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The existing interfaces for getting network packages time stamped are:
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Generate time stamp for each incoming packet using the (not necessarily
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monotonous!) system time. Result is returned via recv_msg() in a
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control message as timeval (usec resolution).
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Same time stamping mechanism as SO_TIMESTAMP, but returns result as
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timespec (nsec resolution).
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* IP_MULTICAST_LOOP + SO_TIMESTAMP[NS]
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Only for multicasts: approximate send time stamp by receiving the looped
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packet and using its receive time stamp.
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The following interface complements the existing ones: receive time
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stamps can be generated and returned for arbitrary packets and much
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closer to the point where the packet is really sent. Time stamps can
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be generated in software (as before) or in hardware (if the hardware
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Instructs the socket layer which kind of information is wanted. The
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parameter is an integer with some of the following bits set. Setting
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other bits is an error and doesn't change the current state.
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SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_HARDWARE: try to obtain send time stamp in hardware
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SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_SOFTWARE: if SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_HARDWARE is off or
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fails, then do it in software
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SOF_TIMESTAMPING_RX_HARDWARE: return the original, unmodified time stamp
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as generated by the hardware
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SOF_TIMESTAMPING_RX_SOFTWARE: if SOF_TIMESTAMPING_RX_HARDWARE is off or
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fails, then do it in software
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SOF_TIMESTAMPING_RAW_HARDWARE: return original raw hardware time stamp
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SOF_TIMESTAMPING_SYS_HARDWARE: return hardware time stamp transformed to
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SOF_TIMESTAMPING_SOFTWARE: return system time stamp generated in
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SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX/RX determine how time stamps are generated.
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SOF_TIMESTAMPING_RAW/SYS determine how they are reported in the
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following control message:
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struct scm_timestamping {
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struct timespec systime;
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struct timespec hwtimetrans;
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struct timespec hwtimeraw;
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recvmsg() can be used to get this control message for regular incoming
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packets. For send time stamps the outgoing packet is looped back to
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the socket's error queue with the send time stamp(s) attached. It can
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be received with recvmsg(flags=MSG_ERRQUEUE). The call returns the
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original outgoing packet data including all headers preprended down to
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and including the link layer, the scm_timestamping control message and
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a sock_extended_err control message with ee_errno==ENOMSG and
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ee_origin==SO_EE_ORIGIN_TIMESTAMPING. A socket with such a pending
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bounced packet is ready for reading as far as select() is concerned.
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If the outgoing packet has to be fragmented, then only the first
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fragment is time stamped and returned to the sending socket.
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All three values correspond to the same event in time, but were
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generated in different ways. Each of these values may be empty (= all
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zero), in which case no such value was available. If the application
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is not interested in some of these values, they can be left blank to
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avoid the potential overhead of calculating them.
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systime is the value of the system time at that moment. This
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corresponds to the value also returned via SO_TIMESTAMP[NS]. If the
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time stamp was generated by hardware, then this field is
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empty. Otherwise it is filled in if SOF_TIMESTAMPING_SOFTWARE is
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hwtimeraw is the original hardware time stamp. Filled in if
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SOF_TIMESTAMPING_RAW_HARDWARE is set. No assumptions about its
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relation to system time should be made.
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hwtimetrans is the hardware time stamp transformed so that it
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corresponds as good as possible to system time. This correlation is
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not perfect; as a consequence, sorting packets received via different
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NICs by their hwtimetrans may differ from the order in which they were
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received. hwtimetrans may be non-monotonic even for the same NIC.
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Filled in if SOF_TIMESTAMPING_SYS_HARDWARE is set. Requires support
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by the network device and will be empty without that support.
