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NG_PPP(4)		     Kernel Interfaces Manual		       NG_PPP(4)

NAME
     ng_ppp -- PPP protocol netgraph node type

SYNOPSIS
     #include <sys/types.h>
     #include <netgraph/ng_ppp.h>

DESCRIPTION
     The  ppp  node type performs multiplexing for the PPP protocol.  It handles
     only packets that contain data, and forwards protocol negotiation and  con-
     trol  packets  to a separate controlling entity (e.g., a user-land daemon).
     This approach combines the fast dispatch of kernel implementations with the
     configuration flexibility of a user-land  implementations.   The  PPP  node
     type  directly  supports multi-link PPP, Van Jacobson compression, PPP com-
     pression, PPP encryption, and the IP, IPX, and AppleTalk protocols.  A sin-
     gle PPP node corresponds to one PPP multi-link bundle.

     There is a separate hook for each PPP link  in  the  bundle,  plus  several
     hooks  corresponding  to the directly supported protocols.  For compression
     and encryption, separate attached nodes are required to do the actual work.
     The node type used will of  course  depend  on  the  algorithm  negotiated.
     There  is	also  a bypass hook which is used to handle any protocol not di-
     rectly supported by the node.  This includes all of the control  protocols:
     LCP,  IPCP, CCP, etc.  Typically this node is connected to a user-land dae-
     mon via a ng_socket(4) type node.

ENABLING FUNCTIONALITY
     In general, the PPP node enables a specific link or functionality when  (a)
     a	NGM_PPP_SET_CONFIG  message  has been received which enables it, and (b)
     the corresponding hook(s) are connected.  This allows the	controlling  en-
     tity to use either method (a) or (b) (or both) to control the node's behav-
     ior.   When a link is connected but disabled, traffic can still flow on the
     link via the bypass hook (see below).

LINK HOOKS
     During normal operation, the individual PPP links are  connected  to  hooks
     link0,  link1, etc.  Up to NG_PPP_MAX_LINKS links are supported.  These de-
     vice-independent hooks transmit and receive full PPP frames, which  include
     the PPP protocol, address, control, and information fields, but no checksum
     or other link-specific fields.

     On outgoing frames, when protocol compression has been enabled and the pro-
     tocol  number  is suitable for compression, the protocol field will be com-
     pressed (i.e., sent as one byte instead of two).  Either compressed or  un-
     compressed  protocol fields are accepted on incoming frames.  Similarly, if
     address and control field compression has been enabled for  the  link,  the
     address  and  control  fields will be omitted (except for LCP frames as re-
     quired by the standards).	Incoming frames have  the  address  and  control
     fields stripped automatically if present.

     Since all negotiation is handled outside the PPP node, the links should not
     be  connected and enabled until the corresponding link has reached the net-
     work phase (i.e., LCP negotiation and authentication  have  completed  suc-
     cessfully)  and  the  PPP node has been informed of the link parameters via
     the NGM_PPP_LINK_CONFIG message.

     When a link is connected but disabled, all received  frames  are  forwarded
     directly out the bypass hook, and conversely, frames may be transmitted via
     the bypass hook as well.  This mode is appropriate for the link authentica-
     tion  phase.   As soon as the link is enabled, the PPP node will begin pro-
     cessing frames received on the link.

COMPRESSION AND ENCRYPTION
     Compression is supported via two hooks, compress and decompress.	Compres-
     sion and decompression can be enabled by toggling the enableCompression and
     enableDecompression  fields  of the node configuration structure.	(See be-
     low.)  If enableCompression is set to NG_PPP_COMPRESS_SIMPLE, then all out-
     going frames are sent to the compress hook and all packets received on this
     hook are expected to be compressed, so the COMPD tag is put on them  uncon-
     ditionally.   If  enableCompression  is  set  to NG_PPP_COMPRESS_FULL, then
     packets received on the compress hook are resent  as  is.	 The  compressor
     node   should   put   the	 tag,	if   the   packet  was	compressed.   If
     enableDecompression is set to NG_PPP_DECOMPRESS_SIMPLE, then the node  will
     sent  to  the  decompress	hook only those frames, that are marked with the
     COMPD tag.  If enableDecompression is set to  NG_PPP_DECOMPRESS_FULL,  then
     the  node	will sent all incoming packets to the decompress hook.	Compres-
     sion  and	decompression  can  be	completely  disabled  by   setting   the
     enableCompression	   and	   enableDecompression	   fields     to     the
     NG_PPP_COMPRESS_NONE and NG_PPP_DECOMPRESS_NONE, respectively.

     Encryption works exactly analogously via the  encrypt  and  decrypt  nodes.
     Data  is always compressed before being encrypted, and decrypted before be-
     ing decompressed.

