Network Devices

• include/nuttx/net/netdev.h. All structures and APIs needed to work with network drivers are provided in this header file. The structure struct net_driver_s defines the interface and is passed to the network via netdev_register().
• include/nuttx/net/netdev_lowerhalf.h. (Recommended for new drivers, see Network Drivers <netdriver>{.interpreted-text role="ref"}) This header file defines the interface between the network device and the network stack. The network device is a lower-half driver that provides the network stack with the ability to send and receive packets.

IP Addresses

The structure struct net_driver_s now supports one IPv4 address and multiple IPv6 addresses. Multiple IPv6 addresses is common in modern network devices. For example, a network device may have a link-local address and a global address. The link-local address is used for neighbor discovery protocol and the global address is used for communication with the Internet.

Configuration Options

CONFIG_NETDEV_MULTIPLE_IPv6

: Enable support for multiple IPv6 addresses per network device. Depends on CONFIG_NET_IPv6.

CONFIG_NETDEV_MAX_IPv6_ADDR

: Maximum number of IPv6 addresses that can be assigned to a single network device. Normally a link-local address and a global address are needed.

IPv4 Interfaces

Now we only support one IPv4 address per network device, and directly use the :cd_ipaddr, :cd_draddr and :cd_netmask in :cnet_driver_s.

IPv6 Interfaces

Now we support multiple IPv6 addresses per network device, and use the :cd_ipv6 in :cnet_driver_s to store the IPv6 addresses. For historical reason, we keep the old name :cd_ipv6addr and :cd_ipv6netmask for backward compatibility. Please use :cd_ipv6 for new drivers.

Managing the IPv6 addresses by provided APIs would be more flexible:

• :cnetdev_ipv6_add()
• :cnetdev_ipv6_del()
• :cnetdev_ipv6_srcaddr()
• :cnetdev_ipv6_lladdr()
• :cnetdev_ipv6_lookup()
• :cnetdev_ipv6_foreach()

Ioctls for IP Addresses

• :cSIOCGIFADDR
• :cSIOCSIFADDR
• :cSIOCDIFADDR
• :cSIOCGLIFADDR
• :cSIOCSLIFADDR
• :cSIOCGIFNETMASK
• :cSIOCSIFNETMASK
• :cSIOCGLIFNETMASK
• :cSIOCSLIFNETMASK