[etherlab-dev] ESL protocol

[Matthieu Bec]

Hello etherlab-devs,

I was wondering if anyone looked at implementing the Ethercat Switch Link protocol for devices like BH-CU2508 ?
It does not look terribly complicated conceptually - but probably quite involved to implement in the kernel, setup virtual network interfaces, etc.

Thanks,
Matthieu

[Gavin Lambert]

Post by Matthieu Bec
I was wondering if anyone looked at implementing the Ethercat Switch Link
protocol for devices like BH-CU2508 ?
It does not look terribly complicated conceptually - but probably quite

involved

Post by Matthieu Bec
to implement in the kernel, setup virtual network interfaces, etc.

I looked at it briefly (as a "would be nice", since it's a neat little toy),
and yes, the protocol format itself is fairly straightforward.

The problem is that as far as I can tell it requires foreknowledge of the
network configuration rather than auto-detection and would need some sort of
virtual layer between the "real" NIC and the master stack, both of which
seem like major architectural changes.

These probably aren't insurmountable but at the time it was enough for me to
file it in the "too hard" basket. I'm not an "official" dev though, just
someone who has submitted a few patches, and I could be wrong about that.
If it's something you want, you could always try adding support yourself.

[Matthieu Bec]

Thank you Gavin, I went along the same line of thinking and conclusion.
(was hoping some kind of tunneling might help but the little I scratched appeared to say nope that easy)

Regards,
Matthieu

Post by Matthieu Bec
I was wondering if anyone looked at implementing the Ethercat Switch Link
protocol for devices like BH-CU2508 ?
It does not look terribly complicated conceptually - but probably quite

involved

Post by Matthieu Bec
to implement in the kernel, setup virtual network interfaces, etc.

I looked at it briefly (as a "would be nice", since it's a neat little toy),
and yes, the protocol format itself is fairly straightforward.

The problem is that as far as I can tell it requires foreknowledge of the
network configuration rather than auto-detection and would need some sort of
virtual layer between the "real" NIC and the master stack, both of which
seem like major architectural changes.

These probably aren't insurmountable but at the time it was enough for me to
file it in the "too hard" basket. I'm not an "official" dev though, just
someone who has submitted a few patches, and I could be wrong about that.
If it's something you want, you could always try adding support yourself.