NAME¶
irnet - IrNET protocol device
DESCRIPTION¶
File
/dev/irnet is used to access and configure the IrNET protocol part
of the Linux-IrDA stack.
IrNET is a protocol allowing to create
TCP/IP connections between
two IrDA peers in an efficient fashion, and generally to enable standard
networking over IrDA. It is a thin layer, passing PPP packets to IrTTP and
vice versa. It uses
PPP in synchronous mode, because IrTTP offer a
reliable sequenced packet service (as opposed to a byte stream). In fact, you
could see IrNET as carrying TCP/IP in a IrDA socket, using PPP to provide the
glue.
The main difference with traditional
PPP over IrCOMM is that it avoids
the framing and serial emulation which are a performance bottleneck. It also
allows multipoint communications in a sensible fashion. And finally, it can
automatically handle incomming connections through
irnetd.
The main difference with
IrLAN is that we use PPP for the link
management, which is more standard, interoperable and flexible than the IrLAN
protocol. For example, PPP adds authentication, encryption, compression,
header compression and automated routing setup. And, as IrNET let PPP do the
hard work, the implementation is much simpler than IrLAN.
IrNET connections are initiated and managed with
pppd(8). File
/dev/irnet also offer a
control channel. Reads from
/dev/irnet will return various
IrNET events. Write to
/dev/irnet allow to
configure the IrNET connection.
CONFIGURATION¶
If your system does not have
/dev/irnet created already, it can be
created with the following commands:
mknod -m 644 /dev/irnet c 10 187
chown root:root /dev/irnet
You will also need to have IrNET support in your kernel or as module and the
Linux-IrDA stack installed and configured (see
irattach(8)).
File
/dev/irnet is supposed to only be used with the
PPP line
discipline or for accessing the
control channel, other use are
unsupported.
IrNET support multiple concurent connections (limited by
the IrDA stack), all those connections are multiplexed on a single
/dev/irnet device (as opposed to IrCOMM which as one device per
connection).
PARAMETERS¶
Writing commands to
/dev/irnet allow to
configure the IrNET
connection being made. This need to be done through
pppd(8) (see below
for examples). Commands are separated by comas.
- name <peer>
- Connect to the IrDA device which IrDA nickname is
<peer>. The IrDA nickname is a string up to 31
characters.
- daddr <peer>
- Connect to the IrDA device which IrDA address is
<peer>. The IrDA address is a 32 bits hexadecimal
number.
- raddr <port>
- Restrict connections to the local IrDA interface which IrDA
address is <port>. The IrDA address is a 32 bits hexadecimal
number.
DISPLAY¶
Reading from
/dev/irnet will show various
IrNET events. This is
usually done with the command
cat /dev/irnet.
- Found
- Dump of the current IrNET discovery log.
- Discovered
- New IrNET device discovered.
- Expired
- Previously discovered IrNET device no longer present.
- Connected to
- This computer successfully established an IrNET connection
to a peer.
- Connection from
- A peer successfully established an IrNET connection to this
computer.
- Request from
- A peer attempted to connect to this computer, but no IrNET
connection was waiting for it.
- No-answer from
- This computer attempted to connect to a peer, but no IrNET
connection was waiting for it.
- Blocked link with
- The IrDA link of the IrNET connection is currently
blocked.
- Disconnection from
- A peer successfully terminated an IrNET connection with
this computer.
- Disconnected to
- This computer successfully terminated an IrNET connection
with a peer.
File
/proc/net/irda/irnet will also show the current state of the various
IrNET connections.
EXAMPLE¶
Start a IrNET server accepting any incomming connection:
pppd /dev/irnet 9600 local noauth nolock passive
Start a IrNET client connecting to any IrDA peer:
pppd /dev/irnet 9600 local noauth nolock
Start a IrNET client connecting to the IrDA peer called
MyIrDANode:
pppd /dev/irnet 9600 local noauth nolock connect "echo name
MyIrDANode"
Start a IrNET server accepting incomming connection from peer with IrDA address
0x12345678 only on IrDA port 0x87654321:
pppd /dev/irnet 9600 local noauth nolock passive connect "echo daddr
0x12345678 , saddr 0x87654321"
AUTHOR¶
Jean Tourrilhes - jt@hpl.hp.com
FILES¶
/dev/irnet
/proc/net/irda/irnet
SEE ALSO¶
irda(7),
irnetd(8),
pppd(8),
irattach(8),
irdadump(8).