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diff --git a/Documentation/networking/udplite.txt b/Documentation/networking/udplite.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..855d8da --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/networking/udplite.txt @@ -0,0 +1,281 @@ + =========================================================================== + The UDP-Lite protocol (RFC 3828) + =========================================================================== + + + UDP-Lite is a Standards-Track IETF transport protocol whose characteristic + is a variable-length checksum. This has advantages for transport of multimedia + (video, VoIP) over wireless networks, as partly damaged packets can still be + fed into the codec instead of being discarded due to a failed checksum test. + + This file briefly describes the existing kernel support and the socket API. + For in-depth information, you can consult: + + o The UDP-Lite Homepage: http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk/users/gerrit/udp-lite/ + From here you can also download some example application source code. + + o The UDP-Lite HOWTO on + http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk/users/gerrit/udp-lite/files/UDP-Lite-HOWTO.txt + + o The Wireshark UDP-Lite WiKi (with capture files): + http://wiki.wireshark.org/Lightweight_User_Datagram_Protocol + + o The Protocol Spec, RFC 3828, http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3828.txt + + + I) APPLICATIONS + + Several applications have been ported successfully to UDP-Lite. Ethereal + (now called wireshark) has UDP-Litev4/v6 support by default. The tarball on + + http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk/users/gerrit/udp-lite/files/udplite_linux.tar.gz + + has source code for several v4/v6 client-server and network testing examples. + + Porting applications to UDP-Lite is straightforward: only socket level and + IPPROTO need to be changed; senders additionally set the checksum coverage + length (default = header length = 8). Details are in the next section. + + + II) PROGRAMMING API + + UDP-Lite provides a connectionless, unreliable datagram service and hence + uses the same socket type as UDP. In fact, porting from UDP to UDP-Lite is + very easy: simply add `IPPROTO_UDPLITE' as the last argument of the socket(2) + call so that the statement looks like: + + s = socket(PF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM, IPPROTO_UDPLITE); + + or, respectively, + + s = socket(PF_INET6, SOCK_DGRAM, IPPROTO_UDPLITE); + + With just the above change you are able to run UDP-Lite services or connect + to UDP-Lite servers. The kernel will assume that you are not interested in + using partial checksum coverage and so emulate UDP mode (full coverage). + + To make use of the partial checksum coverage facilities requires setting a + single socket option, which takes an integer specifying the coverage length: + + * Sender checksum coverage: UDPLITE_SEND_CSCOV + + For example, + + int val = 20; + setsockopt(s, SOL_UDPLITE, UDPLITE_SEND_CSCOV, &val, sizeof(int)); + + sets the checksum coverage length to 20 bytes (12b data + 8b header). + Of each packet only the first 20 bytes (plus the pseudo-header) will be + checksummed. This is useful for RTP applications which have a 12-byte + base header. + + + * Receiver checksum coverage: UDPLITE_RECV_CSCOV + + This option is the receiver-side analogue. It is truly optional, i.e. not + required to enable traffic with partial checksum coverage. Its function is + that of a traffic filter: when enabled, it instructs the kernel to drop + all packets which have a coverage _less_ than this value. For example, if + RTP and UDP headers are to be protected, a receiver can enforce that only + packets with a minimum coverage of 20 are admitted: + + int min = 20; + setsockopt(s, SOL_UDPLITE, UDPLITE_RECV_CSCOV, &min, sizeof(int)); + + The calls to getsockopt(2) are analogous. Being an extension and not a stand- + alone protocol, all socket options known from UDP can be used in exactly the + same manner as before, e.g. UDP_CORK or UDP_ENCAP. + + A detailed discussion of UDP-Lite checksum coverage options is in section IV. + + + III) HEADER FILES + + The socket API requires support through header files in /usr/include: + + * /usr/include/netinet/in.h + to define IPPROTO_UDPLITE + + * /usr/include/netinet/udplite.h + for UDP-Lite header fields and protocol constants + + For testing purposes, the following can serve as a `mini' header file: + + #define IPPROTO_UDPLITE 136 + #define SOL_UDPLITE 136 + #define UDPLITE_SEND_CSCOV 10 + #define UDPLITE_RECV_CSCOV 11 + + Ready-made header files for various distros are in the UDP-Lite tarball. + + + IV) KERNEL BEHAVIOUR WITH REGARD TO THE VARIOUS SOCKET OPTIONS + + To enable debugging messages, the log level need to be set to 8, as most + messages use the KERN_DEBUG level (7). + + 1) Sender Socket Options + + If the sender specifies a value of 0 as coverage length, the module + assumes full coverage, transmits a packet with coverage length of 0 + and according checksum. If the sender specifies a coverage < 8 and + different from 0, the kernel assumes 8 as default value. Finally, + if the specified coverage length exceeds the packet length, the packet + length is used instead as coverage length. + + 2) Receiver Socket Options + + The receiver specifies the minimum value of the coverage length it + is willing to accept. A value of 0 here indicates that the receiver + always wants the whole of the packet covered. In this case, all + partially covered packets are dropped and an error is logged. + + It is not possible to specify illegal values (<0 and <8); in these + cases the default of 8 is assumed. + + All packets arriving