[etherlab-dev] Using EtherCAT Master with common network modules

[Stefan Agner]

Hello,


From: Florian Pose <fp at igh-essen.com>

> On Thu, Apr 09, 2009 at 01:44:28AM -0700, Stefan Agner wrote:
> > We wan't to use Etherlab's EtherCAT Master on a ARM-SoC Board. The
> > ethernet device we use is mv643xx. We use EtherCAT to communicate with
> > the outside world (from our machines perspecitve..). We use ethernet
> > inside our machine as well (just raw ethernet frames). We consider
> > folowing solutions:
> > 1. Using two Ethernet devices
> 
> do you mean to physical Ethernet devices (two interfaces) or two
> different device types with different drivers?
We planned to use two different types, since one is integrated in the soc, we cant use it twice... But would it made a difference?

> > Simplest solution, one for our Ethernet protocol, the other for
> > ethercat. Probarly best realtime performance. But its more expensive,
> > and one of the network device would have to communicate over an PC/104
> > Bus, which is relativly slow... therefor probartly not that good
> > realtime performance...
> > 2. Using one Ethernet device
> > It's the cheaper solution, but need some software changes: Our goal
> > was to use standard ethernet drivers when we implemented our
> > application for our ethernet protocol. So it runs on top of the linux
> > network stack.
> > So then, two possible solution solutions appear:
> > 2.1. Change our application to use etherlabs ethercat master ethernet
> > device driver (*omg* sounds crazy :-))
> 
> If the two devices are run by the same driver, the one that is not used
> for EtherCAT is not affected by the EtherCAT master.
My idea with this solution was to use one Ethernet device, and both, the ethercat master and my application would use that (both over etherlabs ethercat master network device api)

> > Advandage: No need to change the ethercat master
> > Disadvantage: Lost platform independency for our application. Code
> > changes needed in ethercat master (synchronization or/and sorting out
> > the unrelated packets)
> > 2.2. Change ethercat master to be able to communicate over standard
> > network driver High platform independence, but we lose some realtime
> > performance... But anyway, this is the way we want to go... We have
> > 5kHz frequences in our ethernet application, therefor 1kHz for the
> > ethercat master should be realisitc (which is our goal).
> > We also see two possible solution how to made this possible:
> > 2.2.1. Make a software ethernet device (which provides a virtual
> > device, it would be named something like ec_stdstack)
> > This way no changes to the ethercat master would be necessary
> > 2.2.2. Change ethercat master that he use standard network stack
> > (register a packet_type struct with dev_add_pack, send packets over
> > dev_queue_xmit)
> > I read the chapter 4 in the ethercat master documentation, so i know
> > why the solution which is implemented now was the prefered one. We
> > don't use RTAI, we use preempt rt, therefore the interrupt problem is
> > solved. My conclusion is, that the realtime behaviour would by the
> > only problem...
> > Now my questions:
> > - Gerneral, do you agree with my conclusion? Would you choose the same
> > approach? If not, why?
> 
> If you're knowing what you're doing, it is a good idea to have the
> possibility to use the standard network stack via some kind of "generic
> Ethernet device".
I might need some help here, especally when it comes to synchronization problem with the ethercat master... But anyway, I think the next idea the better one...


> > - The examples workes with timers, which are based on jiffies. This
> > leads to a frequence of 250 Hz (default). Are there any applications
> > which use a higher frequency? Does this application getting to the
> > limits of the current approach?
> 
> You can use high resolution timers or RTAI to get higher frequencies.
So you use usally RTAI to get higher frequency? I tried it again with hrtimers, this time it worked i dont know what went fast the first time... What I want to ask finally is with which frequency do you usully run your ethercat master?

> > - Is this correct: The ethercat master sends packages itself if no
> > application is attached. As soon as an application attaches, the
> > application triggers the packages. So the frequncy of packets is
> > application depended, right?
> 
> Yes. After the application calls ecrt_master_activate(), it it
> responsible for sending the frames.
> > - We use High resolution timers to trigger our ethernet frames in our
> > protocol. Are there any high resultion applications implemented? I
> > tried to use hrtimers, but it failed, because hrtimers return in the
> > interrupt context... Im going to have a closer look at that anyway...
> > just wanted to ask if something is running this way atm...
> 
> No that I know, I don't know any reasons, why this should not be
> possible.

In general, which approach would you prefer?

Thanks
bye
Stefan Agner