bionic (4) irnet.4.gz

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).