these functions are
+descended from functions which did not interact with a complex state-machine.
+However, again, no effort has been made so far to test running without the
+state machine, so tryer beware.
+
+Here is a brief rundown of the functions::
+
+ int phy_read(struct phy_device *phydev, u16 regnum);
+ int phy_write(struct phy_device *phydev, u16 regnum, u16 val);
+
+Simple read/write primitives. They invoke the bus's read/write function
+pointers.
+::
+
+ void phy_print_status(struct phy_device *phydev);
+
+A convenience function to print out the PHY status neatly.
+::
+
+ void phy_request_interrupt(struct phy_device *phydev);
+
+Requests the IRQ for the PHY interrupts.
+::
+
+ struct phy_device * phy_attach(struct net_device *dev, const char *phy_id,
+ phy_interface_t interface);
+
+Attaches a network device to a particular PHY, binding the PHY to a generic
+driver if none was found during bus initialization.
+::
+
+ int phy_start_aneg(struct phy_device *phydev);
+
+Using variables inside the phydev structure, either configures advertising
+and resets autonegotiation, or disables autonegotiation, and configures
+forced settings.
+::
+
+ static inline int phy_read_status(struct phy_device *phydev);
+
+Fills the phydev structure with up-to-date information about the current
+settings in the PHY.
+::
+
+ int phy_ethtool_ksettings_set(struct phy_device *phydev,
+ const struct ethtool_link_ksettings *cmd);
+
+Ethtool convenience functions.
+::
+
+ int phy_mii_ioctl(struct phy_device *phydev,
+ struct mii_ioctl_data *mii_data, int cmd);
+
+The MII ioctl. Note that this function will completely screw up the state
+machine if you write registers like BMCR, BMSR, ADVERTISE, etc. Best to
+use this only to write registers which are not standard, and don't set off
+a renegotiation.
+
+PHY Device Drivers
+==================
+
+With the PHY Abstraction Layer, adding support for new PHYs is
+quite easy. In some cases, no work is required at all! However,
+many PHYs require a little hand-holding to get up-and-running.
+
+Generic PHY driver
+------------------
+
+If the desired PHY doesn't have any errata, quirks, or special
+features you want to support, then it may be best to not add
+support, and let the PHY Abstraction Layer's Generic PHY Driver
+do all of the work.
+
+Writing a PHY driver
+--------------------
+
+If you do need to write a PHY driver, the first thing to do is
+make sure it can be matched with an appropriate PHY device.
+This is done during bus initialization by reading the device's
+UID (stored in registers 2 and 3), then comparing it to each
+driver's phy_id field by ANDing it with each driver's
+phy_id_mask field. Also, it needs a name. Here's an example::
+
+ static struct phy_driver dm9161_driver = {
+ .phy_id = 0x0181b880,
+ .name = "Davicom DM9161E",
+ .phy_id_mask = 0x0ffffff0,
+ ...
+ }
+
+Next, you need to specify what features (speed, duplex, autoneg,
+etc) your PHY device and driver support. Most PHYs support
+PHY_BASIC_FEATURES, but you can look in include/mii.h for other
+features.
+
+Each driver consists of a number of function pointers, documented
+in include/linux/phy.h under the phy_driver structure.
+
+Of these, only config_aneg and read_status are required to be
+assigned by the driver code. The rest are optional. Also, it is
+preferred to use the generic phy driver's versions of these two
+functions if at all possible: genphy_read_status and
+genphy_config_aneg. If this is not possible, it is likely that
+you only need to perform some actions before and after invoking
+these functions, and so your functions will wrap the generic
+ones.
+
+Feel free to look at the Marvell, Cicada, and Davicom drivers in
+drivers/net/phy/ for examples (the lxt and qsemi drivers have
+not been tested as of this writing).
+
+The PHY's MMD register accesses are handled by the PAL framework
+by default, but can be overridden by a specific PHY driver if
+required. This could be the case if a PHY was released for
+manufacturing before the MMD PHY register definitions were
+standardized by the IEEE. Most modern PHYs will be able to use
+the generic PAL framework for accessing the PHY's MMD registers.
+An example of such usage is for Energy Efficient Ethernet support,
+implemented in the PAL. This support uses the PAL to access MMD
+registers for EEE query and configuration if the PHY supports
+the IEEE standard access mechanisms, or can use the PHY's specific
+access interfaces if overridden by the specific PHY driver. See
+the Micrel driver in drivers/net/phy/ for an example of how this
+can be implemented.
+
+Board Fixups
+============
+
+Sometimes the specific interaction between the platform and the PHY requires
+special handling. For instance, to change where the PHY's clock input is,
+or to add a delay to account for latency issues in the data path. In order
+to support such contingencies, the PHY Layer allows platform code to register
+fixups to be run when the PHY is brought up (or subsequently reset).
+
+When the PHY Layer brings up a PHY it checks to see if there are any fixups
+registered for it, matching based on UID (contained in the PHY device's phy_id
+field) and the bus identifier (contained in phydev->dev.bus_id). Both must
+match, however two constants, PHY_ANY_ID and PHY_ANY_UID, are provided as
+wildcards for the bus ID and UID, respectively.
+
+When a match is found, the PHY layer will invoke the run function associated
+with the fixup. This function is passed a pointer to the phy_device of
+interest. It should therefore only operate on that PHY.
+
+The platform code can either register the fixup using phy_register_fixup()::
+
+ int phy_register_fixup(const char *phy_id,
+ u32 phy_uid, u32 phy_uid_mask,
+ int (*run)(struct phy_device *));
+
+Or using one of the two stubs, phy_register_fixup_for_uid() and
+phy_register_fixup_for_id()::
+
+ int phy_register_fixup_for_uid(u32 phy_uid, u32 phy_uid_mask,
+ int (*run)(struct phy_device *));
+ int phy_register_fixup_for_id(const char *phy_id,
+ int (*run)(struct phy_device *));
+
+The stubs set one of the two matching criteria, and set the other one to
+match anything.
+
+When phy_register_fixup() or \*_for_uid()/\*_for_id() is called at module load
+time, the module needs to unregister the fixup and free allocated memory when
+it's unloaded.
+
+Call one of following function before unloading module::
+
+ int phy_unregister_fixup(const char *phy_id, u32 phy_uid, u32 phy_uid_mask);
+ int phy_unregister_fixup_for_uid(u32 phy_uid, u32 phy_uid_mask);
+ int phy_register_fixup_for_id(const char *phy_id);
+
+Standards
+=========
+
+IEEE Standard 802.3: CSMA/CD Access Method and Physical Layer Specifications, Section Two:
+http://standards.ieee.org/getieee802/download/802.3-2008_section2.pdf
+
+RGMII v1.3:
+http://web.archive.org/web/20160303212629/http://www.hp.com/rnd/pdfs/RGMIIv1_3.pdf
+
+RGMII v2.0:
+http://web.archive.org/web/20160303171328/http://www.hp.com/rnd/pdfs/RGMIIv2_0_final_hp.pdf