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Hardware time stamping must also be initialized for each device driver
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that is expected to do hardware time stamping. The parameter is defined in
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/include/linux/net_tstamp.h as:
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struct hwtstamp_config {
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int flags; /* no flags defined right now, must be zero */
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int tx_type; /* HWTSTAMP_TX_* */
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int rx_filter; /* HWTSTAMP_FILTER_* */
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Desired behavior is passed into the kernel and to a specific device by
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calling ioctl(SIOCSHWTSTAMP) with a pointer to a struct ifreq whose
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ifr_data points to a struct hwtstamp_config. The tx_type and
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rx_filter are hints to the driver what it is expected to do. If
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the requested fine-grained filtering for incoming packets is not
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supported, the driver may time stamp more than just the requested types
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A driver which supports hardware time stamping shall update the struct
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with the actual, possibly more permissive configuration. If the
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requested packets cannot be time stamped, then nothing should be
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changed and ERANGE shall be returned (in contrast to EINVAL, which
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indicates that SIOCSHWTSTAMP is not supported at all).
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Only a processes with admin rights may change the configuration. User
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space is responsible to ensure that multiple processes don't interfere
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with each other and that the settings are reset.
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/* possible values for hwtstamp_config->tx_type */
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* no outgoing packet will need hardware time stamping;
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* should a packet arrive which asks for it, no hardware
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* time stamping will be done
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* enables hardware time stamping for outgoing packets;
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* the sender of the packet decides which are to be
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* time stamped by setting SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_SOFTWARE
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* before sending the packet
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/* possible values for hwtstamp_config->rx_filter */
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/* time stamp no incoming packet at all */
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HWTSTAMP_FILTER_NONE,
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/* time stamp any incoming packet */
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/* return value: time stamp all packets requested plus some others */
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HWTSTAMP_FILTER_SOME,
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/* PTP v1, UDP, any kind of event packet */
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HWTSTAMP_FILTER_PTP_V1_L4_EVENT,
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/* for the complete list of values, please check
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* the include file /include/linux/net_tstamp.h
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DEVICE IMPLEMENTATION
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A driver which supports hardware time stamping must support the
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SIOCSHWTSTAMP ioctl and update the supplied struct hwtstamp_config with
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the actual values as described in the section on SIOCSHWTSTAMP.
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Time stamps for received packets must be stored in the skb. To get a pointer
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to the shared time stamp structure of the skb call skb_hwtstamps(). Then
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set the time stamps in the structure:
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struct skb_shared_hwtstamps {
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/* hardware time stamp transformed into duration
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* since arbitrary point in time
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ktime_t syststamp; /* hwtstamp transformed to system time base */
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Time stamps for outgoing packets are to be generated as follows:
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- In hard_start_xmit(), check if (skb_shinfo(skb)->tx_flags & SKBTX_HW_TSTAMP)
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is set no-zero. If yes, then the driver is expected to do hardware time
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- If this is possible for the skb and requested, then declare
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that the driver is doing the time stamping by setting the flag
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SKBTX_IN_PROGRESS in skb_shinfo(skb)->tx_flags , e.g. with
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skb_shinfo(skb)->tx_flags |= SKBTX_IN_PROGRESS;
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You might want to keep a pointer to the associated skb for the next step
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and not free the skb. A driver not supporting hardware time stamping doesn't
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do that. A driver must never touch sk_buff::tstamp! It is used to store
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software generated time stamps by the network subsystem.
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- As soon as the driver has sent the packet and/or obtained a
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hardware time stamp for it, it passes the time stamp back by
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calling skb_hwtstamp_tx() with the original skb, the raw
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hardware time stamp. skb_hwtstamp_tx() clones the original skb and
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adds the timestamps, therefore the original skb has to be freed now.
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If obtaining the hardware time stamp somehow fails, then the driver
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should not fall back to software time stamping. The rationale is that
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this would occur at a later time in the processing pipeline than other
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software time stamping and therefore could lead to unexpected deltas
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- If the driver did not set the SKBTX_IN_PROGRESS flag (see above), then
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dev_hard_start_xmit() checks whether software time stamping
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is wanted as fallback and potentially generates the time stamp.