with a coverage value less than the specified + threshold are discarded, these events are also logged. + + 3) Disabling the Checksum Computation + + On both sender and receiver, checksumming will always be performed + and cannot be disabled using SO_NO_CHECK. Thus + + setsockopt(sockfd, SOL_SOCKET, SO_NO_CHECK, ... ); + + will always will be ignored, while the value of + + getsockopt(sockfd, SOL_SOCKET, SO_NO_CHECK, &value, ...); + + is meaningless (as in TCP). Packets with a zero checksum field are + illegal (cf. RFC 3828, sec. 3.1) and will be silently discarded. + + 4) Fragmentation + + The checksum computation respects both buffersize and MTU. The size + of UDP-Lite packets is determined by the size of the send buffer. The + minimum size of the send buffer is 2048 (defined as SOCK_MIN_SNDBUF + in include/net/sock.h), the default value is configurable as + net.core.wmem_default or via setting the SO_SNDBUF socket(7) + option. The maximum upper bound for the send buffer is determined + by net.core.wmem_max. + + Given a payload size larger than the send buffer size, UDP-Lite will + split the payload into several individual packets, filling up the + send buffer size in each case. + + The precise value also depends on the interface MTU. The interface MTU, + in turn, may trigger IP fragmentation. In this case, the generated + UDP-Lite packet is split into several IP packets, of which only the + first one contains the L4 header. + + The send buffer size has implications on the checksum coverage length. + Consider the following example: + + Payload: 1536 bytes Send Buffer: 1024 bytes + MTU: 1500 bytes Coverage Length: 856 bytes + + UDP-Lite will ship the 1536 bytes in two separate packets: + + Packet 1: 1024 payload + 8 byte header + 20 byte IP header = 1052 bytes + Packet 2: 512 payload + 8 byte header + 20 byte IP header = 540 bytes + + The coverage packet covers the UDP-Lite header and 848 bytes of the + payload in the first packet, the second packet is fully covered. Note + that for the second packet, the coverage length exceeds the packet + length. The kernel always re-adjusts the coverage length to the packet + length in such cases. + + As an example of what happens when one UDP-Lite packet is split into + several tiny fragments, consider the following example. + + Payload: 1024 bytes Send buffer size: 1024 bytes + MTU: 300 bytes Coverage length: 575 bytes + + +-+-----------+--------------+--------------+--------------+ + |8| 272 | 280 | 280 | 280 | + +-+-----------+--------------+--------------+--------------+ + 280 560 840 1032 + ^ + *****checksum coverage************* + + The UDP-Lite module generates one 1032 byte packet (1024 + 8 byte + header). According to the interface MTU, these are split into 4 IP + packets (280 byte IP payload + 20 byte IP header). The kernel module + sums the contents of the entire first two packets, plus 15 bytes of + the last packet before releasing the fragments to the IP module. + + To see the analogous case for IPv6 fragmentation, consider a link + MTU of 1280 bytes and a write buffer of 3356 bytes. If the checksum + coverage is less than 1232 bytes (MTU minus IPv6/fragment header + lengths), only the first fragment needs to be considered. When using + larger checksum coverage lengths, each eligible fragment needs to be + checksummed. Suppose we have a checksum coverage of 3062. The buffer + of 3356 bytes will be split into the following fragments: + + Fragment 1: 1280 bytes carrying 1232 bytes of UDP-Lite data + Fragment 2: 1280 bytes carrying 1232 bytes of UDP-Lite data + Fragment 3: 948 bytes carrying 900 bytes of UDP-Lite data + + The first two fragments have to be checksummed in full, of the last + fragment only 598 (= 3062 - 2*1232) bytes are checksummed. + + While it is important that such cases are dealt with correctly, they + are (annoyingly) rare: UDP-Lite is designed for optimising multimedia + performance over wireless (or generally noisy) links and thus smaller + coverage lengths are likely to be expected. + + + V) UDP-LITE RUNTIME STATISTICS AND THEIR MEANING + + Exceptional and error conditions are logged to syslog at the KERN_DEBUG + level. Live statistics about UDP-Lite are available in /proc/net/snmp + and can (with newer versions of netstat) be viewed using + + netstat -svu + + This displays UDP-Lite statistics variables, whose meaning is as follows. + + InDatagrams: The total number of datagrams delivered to users. + + NoPorts: Number of packets received to an unknown port. + These cases are counted separately (not as InErrors). + + InErrors: Number of erroneous UDP-Lite packets. Errors include: + * internal socket queue receive errors + * packet too short (less than 8 bytes or stated + coverage length exceeds received length) + * xfrm4_policy_check() returned with error + * application has specified larger min. coverage + length than that of incoming packet + * checksum coverage violated + * bad checksum + + OutDatagrams: Total number of sent datagrams. + + These statistics derive from the UDP MIB (RFC 2013). + + + VI) IPTABLES + + There is packet match support for UDP-Lite as well as support for the LOG target. + If you copy and paste the following line into /etc/protocols, + + udplite 136 UDP-Lite # UDP-Lite [RFC 3828] + + then + iptables -A INPUT -p udplite -j LOG + + will produce logging output to syslog. Dropping and rejecting packets also works. + + + VII) MAINTAINER ADDRESS + + The UDP-Lite patch was developed at + University of Aberdeen + Electronics Research Group + Department of Engineering + Fraser Noble Building + Aberdeen AB24 3UE; UK + The current maintainer is Gerrit Renker, <gerrit@erg.abdn.ac.uk>. Initial + code was developed by William Stanislaus, <william@erg.abdn.ac.uk>. |
