Re: Fwd: basic questions about LiS

Hongbin,

On Mon, 06 Dec 2004, Dave Grothe wrote:

> 
>    Since  I  am  no  longer  maintaining  LiS  I am referring this to the
>    group.  Perhaps someone can help Mr Wang.
>    -- Dave
> 
>      From: "Hongbin Wang" <[email protected]>
>      To: <[email protected]>
>      Subject: basic questions about LiS
>      Date: Sun, 5 Dec 2004 19:28:33 -0800
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>      Dear David Grothe,
> 
>      This  is  Henry  Wang,  a  consultant  working  on  a project using
>      embedded Linux for PPC8260 based broadband access product.
>      I came across LiS just a few days ago when I started on porting the
>      Ethernet switch driver we got from the chip vendor.
>      What  we  learned  is  that  the driver is using the STREAMS model.
>      Since I have no expertise in this area, I'm resorting to your help.
> 
>      (1)  we're  currently  using yellowdog linux 2.4.24 for powerpc, is
>      there any risk in using LiS 2.16?

No.  But you would be better to use the new LiS 2.18.1 release.

>      (2)  since  the  regular  network  drivers  in linux use BSD socket
>      model,  is  there  any  conflicts  between the BSD model and STREAM
>      model? can the two models coexist?

Yes.  Use the strxns, strinet and strxnet packages for STREAMS and XTI/TLI
interface to INET.

>      (3)  when adding LiS library to the linux kernel, does it mean that
>      we're adding STREAMS based TCP/IP protocol stack into the kernel?

No.  strinet runs an XTIOS (XTI over Sockets) approach.

>      I have  no  clue  about how much bigger the footprint will become for
>      the  new  kernel, but it seems to me that it is unnecessary to have
>      both BSD model and STREAM model at the same time;

Yes, because the XTI is just a STREAMS wrapper over the BSD sockets.

>      (4)  for  application  development, how much learning curve will it
>      require to get familiar with STREAMS (such as learning the DLPI)

Lots.

--brian

> 
>      Your help and input is highly appreciated in advance.
> 
>      Sincerely
> 
>      Henry Wang

-- 
Brian F. G. Bidulock    ¦ The reasonable man adapts himself to the ¦
[email protected]    ¦ world; the unreasonable one persists in  ¦
http://www.openss7.org/ ¦ trying  to adapt the  world  to himself. ¦
                        ¦ Therefore  all  progress  depends on the ¦
                        ¦ unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw ¦