.\" .\" Copyright (c) 1997 Joerg Wunsch .\" .\" All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE DEVELOPERS ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES .\" OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. .\" IN NO EVENT SHALL THE DEVELOPERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, .\" INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT .\" NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, .\" DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY .\" THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT .\" (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF .\" THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" $Id$ .\" .Dd May 19, 1997 .Dt SPPP 4 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm sppp .Nd point to point protocol network layer for synchronuous lines .Sh SYNOPSIS .Cd "pseudo-device sppp" Op Ar count .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Nm network layer implements the state machine and the Link Control Protocol (LCP) of the .Em point to point protocol (PPP) as described in RFC 1661. Note that this layer does not provide network interfaces of its own, it is rather intended to be layered on top of drivers providing a synchronuous point-to-point connection that wish to run a PPP stack over it. The corresponding network interfaces have to be provided by these hardware drivers. .Pp The .Nm layer provides three basic modes of operation. The default mode, with no special flags to be set, is to create the PPP connection (administrative .Em Open event to the LCP layer) as soon as the interface is taken up with the .Xr ifconfig 8 command. Taking the interface down again will terminate the LCP layer and thus all other layers on top. The link will also terminate itself as soon as no Network Control Protocol (NCP) is open anymore, indicating that the lower layers are no longer needed. .Pp Setting the link-level flag .Em link0 with .Xr ifconfig 8 will cause the respective network interface to go into .Em passive mode. This means, the administrative .Em Open event to the LCP layer will be delayed until after the lower layers signals an .Em Up event (rise of .Dq carrier ) . This can be used by lower layers to support a dialin connection where the physical layer isn't available immediately at startup, but only after some external event arrives. Receipt of a .Em Down event from the lower layer will not take the interface completely down in this case. .Pp Finally, setting the flag .Em link1 will cause the interface to operate in .Em dial-on-demand mode. This is also only useful if the lower layer supports the notion of a carrier (like with an ISDN line). Upon configuring the respective interface, it will delay the administrative .Em Open event to the LCP layer until either an outbound network packet arrives, or until the lower layer signals an .Em Up event, indicating an inbound connection. As with passive mode, receipt of a .Em Down event (loss of carrier) will not automatically take the interface down, thus it remains available for further connections. .Pp The .Nm layer supports the .Em debug interface flag that can be set with .Xr ifconfig 8 . If this flag is set, the various control protocol packets being exchanged as well as the option negotiation between both ends of the link will be logged at level .Dv LOG_DEBUG . This can be helpful to examine configuration problems during the first attempts to set up a new configuration. Without this flag being set, only the major phase transitions will be logged at level .Dv LOG_INFO . .Pp It is possible to leave the local interface IP address open for negotiation by setting it to 0.0.0.0. This requires that the remote peer can correctly supply a value for it based on the identity of the caller, or on the remote address supplied by this side. Due to the way the IPCP option negotiation works, this address is being supplied late during the negotiation, which might cause the remote peer to make wrong assumptions. .Sh DIAGNOSTICS .Bl -diag .It : illegal in state An event happened that should not happen for the current state the respective control protocol is in. See RFC 1661 for a description of the state automaton. .It : loopback The state automaton detected a line loopback (that is, it was talking with itself). The interface will be temporarily disabled. .It : up The LCP layer is running again, after a line loopback had previously been detected. .It : down The keepalive facility detected the line being unresponsive. Keepalive must be explicitly requested by the lower layers in order to take place. .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr intro 4 , .Xr inet 4 , .Xr ppp 4 , .Xr ifconfig 8 .Rs .%A W. Simpson, Editor .%T "The Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP)" .%O RFC 1661 .Re .Rs .%A G. McGregor .%T "The PPP Internet Protocol Control Protocol (IPCP)" .%O RFC 1332 .Re .Sh AUTHORS The original implementation of .Nm was written in 1994 at Cronyx Ltd., Moscow by Serge Vakulenko, now . .ie t J\(:org Wunsch .el Joerg Wunsch rewrote a large part in 1997 in order to fully implement the state machine as described in RFC 1661, so it could also be used for dialup lines. He also wrote this man page. .Sh BUGS Many. .Pp Currently, only the .Em IPCP control protocol and .Xr ip 4 network protocol is supported. .Pp Negotiation loop avoidance is not yet implemented. If the negotiation doesn't converge, this will likely cause an endless loop. .Pp The various parameters that should be adjustable per RFC 1661 are currently hard-coded into the kernel. .Pp .Em Passive mode has not really been tested yet. .Pp More NCPs should be implemented, as well as other control protocols for authentication and link quality reporting. .Pp IPCP should support VJ header compression. .Pp Link-level compression protocols should be supported.