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ng_async(4)

NAME

     ng_async -- asynchronous framing netgraph node type

SYNOPSIS

     #include <netgraph/ng_async.h>

DESCRIPTION

     The async node type performs conversion between synchronous frames and
     asynchronous frames, as defined for the PPP protocol in RFC 1662.	Asyn-
     chronous framing uses flag bytes and octet-stuffing to simulate a frame
     oriented connection over an octet-oriented asynchronous serial line.

     The node transmits and receives asynchronous data on the async hook.
     Mbuf boundaries of incoming data are ignored.  Once a complete packet has
     been received, it is decoded and stripped of all framing bytes, and
     transmitted out the sync hook as a single frame.

     Synchronous frames are transmitted and received on the sync hook.	Pack-
     ets received on this hook are encoded as asynchronous frames and sent out
     on async.	Received packets should start with the address and control
     fields, or the PPP protocol field if address and control field compres-
     sion is employed, and contain no checksum field.  If the first four bytes
     are 0xff 0x03 0xc0 0x21 (an LCP protocol frame) then complete control
     character escaping is enabled for that frame (in PPP, LCP packets are
     always sent with no address and control field compression and all control
     characters escaped).

     This node supports ``flag sharing'' for packets transmitted on async.
     This is an optimization where the trailing flag byte of one frame is
     shared with the opening flag byte of the next.  Flag sharing between
     frames is disabled after one second of transmit idle time.

HOOKS

     This node type supports the following hooks:

     async   Asynchronous connection.  Typically this hook would be connected
	     to a ng_tty(4) node, which handles transmission of serial data
	     over a tty device.

     sync    Synchronous connection.  This hook sends and receives synchronous
	     frames.  For PPP, these frames should contain address, control,
	     and protocol fields, but no checksum field.  Typically this hook
	     would be connected to an individual link hook of a ng_ppp(4) type
	     node.

CONTROL MESSAGES

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

     NGM_ASYNC_CMD_GET_STATS
	  This command returns a struct ng_async_stat containing node statis-
	  tics for packet, octet, and error counts.

     NGM_ASYNC_CMD_CLR_STATS
	  Clears the node statistics.

     NGM_ASYNC_CMD_SET_CONFIG
	  Sets the node configuration, which is described by a struct

	  The enabled field enables or disables all encoding/decoding func-
	  tions (default disabled).  When disabled, the node operates in sim-
	  ple ``pass through'' mode.  The amru and smru fields are the asyn-
	  chronous and synchronous MRU (maximum receive unit) values, respec-
	  tively.  These both default to 1600; note that the async MRU applies
	  to the incoming frame length after asynchronous decoding.  The accm
	  field is the asynchronous character control map, which controls the
	  escaping of characters 0x00 thorough 0x1f (default 0xffffffff).

     NGM_ASYNC_CMD_GET_CONFIG
	  This command returns the current configuration structure.

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_ppp(4), ng_tty(4), ngctl(8)

     W. Simpson, PPP in HDLC-link Framing, RFC 1662.

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

HISTORY

     The ng_async node type was implemented in FreeBSD 4.0.

AUTHORS

     Archie Cobbs <archie@FreeBSD.org>

FreeBSD 5.4		       January 19, 1999 		   FreeBSD 5.4

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