| .. _ip_stack_overview: |
| |
| Overview |
| ######## |
| |
| Supported Features |
| ****************** |
| |
| The networking IP stack is modular and highly configurable via build-time |
| configuration options. You can minimize system memory consumption by enabling |
| only those network features required by your application. Almost all features |
| can be disabled if not needed. |
| |
| * **IPv6** The support for IPv6 is enabled by default. Various IPv6 sub-options |
| can be enabled or disabled depending on networking needs. |
| |
| * Developer can set the number of unicast and multicast IPv6 addresses that |
| are active at the same time. |
| * The IPv6 address for the device can be set either statically or |
| dynamically using SLAAC (Stateless Address Auto Configuration) (RFC 4862). |
| * The system also supports multiple IPv6 prefixes and the maximum |
| IPv6 prefix count can be configured at build time. |
| * The IPv6 neighbor cache can be disabled if not needed, and its size can be |
| configured at build time. |
| * The IPv6 neighbor discovery support (RFC 4861) is enabled by default. |
| * Multicast Listener Discovery v2 support (RFC 3810) is enabled by default. |
| * IPv6 header compression (6lo) is available for IPv6 connectivity for |
| Bluetooth IPSP (RFC 7668) and IEEE 802.15.4 networks (RFC 4944). |
| |
| * **IPv4** The legacy IPv4 is supported by the networking stack. It cannot be |
| used by IEEE 802.15.4 or Bluetooth IPSP as those network technologies support |
| only IPv6. IPv4 can be used in Ethernet based networks. By default IPv4 |
| support is disabled. |
| |
| * DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) client is supported (RFC 2131). |
| * The IPv4 address can also be configured manually. Static IPv4 addresses |
| are supported by default. |
| |
| * **Dual stack support.** The networking stack allows a developer to configure |
| the system to use both IPv6 and IPv4 at the same time. |
| |
| * **UDP** User Datagram Protocol (RFC 768) is supported. The developer can |
| send UDP datagrams (client side support) or create a listener to receive |
| UDP packets destined to certain port (server side support). |
| |
| * **TCP** Transmission Control Protocol (RFC 793) is supported. Both server |
| and client roles can be used the the application. The amount of TCP sockets |
| that are available to applications can be configured at build time. |
| |
| * **BSD Sockets API** Support for a subset of a BSD Sockets compatible API is |
| implemented. Both blocking and non-blocking datagram (UDP) and stream (TCP) |
| sockets are supported. |
| |
| * **Secure Sockets API** Experimental support for TLS/DTLS secure protocols and |
| configuration options for sockets API. Secure functions for the implementation |
| are provided by mbedTLS library. |
| |
| * **MQTT** Message Queue Telemetry Transport (ISO/IEC PRF 20922) is supported. |
| A sample :ref:`mqtt-publisher-sample` client application for MQTT v3.1.1 is |
| implemented. |
| |
| * **CoAP** Constrained Application Protocol (RFC 7252) is supported. |
| Both :ref:`coap-client-sample` and :ref:`coap-server-sample` sample |
| applications are implemented. |
| |
| * **LWM2M** OMA Lightweight Machine-to-Machine Protocol (V1.0 Feb 2017) is |
| supported via the "Register Device" API (Register, De-Register and Update) |
| and has template implementations for Security, Server, Device Management and |
| Firmware objects. Bootstrap support is currently not supported. |
| :ref:`lwm2m-client-sample` implements the library as an example. |
| |
| * **DNS** Domain Name Service (RFC 1035) client functionality is supported. |
| Applications can use the DNS API to query domain name information or IP |
| addresses from the DNS server. Both IPv4 (A) and IPv6 (AAAA) records can |
| be queried. |
| |
| * **Network Management API.** Applications can use network management API to |
| listen management events generated by core stack when for example IP address |
| is added to the device, or network interface is coming up etc. |
| |
| * **Multiple Network Technologies.** The Zephyr OS can be configured to |
| support multiple network technologies at the same time simply by enabling |
| them in Kconfig: for example, Ethernet and 802.15.4 support. Note that no |
| automatic IP routing functionality is provided between these technologies. |
| Applications can send data according to their needs to desired network |
| interface. |
| |
| * **Minimal Copy Network Buffer Management.** It is possible to have minimal |
| copy network data path. This means that the system tries to avoid copying |
| application data when it is sent to the network. |
| |
| * **Virtual LAN support.** Virtual LANs (VLANs) allow partitioning of physical |
| ethernet networks into logical networks. See :ref:`vlan_interface` for more |
| details. |
| |
| * **Network traffic classification.** The sent and received network packets can |
| be prioritized depending on application needs. |
| See :ref:`traffic-class-support` for more details. |
| |
| * **Time Sensitive Networking.** The gPTP (generalized Precision Time Protocol) |
| is supported. See :ref:`gptp_interface` for more details. |
| |
| * **Network shell.** The network shell provides helpers for figuring out |
| network status, enabling/disabling features, and issuing commands like ping |
| or DNS resolving. The net-shell is useful when developing network software. |
| See :ref:`net_shell` for more details. |
| |
| Additionally these network technologies (link layers) are supported in |
| Zephyr OS v1.7 and later: |
| |
| * IEEE 802.15.4 |
| * Bluetooth |
| * Ethernet |
| * SLIP (IP over serial line). Used for testing with QEMU. It provides |
| ethernet interface to host system (like Linux) and test applications |
| can be run in Linux host and send network data to Zephyr OS device. |
| |
| Source Tree Layout |
| ****************** |
| |
| The networking stack source code tree is organized as follows: |
| |
| ``subsys/net/ip/`` |
| This is where the IP stack code is located. |
| |
| ``subsys/net/l2/`` |
| This is where the IP stack layer 2 code is located. This includes generic |
| support for Bluetooth IPSP adaptation, Ethernet, IEEE 802.15.4 and WiFI. |
| |
| ``subsys/net/lib/`` |
| Application-level protocols (DNS, MQTT, etc.) and additional stack |
| components (BSD Sockets, etc.). |
| |
| ``include/net/`` |
| Public API header files. These are the header files applications need |
| to include to use IP networking functionality. |
| |
| ``samples/net/`` |
| Sample networking code. This is a good reference to get started with |
| network application development. |
| |
| ``tests/net/`` |
| Test applications. These applications are used to verify the |
| functionality of the IP stack, but are not the best |
| source for sample code (see ``samples/net`` instead). |