     Only bundle-level compression and encryption is directly  supported;  link-
     level compression and encryption can be handled transparently by downstream
     nodes.

VAN JACOBSON COMPRESSION
     When  all	of  the vjc_ip, vjc_vjcomp, vjc_vjuncomp, and vjc_vjip hooks are
     connected, and the corresponding configuration flag is enabled, Van  Jacob-
     son  compression  and/or  decompression will become active.  Normally these
     hooks connect to the corresponding hooks of a single ng_vjc(4)  node.   The
     PPP  node is compatible with the "pass through" modes of the ng_vjc(4) node
     type.

BYPASS HOOK
     When a frame is received on a link with an unsupported protocol, or a  pro-
     tocol which is disabled or for which the corresponding hook is unconnected,
     the  PPP node forwards the frame out the bypass hook, prepended with a four
     byte prefix.  This first two bytes of the prefix indicate the  link  number
     on  which	the  frame was received (in network order).  For such frames re-
     ceived over the bundle (i.e., encapsulated in the multi-link protocol), the
     special link number NG_PPP_BUNDLE_LINKNUM is used.  After the two byte link
     number is the two byte PPP protocol number (also in  network  order).   The
     PPP protocol number is two bytes long even if the original frame was proto-
     col compressed.

     Conversely,  any  data  written to the bypass hook is assumed to be in this
     same format.  The four byte header is stripped off, the PPP protocol number
     is prepended (possibly compressed), and the frame is delivered over the de-
     sired link.  If the link number is NG_PPP_BUNDLE_LINKNUM the frame will  be
     delivered	over  the multi-link bundle; or, if multi-link is disabled, over
     the (single) PPP link.

     Typically when the controlling entity receives an unexpected packet on  the
     bypass  hook  it  responds either by dropping the frame (if it is not ready
     for the protocol) or with an LCP protocol reject (if it does not  recognize
     or expect the protocol).

MULTILINK OPERATION
     To  enable multi-link PPP, the corresponding configuration flag must be set
     and at least one link connected.  The PPP node will not allow more than one
     link to be connected if multi-link is not enabled, nor will it  allow  cer-
     tain multi-link settings to be changed while multi-link operation is active
     (e.g., short sequence number header format).

     Since packets are sent as fragments across multiple individual links, it is
     important	that when a link goes down the PPP node is notified immediately,
     either by disconnecting the corresponding hook or disabling  the  link  via
     the NGM_PPP_SET_CONFIG control message.

     Each  link has configuration parameters for latency (specified in millisec-
     onds) and bandwidth (specified in tens of bytes per second).  The PPP  node
     can be configured for round-robin or optimized packet delivery.

     When  configured for round-robin delivery, the latency and bandwidth values
     are ignored and the PPP node simply sends each frame as a single  fragment,
     alternating frames across all the links in the bundle.  This scheme has the
     advantage that even if one link fails silently, some packets will still get
     through.	It  has  the disadvantage of sub-optimal overall bundle latency,
     which is important for interactive response time, and  sub-optimal  overall
     bundle  bandwidth	when  links  with different bandwidths exist in the same
     bundle.

     When configured for optimal delivery, the PPP node distributes  the  packet
     across  the  links  in  a way that minimizes the time it takes for the com-
     pleted packet to be received by the far end.  This involves taking into ac-
     count each link's latency, bandwidth, and current queue length.   Therefore
     these  numbers  should  be configured as accurately as possible.  The algo-
     rithm does require some computation, so may not  be  appropriate  for  very
     slow machines and/or very fast links.

     As  a special case, if all links have identical latency and bandwidth, then
     the above algorithm is disabled (because it is  unnecessary)  and	the  PPP
     node  simply  fragments  frames into equal sized portions across all of the
     links.

HOOKS
     This node type supports the following hooks:

     link<N>	   Individual PPP link number <N>

     compress	   Connection to compression engine

     decompress    Connection to decompression engine

     encrypt	   Connection to encryption engine

     decrypt	   Connection to decryption engine

     vjc_ip	   Connection to ng_vjc(4) ip hook

     vjc_vjcomp    Connection to ng_vjc(4) vjcomp hook

     vjc_vjuncomp  Connection to ng_vjc(4) vjuncomp hook

     vjc_vjip	   Connection to ng_vjc(4) vjip hook

     inet	   IP packet data

     ipv6	   IPv6 packet data

     atalk	   AppleTalk packet data

     ipx	   IPX packet data

     bypass	   Bypass hook; frames have a four byte header consisting  of  a
		   link number and a PPP protocol number.

