Re: [PATCH net-next v15 00/12] net: pcs: Introduce support for fwnode PCS

[Christian Marangi <ansuelsmth@gmail.com>]

On Tue, Sep 01, 2026 at 10:29:15AM +0200, Christian Marangi wrote:
> This series introduce a most awaited feature that is correctly
> provide PCS with fwnode without having to use specific export symbol
> and additional handling of PCS in phylink.
> 
> At times there were 2 different implementation (this and the one
> from Sean) but Sean agreed that this can be picked and used in favor
> of his implementation as long as his case with race condition is
> correctly handled.
> 
> ---
> First the PCS fwnode:
> 
> The concept is to implement a producer-consumer API similar to other
> subsystem like clock or PHY.
> 
> That seems to be the best solution to the problem as PCS driver needs
> to be detached from phylink and implement a simple way to provide a
> PCS while maintaining support for probe defer or driver removal.
> 
> To keep the implementation simple, the PCS driver devs needs some
> collaboration to correctly implement this. This is O.K. as helper
> to correctly implement this are provided hence it's really a matter
> of following a pattern to correct follow removal of a PCS driver.
> 
> A PCS provider have to implement and call fwnode_pcs_add_provider() in
> probe function and define an xlate function to define how the PCS
> should be provided based on the requested interface and phandle spec
> defined in fwnode (based on the #pcs-cells)
> 
> fwnode_pcs_get() is provided to provide a specific PCS declared in
> fwnode at index.
> 
> A simple xlate function is provided for simple single PCS
> implementation, fwnode_pcs_simple_xlate.
> 
> A PCS provider on driver removal must call fwnode_pcs_del_provider()
> to delete itself as a provider.
> 
> ---
> Second PCS handling in phylink:
> 
> We have the PCS problem for the only reason that in initial
> implementation, we permitted way too much flexibility to MAC driver
> and things started to deviate. At times we couldn't think SoC
> would start to put PCS outside the MAC hence it was OK to assume
> they would live in the same driver. With the introduction of
> 10g in more consumer devices, we are observing a rapid growth
> of this pattern with multiple PCS external to MAC.
> 
> To put a stop on this, the only solution is to give back to phylink
> control on PCS handling and enforce more robust supported interface
> definition from both MAC and PCS side.
> 
> It's suggested to read patch 0003 of this series for more info, here
> a brief explaination of the idea:
> 
> This series introduce handling of PCS in phylink and try to deprecate
> .mac_select_pcs.
> 
> Phylink now might contain a linked list of available PCS and
> those will be used for PCS selection on phylink_major_config.
> 
> MAC driver needs to define pcs_interfaces mask in phylink_config
> for every interface that needs a dedicated PCS.
> 
> These PCS needs to be provided to phylink at phylink_create time
> by setting the .fill_available_pcs and .num_possible_pcs in phylink_config.
> Helpers to parse PCS from fwnode are provided
> fwnode_phylink_pcs_count() that will return the count of PCS entries
> described in the firmware node and fwnode_phylink_pcs_parse() that will
> fill a preallocated array of PCS pointer with the actual available PCS
> (ignoring the one that still needs to be probed).
> 
> phylink_create() will fill the internal PCS list with the passed
> array of PCS. phylink_major_config and other user of .mac_select_pcs
> are adapted to make use of this new PCS list.
> 
> The supported interface value is also moved internally to phylink
> struct. This is to handle late removal and addition of PCS.
> (the bonus effect to this is giving phylink a clear idea of what
> is actually supported by the MAC and his constraint with PCS)
> 
> The supported interface mask in phylink is done by OR the
> supported_interfaces in phylink_config with every PCS in PCS list.
> 
> PCS removal is supported by forcing a mac_config, refresh the
> supported interfaces and run a phy_resolve().
> 
> PCS late addition is supported by introducing a global notifier
> for PCS provider. If a phylink have the pcs_interfaces mask not
> zero, it's registered to this notifier.
> 
> PCS provider will emit a global PCS add event to signal any
> interface that a new PCS might be available.
> 
> The function will then check if the PCS is related to the MAC
> fwnode and add it accordingly.
> 
> A user for this new implementation is provided as an Airoha PCS
> driver. This was also tested downstream with the IPQ95xx QCOM SoC
> and with the help of Daniel also on the various Mediatek MT7988
> SoC with both SFP cage implementation and DSA attached.
> 
> Lots of tests were done with driver unbind/bind and with interface
> up/down also by adding print to make sure major_config_fail gets
> correctly triggered and reset once the PCS comes back.
> 
> The dedicated commits have longer description on the implementation
> so it's suggested to also check there for additional info.
> 
> It's worth to mention that OpenWrt is currently using this on
> Mediatek SoC and QCOM ipq807x/ipq60xx/ipq50xx and Airoha are
> already ported in staging tree for testing.
> 

Any news of this? I feel this version is now very mature and wonder if an
human review is possible or any feedback of any needed change to make any
progress?

-- 
	Ansuel