This file documents the CONFIG_PACKET_MMAP option available with the PACKET
socket interface on 2.4 and 2.6 kernels. This type of sockets is used for
-capture network traffic with utilities like tcpdump or any other that uses
-the libpcap library.
-
-You can find the latest version of this document at
+capture network traffic with utilities like tcpdump or any other that needs
+raw access to network interface.
+You can find the latest version of this document at:
http://pusa.uv.es/~ulisses/packet_mmap/
-Please send me your comments to
+Howto can be found at:
+ http://wiki.gnu-log.net (packet_mmap)
- Ulisses Alonso Camaró <uaca@i.hate.spam.alumni.uv.es>
+Please send your comments to
+ Ulisses Alonso Camaró <uaca@i.hate.spam.alumni.uv.es>
+ Johann Baudy <johann.baudy@gnu-log.net>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ Why use PACKET_MMAP
timestamp (like libpcap always does).
In the other hand PACKET_MMAP is very efficient. PACKET_MMAP provides a size
-configurable circular buffer mapped in user space. This way reading packets just
-needs to wait for them, most of the time there is no need to issue a single
-system call. By using a shared buffer between the kernel and the user
-also has the benefit of minimizing packet copies.
-
-It's fine to use PACKET_MMAP to improve the performance of the capture process,
-but it isn't everything. At least, if you are capturing at high speeds (this
-is relative to the cpu speed), you should check if the device driver of your
-network interface card supports some sort of interrupt load mitigation or
-(even better) if it supports NAPI, also make sure it is enabled.
+configurable circular buffer mapped in user space that can be used to either
+send or receive packets. This way reading packets just needs to wait for them,
+most of the time there is no need to issue a single system call. Concerning
+transmission, multiple packets can be sent through one system call to get the
+highest bandwidth.
+By using a shared buffer between the kernel and the user also has the benefit
+of minimizing packet copies.
+
+It's fine to use PACKET_MMAP to improve the performance of the capture and
+transmission process, but it isn't everything. At least, if you are capturing
+at high speeds (this is relative to the cpu speed), you should check if the
+device driver of your network interface card supports some sort of interrupt
+load mitigation or (even better) if it supports NAPI, also make sure it is
+enabled. For transmission, check the MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) used and
+supported by devices of your network.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-+ How to use CONFIG_PACKET_MMAP
++ How to use CONFIG_PACKET_MMAP to improve capture process
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From the user standpoint, you should use the higher level libpcap library, which
support.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-+ How to use CONFIG_PACKET_MMAP directly
++ How to use CONFIG_PACKET_MMAP directly to improve capture process
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From the system calls stand point, the use of PACKET_MMAP involves
[setup] socket() -------> creation of the capture socket
setsockopt() ---> allocation of the circular buffer (ring)
+ option: PACKET_RX_RING
mmap() ---------> mapping of the allocated buffer to the
user process
the use of this buffer.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
++ How to use CONFIG_PACKET_MMAP directly to improve transmission process
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Transmission process is similar to capture as shown below.
+
+[setup] socket() -------> creation of the transmission socket
+ setsockopt() ---> allocation of the circular buffer (ring)
+ option: PACKET_TX_RING
+ bind() ---------> bind transmission socket with a network interface
+ mmap() ---------> mapping of the allocated buffer to the
+ user process
+
+[transmission] poll() ---------> wait for free packets (optional)
+ send() ---------> send all packets that are set as ready in
+ the ring
+ The flag MSG_DONTWAIT can be used to return
+ before end of transfer.
+
+[shutdown] close() --------> destruction of the transmission socket and
+ deallocation of all associated resources.
+
+Binding the socket to your network interface is mandatory (with zero copy) to
+know the header size of frames used in the circular buffer.
+
+As capture, each frame contains two parts:
+
+ --------------------
+| struct tpacket_hdr | Header. It contains the status of
+| | of this frame
+|--------------------|
+| data buffer |
+. . Data that will be sent over the network interface.
+. .
+ --------------------
+
+ bind() associates the socket to your network interface thanks to
+ sll_ifindex parameter of struct sockaddr_ll.
+
+ Initialization example:
+
+ struct sockaddr_ll my_addr;
+ struct ifreq s_ifr;
+ ...
