Scribd
Upload
54 views

Lecture - 08 - Tcpip Stack in The Linux Kernel

The Linux Virtual Filesystem (VFS) provides a uniform filesystem interface to userspace programs and allows different filesystem implementations to coexist freely. Inodes provide a method to access file data blocks and provide buffer space for sockets. Every file is represented by a file structure associated with an inode. When a socket is created, it is allocated as an inode associated with a file object. Socket layer functions initialize the different parts of creating a socket. Network devices store information for each physical or virtual network interface and the network device structure contains parameters for different device models. The network packet reception process involves checking the protocol, routing, fragmentation, reassembly and delivering the packet to the appropriate protocol handler.

Uploaded by

Tú Phạm Anh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
54 views

Lecture - 08 - Tcpip Stack in The Linux Kernel

The Linux Virtual Filesystem (VFS) provides a uniform filesystem interface to userspace programs and allows different filesystem implementations to coexist freely. Inodes provide a method to access file data blocks and provide buffer space for sockets. Every file is represented by a file structure associated with an inode. When a socket is created, it is allocated as an inode associated with a file object. Socket layer functions initialize the different parts of creating a socket. Network devices store information for each physical or virtual network interface and the network device structure contains parameters for different device models. The network packet reception process involves checking the protocol, routing, fragmentation, reassembly and delivering the packet to the appropriate protocol handler.

Uploaded by

Tú Phạm Anh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 25

Linux Virtual Filesystem (VFS)

 It is the software layer in the kernel that provides a uniform


filesystem interface to userspace programs

 It provides an abstraction within the kernel that allows for


transparent working with a variety of filesystems.

 Thus it allows many different filesystem implementations to


coexist freely

 Each socket is implemented as a “file” mounted on the


sockfs filesystem.
 file->private points to the socket information.
Inodes and File Structures

 Inodes provide a method to access the actual data


blocks allocated to a file. For sockets, they provide
buffer space which can be used to hold socket
specific data.
 struct inode

 Every file is represented in the kernel as an object


of the file structure. It requires an inode provided
to it.
 struct file
Socket(family, type, proto)

Sys_socket()

Sock_create() Sock_map_fd()

Allocate a socket object


(internally an inode Sock_alloc_fd()
Associated with a file object) Allocate a file descriptor

Locate the family requested and


call the create function for that
family Sock_attach_fd()

Inet_create() Fd_install()
Lower layer initialization
Socket layer functions
are elided.
struct sk_buff
Defined in <include/linux/skbuff.h>

 used by every network layer (except the physical layer)


 fields of the structure change as it is passed from one layer to another
 i.e., fields are layer dependent.
sk_buff list
 The kernel maintains all sk_buff structures in a doubly linked list.

struct sk_buff_head {/* only the head of the list */


/* These two members must be first. */
struct sk_buff * next;
struct sk_buff * prev;

_ _u32 qlen;
spinlock_t lock;/* atomicity in accessing a sk_buff list. */
};
Layout

 struct sock * sk
sock data structure of the socket that owns this buffer
 unsigned int len
includes both the data in the main buffer (i.e., the one pointed to by head)
and the data in the fragments
 unsigned int data_len
unlike len, data_len accounts only for the size of the data in the fragments.
 unsigned int truesize
skb->truesize = size + sizeof(struct sk_buff);
 atomic_t users
reference count, or the number of entities using this sk_buff buffer
atomic_inc and atomic_dec
sk_buf->dev
struct net_device *dev
 represents the receiving interface or the to be transmitted device(or
interface) corresponding to the packet.
 usually represents the virtual device’s(representation of all devices
grouped) net_device structure.

 Pointers to protocol headers.


 sk_buff_data_t transport_header;
 sk_buff_data_t network_header;
 sk_buff_data_t mac_header;
memory allocation

struct sk_buff *__netdev_alloc_skb(struct net_device *dev,


unsigned int length, gfp_t gfp_mask)
The buffer allocation function meant for use by device drivers
Executed in interrupt mode

Freeing memory: kfree_skb and dev_kfree_skb

Release buffer back to the buffer-pool.


Buffer released only when skb_users counter is 1. If not, the counter is
decremented.
Socket layer functions
are elided.
net_device
 Defined in <include/linux/netdevice.h>
 stores all information specifically regarding a network device
 one such structure for each device, both real ones (such as Ethernet
NICs) and virtual ones
 Network devices can be classified into types such as Ethernet cards and
Token Ring cards
 Each type may come in several models.
 Model specific parameters are initialized by device driver software.
 Parameters common for different models are initiated by kernel.
Walkthrough Reception

We don’t process the packet in the interrupt subroutine.


Netif_rx() – raise the net Rx softIRQ.
Net_rx_action() is called - start processing the packet
 Processing of packet starts with the protocol switching section
Netif_receive_skb() is called to process the packet and find out the next protocol layer.
Protocol family of the packet is extracted from the link layer header.
ip_rcv() is an entry point for IP packets processing.
Checks if the packet we have is destined for some other host (using PACKET_OTHERHOST)
Check the checksum of the packet by calling ip_fast_csum()
Call ip_route_input() , this routine checks kernel routing table rt_hash_table.
If packet needs to be forwarded input routine is ip_forward()
Otherwise ip_local_deliver()
ip_send() is called to check if the packet needs to be fragmented
If yes , fragment the packet by calling ip_fragment()
Packet output path – ip_finish_output()
ip_local_deliver() – packets need to delivered locally
ip_defrag()
Protocol identifier field skb->np.iph->protocol (in IP header).
For TCP, we find the receive handler as tcp_v4_rcv() (entry point for the TCP layer)
_tcp_v4_lookup() – find the socket to which the packet belongs
Establised sockets are maintained in the hash table tcp_ehash.
Established socket not found – New connection request for any listening socket
Search for listening socket – tcp_v4_lookup_listener()
tcp_rcv_established()

You might also like