CONTROL MESSAGES
     This node type supports the generic control messages, plus the following:

     NGM_PPP_SET_CONFIG (setconfig)
	  This	command  configures  all aspects of the node.  This includes en-
	  abling multi-link PPP, encryption, compression, Van Jacobson	compres-
	  sion,  and  IP, IPv6, AppleTalk, and IPX packet delivery.  It includes
	  per-link configuration, including enabling the link,	setting  latency
	  and  bandwidth  parameters,  and  enabling protocol field compression.
	  Note that no link or functionality is active until  the  corresponding
	  hook	is also connected.  This command takes a struct ng_ppp_node_conf
	  as an argument:

	  /* Per-link config structure */
	  struct ng_ppp_link_conf {
	    u_char    enableLink;     /* enable this link */
	    u_char    enableProtoComp;/* enable protocol field compression */
	    u_char    enableACFComp;  /* enable addr/ctrl field compression */
	    uint16_t  mru;	      /* peer MRU */
	    uint32_t  latency;	      /* link latency (in milliseconds) */
	    uint32_t  bandwidth;      /* link bandwidth (in bytes/sec/10) */
	  };

	  /* Bundle config structure */
	  struct ng_ppp_bund_conf {
	    uint16_t  mrru;		      /* multilink peer MRRU */
	    u_char    enableMultilink;	      /* enable multilink */
	    u_char    recvShortSeq;	      /* recv multilink short seq # */
	    u_char    xmitShortSeq;	      /* xmit multilink short seq # */
	    u_char    enableRoundRobin;       /* xmit whole packets */
	    u_char    enableIP; 	      /* enable IP data flow */
	    u_char    enableIPv6;	      /* enable IPv6 data flow */
	    u_char    enableAtalk;	      /* enable AppleTalk data flow */
	    u_char    enableIPX;	      /* enable IPX data flow */
	    u_char    enableCompression;      /* enable PPP compression */
	    u_char    enableDecompression;    /* enable PPP decompression */
	    u_char    enableEncryption;       /* enable PPP encryption */
	    u_char    enableDecryption;       /* enable PPP decryption */
	    u_char    enableVJCompression;    /* enable VJ compression */
	    u_char    enableVJDecompression;  /* enable VJ decompression */
	  };

	  struct ng_ppp_node_conf {
	    struct ng_ppp_bund_conf   bund;
	    struct ng_ppp_link_conf   links[NG_PPP_MAX_LINKS];
	  };

     NGM_PPP_GET_CONFIG (getconfig)
	  Returns the current configuration as a struct ng_ppp_node_conf.

     NGM_PPP_GET_LINK_STATS (getstats)
	  This command takes a two byte link number as an argument and returns a
	  struct ng_ppp_link_stat containing statistics  for  the  corresponding
	  link.  Here NG_PPP_BUNDLE_LINKNUM is a valid link number corresponding
	  to the multi-link bundle.

     NGM_PPP_GET_LINK_STATS64 (getstats64)
	  Same	as  NGM_PPP_GET_LINK_STATS but returns struct ng_ppp_link_stat64
	  containing 64bit counters.

     NGM_PPP_CLR_LINK_STATS (clrstats)
	  This command takes a two byte link number as an  argument  and  clears
	  the statistics for that link.

     NGM_PPP_GETCLR_LINK_STATS (getclrstats)
	  Same as NGM_PPP_GET_LINK_STATS, but also atomically clears the statis-
	  tics as well.

     NGM_PPP_GETCLR_LINK_STATS64 (getclrstats64)
	  Same	   as	  NGM_PPP_GETCLR_LINK_STATS	but    returns	  struct
	  ng_ppp_link_stat64 containing 64bit counters.

     This node type also accepts the control messages accepted by the  ng_vjc(4)
     node type.  When received, these messages are simply forwarded to the adja-
     cent ng_vjc(4) node, if any.  This is particularly useful when the individ-
     ual  PPP  links  are  able  to  generate  NGM_VJC_RECV_ERROR  messages (see
     ng_vjc(4) for a description).

SHUTDOWN
     This node shuts down upon receipt of a  NGM_SHUTDOWN  control  message,  or
     when all hooks have been disconnected.

SEE ALSO
     netgraph(4),  ng_async(4), ng_iface(4), ng_mppc(4), ng_pppoe(4), ng_vjc(4),
     ngctl(8)

     W. Simpson, The Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP), RFC 1661.

     K. Sklower, B. Lloyd, G. McGregor, D. Carr, and T. Coradetti, The PPP  Mul-
     tilink Protocol (MP), RFC 1990.

HISTORY
     The ng_ppp node type was implemented in FreeBSD 4.0.

AUTHORS
     Archie Cobbs <archie@FreeBSD.org>

FreeBSD ports 15.quarterly	November 13, 2012		       NG_PPP(4)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
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