+
+ strncpy (s_ifr.ifr_name, "eth0", sizeof(s_ifr.ifr_name));
+
+ /* get interface index of eth0 */
+ ioctl(this->socket, SIOCGIFINDEX, &s_ifr);
+
+ /* fill sockaddr_ll struct to prepare binding */
+ my_addr.sll_family = AF_PACKET;
+ my_addr.sll_protocol = ETH_P_ALL;
+ my_addr.sll_ifindex = s_ifr.ifr_ifindex;
+
+ /* bind socket to eth0 */
+ bind(this->socket, (struct sockaddr *)&my_addr, sizeof(struct sockaddr_ll));
+
+ A complete tutorial is available at: http://wiki.gnu-log.net/
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ PACKET_MMAP settings
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To setup PACKET_MMAP from user level code is done with a call like
+ - Capture process
setsockopt(fd, SOL_PACKET, PACKET_RX_RING, (void *) &req, sizeof(req))
+ - Transmission process
+ setsockopt(fd, SOL_PACKET, PACKET_TX_RING, (void *) &req, sizeof(req))
The most significant argument in the previous call is the req parameter,
this parameter must to have the following structure:
};
This structure is defined in /usr/include/linux/if_packet.h and establishes a
-circular buffer (ring) of unswappable memory mapped in the capture process.
+circular buffer (ring) of unswappable memory.
Being mapped in the capture process allows reading the captured frames and
related meta-information like timestamps without requiring a system call.
-Captured frames are grouped in blocks. Each block is a physically contiguous
+Frames are grouped in blocks. Each block is a physically contiguous
region of memory and holds tp_block_size/tp_frame_size frames. The total number
of blocks is tp_block_nr. Note that tp_frame_nr is a redundant parameter because
block #1
-kmalloc allocates any number of bytes of phisically contiguous memory from
-a pool of pre-determined sizes. This pool of memory is mantained by the slab
+kmalloc allocates any number of bytes of physically contiguous memory from
+a pool of pre-determined sizes. This pool of memory is maintained by the slab
allocator which is at the end the responsible for doing the allocation and
hence which imposes the maximum memory that kmalloc can allocate.
All memory allocations are not freed until the socket is closed. The memory
allocations are done with GFP_KERNEL priority, this basically means that
the allocation can wait and swap other process' memory in order to allocate
-the nececessary memory, so normally limits can be reached.
+the necessary memory, so normally limits can be reached.
Other constraints
-------------------
If you check the source code you will see that what I draw here as a frame
-is not only the link level frame. At the begining of each frame there is a
+is not only the link level frame. At the beginning of each frame there is a
header called struct tpacket_hdr used in PACKET_MMAP to hold link level's frame
meta information like timestamp. So what we draw here a frame it's really
the following (from include/linux/if_packet.h):
mmap(0, size, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED, fd, 0);
If tp_frame_size is a divisor of tp_block_size frames will be
-contiguosly spaced by tp_frame_size bytes. If not, each
+contiguously spaced by tp_frame_size bytes. If not, each
tp_block_size/tp_frame_size frames there will be a gap between
the frames. This is because a frame cannot be spawn across two
blocks.
to be used for the kernel, If not, there is a frame the user can read
and the following flags apply:
++++ Capture process:
from include/linux/if_packet.h
#define TP_STATUS_COPY 2
It doesn't incur in a race condition to first check the status value and
then poll for frames.
+
+++ Transmission process
+Those defines are also used for transmission:
+
+ #define TP_STATUS_AVAILABLE 0 // Frame is available
+ #define TP_STATUS_SEND_REQUEST 1 // Frame will be sent on next send()
+ #define TP_STATUS_SENDING 2 // Frame is currently in transmission
+ #define TP_STATUS_WRONG_FORMAT 4 // Frame format is not correct
+
+First, the kernel initializes all frames to TP_STATUS_AVAILABLE. To send a
+packet, the user fills a data buffer of an available frame, sets tp_len to
+current data buffer size and sets its status field to TP_STATUS_SEND_REQUEST.
+This can be done on multiple frames. Once the user is ready to transmit, it
+calls send(). Then all buffers with status equal to TP_STATUS_SEND_REQUEST are
+forwarded to the network device. The kernel updates each status of sent
+frames with TP_STATUS_SENDING until the end of transfer.
+At the end of each transfer, buffer status returns to TP_STATUS_AVAILABLE.
+
+ header->tp_len = in_i_size;
+ header->tp_status = TP_STATUS_SEND_REQUEST;
+ retval = send(this->socket, NULL, 0, 0);
+
+The user can also use poll() to check if a buffer is available:
+(status == TP_STATUS_SENDING)
+
+ struct pollfd pfd;
+ pfd.fd = fd;
+ pfd.revents = 0;
+ pfd.events = POLLOUT;
+ retval = poll(&pfd, 1, timeout);
+
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ THANKS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
git://ftp.safe.ca / safe / jmp / linux-2.6 / blobdiff