From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Andrew Lunn Subject: Re: [PATCH] bonding: Offloading bonds to hardware Date: Fri, 13 Nov 2015 22:11:32 +0100 Message-ID: <20151113211132.GE20320@lunn.ch> References: <77EF4405DD4BB54AACCE7DB593DF6A9A9FD653@SJEXCHMB14.corp.ad.broadcom.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Cc: "netdev@vger.kernel.org" To: Premkumar Jonnala Return-path: Received: from vps0.lunn.ch ([178.209.37.122]:33308 "EHLO vps0.lunn.ch" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1750733AbbKMVLe (ORCPT ); Fri, 13 Nov 2015 16:11:34 -0500 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <77EF4405DD4BB54AACCE7DB593DF6A9A9FD653@SJEXCHMB14.corp.ad.broadcom.com> Sender: netdev-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: On Thu, Nov 12, 2015 at 04:02:18PM +0000, Premkumar Jonnala wrote: > Packet forwarding to/from bond interfaces is done in software. > > This patch enables certain platforms to bridge traffic to/from > bond interfaces in hardware. Notifications are sent out when > the "active" slave set for a bond interface is updated in > software. Platforms use the notifications to program the > hardware accordingly. Hi Premkumar I can think of three use cases of binding with hardware offload engines: 1) External user ports of the switch are bonded together into a trunk. 2) Host Ethernet ports connected to the switch are bonded together so you get double the bandwidth between the host and the switch. 3) In DSA setups where you have a cluster of switches, some switch ports connect to other switch ports, so forming the cluster. You can bond ports together to double the bandwidth between switches in the cluster. The requirements here are quite different in each case. Which of these uses cases are you trying to address? Thanks Andrew