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The link between the ethernet MAC and its PHY has become more complex
as the interface evolves. This is especially true with serdes links,
where the part of the PHY is effectively integrated into the MAC.
Serdes links can be connected to a variety of devices, including SFF
modules soldered down onto the board with the MAC, a SFP cage with
a hotpluggable SFP module which may contain a PHY or directly modulate
the serdes signals onto optical media with or without a PHY, or even
a classical PHY connection.
Moreover, the negotiation information on serdes links comes in two
varieties - SGMII mode, where the PHY provides its speed/duplex/flow
control information to the MAC, and 1000base-X mode where both ends
exchange their abilities and each resolve the link capabilities.
This means we need a more flexible means to support these arrangements,
particularly with the hotpluggable nature of SFP, where the PHY can
be attached or detached after the network device has been brought up.
Ethtool information can come from multiple sources:
- we may have a PHY operating in either SGMII or 1000base-X mode, in
which case we take ethtool/mii data directly from the PHY.
- we may have a optical SFP module without a PHY, with the MAC
operating in 1000base-X mode - the ethtool/mii data needs to come
from the MAC.
- we may have a copper SFP module with a PHY whic can't be accessed,
which means we need to take ethtool/mii data from the MAC.
Phylink aims to solve this by providing an intermediary between the
MAC and PHY, providing a safe way for PHYs to be hotplugged, and
allowing a SFP driver to reconfigure the serdes connection.
Phylink also takes over support of fixed link connections, where the
speed/duplex/flow control are fixed, but link status may be controlled
by a GPIO signal. By avoiding the fixed-phy implementation, phylink
can provide a faster response to link events: fixed-phy has to wait for
phylib to operate its state machine, which can take several seconds.
In comparison, phylink takes milliseconds.
Signed-off-by: Russell King <rmk+kernel@arm.linux.org.uk>
- remove sync status
- rework supported and advertisment handling
- add 1000base-x speed for fixed links
- use functionality exported from phy-core, reworking
__phylink_ethtool_ksettings_set for it
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