Re: [PATCH v3 4/6] net/ice: timestamp all received packets when PTP is enabled

[Bruce Richardson <bruce.richardson@intel.com>]

On Tue, Jun 30, 2026 at 08:06:54AM -0400, Dawid Wesierski wrote:
> From: Marek Kasiewicz <marek.kasiewicz@intel.com>
> 
> When PTP is enabled on the ICE PMD, hardware RX timestamps are only
> applied to packets classified as IEEE 1588 (Ethertype 0x88F7). This
> prevents applications from obtaining hardware timestamps on regular
> UDP/IP traffic.
> 
> Remove the TIMESYNC packet type filter so that all received packets
> get hardware timestamps when PTP is enabled. This is required for
> time-sensitive networking applications that need per-packet arrival
> timing on media traffic, such as ST 2110-21 receiver compliance
> monitoring.
> 
> The change affects all three RX paths: scan, scattered, and single
> packet receive functions.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Marek Kasiewicz <marek.kasiewicz@intel.com>
> Signed-off-by: Dawid Wesierski <dawid.wesierski@intel.com>
> ---
>  drivers/net/intel/ice/ice_rxtx.c | 9 +++------
>  1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/drivers/net/intel/ice/ice_rxtx.c b/drivers/net/intel/ice/ice_rxtx.c
> index c4b5454c53..8d709125f7 100644
> --- a/drivers/net/intel/ice/ice_rxtx.c
> +++ b/drivers/net/intel/ice/ice_rxtx.c
> @@ -2023,8 +2023,7 @@ ice_rx_scan_hw_ring(struct ci_rx_queue *rxq)
>  				pkt_flags |= rxq->ts_flag;
>  			}
>  
> -			if (ad->ptp_ena && ((mb->packet_type &
> -			    RTE_PTYPE_L2_MASK) == RTE_PTYPE_L2_ETHER_TIMESYNC)) {
> +			if (ad->ptp_ena) {

Dropping this condition means that all packets are now marked as PTP
packets, even though they are not, which is incorrect. At minimum we need
to check the packet type before setting the PTP flag on them.

However, at a higher level again, I think if we want timestamps for all
packets that that should be a separate feature from PTP support, which
should be more limited in scope. I see there is already an
RTE_ETH_RX_OFFLOAD_TIMESTAMP block above this in the code - does specifying
that offload flag not cause all packets to get properly timestamped? If
not, I would suggest that that be enhanced rather than pretending all
packets are PTP. If that doesn't work, do we need a third alternative,
perhaps?

Regards,
/Bruce

>  				rxq->time_high =
>  				   rte_le_to_cpu_32(rxdp[j].wb.flex_ts.ts_high);
>  				mb->timesync = rxq->queue_id;
> @@ -2390,8 +2389,7 @@ ice_recv_scattered_pkts(void *rx_queue,
>  			pkt_flags |= rxq->ts_flag;
>  		}
>  
> -		if (ad->ptp_ena && ((first_seg->packet_type & RTE_PTYPE_L2_MASK)
> -		    == RTE_PTYPE_L2_ETHER_TIMESYNC)) {
> +		if (ad->ptp_ena) {
>  			rxq->time_high =
>  			   rte_le_to_cpu_32(rxd.wb.flex_ts.ts_high);
>  			first_seg->timesync = rxq->queue_id;
> @@ -2881,8 +2879,7 @@ ice_recv_pkts(void *rx_queue,
>  			pkt_flags |= rxq->ts_flag;
>  		}
>  
> -		if (ad->ptp_ena && ((rxm->packet_type & RTE_PTYPE_L2_MASK) ==
> -		    RTE_PTYPE_L2_ETHER_TIMESYNC)) {
> +		if (ad->ptp_ena) {
>  			rxq->time_high =
>  			   rte_le_to_cpu_32(rxd.wb.flex_ts.ts_high);
>  			rxm->timesync = rxq->queue_id;
> -- 
> 2.47.3
> 
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