Re: [dpdk-dev] [PATCH v12 1/2] i40e: support floating VEB config

[Bruce Richardson <bruce.richardson@intel.com>]

On Fri, Jun 24, 2016 at 04:29:38PM +0800, Zhe Tao wrote:
> Add the new floating VEB related arguments option in the devarg.
> Using this parameter, all the applications can decide whether to use legacy
> VEB/VEPA or floating VEB.
> To enable this feature, the user should pass a devargs parameter to the
> EAL like "-w 84:00.0,enable_floating_veb=1", and the application will
> tell PMD whether to use the floating VEB feature or not.
> Once the floating VEB feature is enabled, all the VFs created by
> this PF device are connected to the floating VEB.
> 
> Also user can specify which VF need to connect to this floating veb using
> "floating_veb_list".
> Like "-w 84:00.0,enable_floating_veb=1,floating_veb_list=1/3-4", means VF1, VF3,
> VF4 connect to the floating VEB, other VFs connect to the legacy VEB.The "/"
> is used for delimiter of the floating VEB list.
> 
> All the VEB/VEPA concepts are not specific for FVL, they are defined in
> the 802.1Qbg spec.
> 
> But for floating VEB, it has two major difference.
> 1. doesn't has a up link connection which means
> the traffic cannot go to outside world.
> 2. doesn't need to connect to the physical port which means
> when the physical link is down the floating VEB can still works
> fine.

Does the term "floating VEB" come from the spec you quote above? If not, I think
a more meaningful name might be found for it, given the description of what it
does. I'm not sure how the term "floating" applies to the concept. It seems
more like an "internal VEB".

/Bruce