Re: managed switches on mii(4)

[Thor Lancelot Simon <tls%rek.tjls.com@localhost>]

On Tue, Apr 08, 2008 at 12:59:15PM -0500, David Young wrote:
> 
> Let me suggest a different approach to supporting the Marvell switch than
> switchctl.  We already have a familiar abstraction for an ethernet port in
> our existing drivers (tlp(4), wm(4), et cetera), for a switch/hub/bridge
> in bridge(4), and for a VLAN in vlan(4).  Let us reuse those.  Represent
> the ports in the Marvell switch using 11 interfaces, mrvl0..mrvl10.
> Change each port's media settings and such in the usual way with ifconfig.
> Connect/partition ports on the switch with bridge(4).  Add and remove
> VLAN tags on some ports with vlan(4).  Let the underlying hardware driver
> set the switching matrix and other parameters in order to optimize the
> configuration of mrvl0..10, vlan0..N, and bridge0..M.

This might work with the Marvell switch Herb's platform uses.  I think it
would be fairly hard to do for the USB-controlled ones I've got, though.

-- 
  Thor Lancelot Simon                                        
tls%rek.tjls.com@localhost

  "The inconsistency is startling, though admittedly, if consistency is to
   be abandoned or transcended, there is no problem."         - Noam Chomsky