Re: [PATCH net-next 0/3] net: phy: add support for disabling autonomous EEE

Andrew Lunn
2026-04-06T13:57:00Z

> "Autonomous EEE" works for me (obviously). It kinda describes what
> happens (the PHY acts autonomously) without being tied to a specific
> vendor's marketing name.
>
> That said, I feel Russell's argument that it doesn't type well. But
> even after some walks in the woods I wasn't able to come up with a
> better name yet.

Yes, naming is hard.

> I don't think there's a meaningful use case for letting users choose
> between the two. Or is there?

This has come up before, in other context. PTP is one example, where
both the MAC and the PHY can implement it. Ideally, you want it to
happen at the PHY, it gives higher accuracy. But there are systems
where the PHY implementation is somewhat broken, and the MAC PTP gives
better results. So defaulting to PHY PTP is not always the best
option.

I would expect IEEE 802.3 EEE, with both the MAC and PHY cooperating
is better than just PHY level EEE, the system as a whole has a better
picture of what is going on, so using 802.3 EEE should be the
preference/default. But are we going to run into oddball systems where
autonomous EEE is actually better than using a somewhat broke MAC?

Andrew