1 HCI backend for NFC Core
3 Author: Eric Lapuyade, Samuel Ortiz
4 Contact: eric.lapuyade@intel.com, samuel.ortiz@intel.com
9 The HCI layer implements much of the ETSI TS 102 622 V10.2.0 specification. It
10 enables easy writing of HCI-based NFC drivers. The HCI layer runs as an NFC Core
11 backend, implementing an abstract nfc device and translating NFC Core API
12 to HCI commands and events.
17 HCI registers as an nfc device with NFC Core. Requests coming from userspace are
18 routed through netlink sockets to NFC Core and then to HCI. From this point,
19 they are translated in a sequence of HCI commands sent to the HCI layer in the
20 host controller (the chip). Commands can be executed synchronously (the sending
21 context blocks waiting for response) or asynchronously (the response is returned
23 HCI events can also be received from the host controller. They will be handled
24 and a translation will be forwarded to NFC Core as needed. There are hooks to
25 let the HCI driver handle proprietary events or override standard behavior.
26 HCI uses 2 execution contexts:
27 - one for executing commands : nfc_hci_msg_tx_work(). Only one command
28 can be executing at any given moment.
29 - one for dispatching received events and commands : nfc_hci_msg_rx_work().
31 HCI Session initialization:
32 ---------------------------
34 The Session initialization is an HCI standard which must unfortunately
35 support proprietary gates. This is the reason why the driver will pass a list
36 of proprietary gates that must be part of the session. HCI will ensure all
37 those gates have pipes connected when the hci device is set up.
38 In case the chip supports pre-opened gates and pseudo-static pipes, the driver
39 can pass that information to HCI core.
44 A gate defines the 'port' where some service can be found. In order to access
45 a service, one must create a pipe to that gate and open it. In this
46 implementation, pipes are totally hidden. The public API only knows gates.
47 This is consistent with the driver need to send commands to proprietary gates
48 without knowing the pipe connected to it.
53 A driver is generally written in two parts : the physical link management and
54 the HCI management. This makes it easier to maintain a driver for a chip that
55 can be connected using various phy (i2c, spi, ...)
60 A driver would normally register itself with HCI and provide the following
64 int (*open)(struct nfc_hci_dev *hdev);
65 void (*close)(struct nfc_hci_dev *hdev);
66 int (*hci_ready) (struct nfc_hci_dev *hdev);
67 int (*xmit) (struct nfc_hci_dev *hdev, struct sk_buff *skb);
68 int (*start_poll) (struct nfc_hci_dev *hdev,
69 u32 im_protocols, u32 tm_protocols);
70 int (*dep_link_up)(struct nfc_hci_dev *hdev, struct nfc_target *target,
71 u8 comm_mode, u8 *gb, size_t gb_len);
72 int (*dep_link_down)(struct nfc_hci_dev *hdev);
73 int (*target_from_gate) (struct nfc_hci_dev *hdev, u8 gate,
74 struct nfc_target *target);
75 int (*complete_target_discovered) (struct nfc_hci_dev *hdev, u8 gate,
76 struct nfc_target *target);
77 int (*im_transceive) (struct nfc_hci_dev *hdev,
78 struct nfc_target *target, struct sk_buff *skb,
79 data_exchange_cb_t cb, void *cb_context);
80 int (*tm_send)(struct nfc_hci_dev *hdev, struct sk_buff *skb);
81 int (*check_presence)(struct nfc_hci_dev *hdev,
82 struct nfc_target *target);
83 int (*event_received)(struct nfc_hci_dev *hdev, u8 gate, u8 event,
87 - open() and close() shall turn the hardware on and off.
88 - hci_ready() is an optional entry point that is called right after the hci
89 session has been set up. The driver can use it to do additional initialization
90 that must be performed using HCI commands.
91 - xmit() shall simply write a frame to the physical link.
92 - start_poll() is an optional entrypoint that shall set the hardware in polling
93 mode. This must be implemented only if the hardware uses proprietary gates or a
94 mechanism slightly different from the HCI standard.
95 - dep_link_up() is called after a p2p target has been detected, to finish
96 the p2p connection setup with hardware parameters that need to be passed back
98 - dep_link_down() is called to bring the p2p link down.
99 - target_from_gate() is an optional entrypoint to return the nfc protocols
100 corresponding to a proprietary gate.
101 - complete_target_discovered() is an optional entry point to let the driver
102 perform additional proprietary processing necessary to auto activate the
104 - im_transceive() must be implemented by the driver if proprietary HCI commands
105 are required to send data to the tag. Some tag types will require custom
106 commands, others can be written to using the standard HCI commands. The driver
107 can check the tag type and either do proprietary processing, or return 1 to ask
108 for standard processing. The data exchange command itself must be sent
110 - tm_send() is called to send data in the case of a p2p connection
111 - check_presence() is an optional entry point that will be called regularly
112 by the core to check that an activated tag is still in the field. If this is
113 not implemented, the core will not be able to push tag_lost events to the user
115 - event_received() is called to handle an event coming from the chip. Driver
116 can handle the event or return 1 to let HCI attempt standard processing.
118 On the rx path, the driver is responsible to push incoming HCP frames to HCI
119 using nfc_hci_recv_frame(). HCI will take care of re-aggregation and handling
120 This must be done from a context that can sleep.
125 The physical link (i2c, ...) management is defined by the following struture:
128 int (*write)(void *dev_id, struct sk_buff *skb);
129 int (*enable)(void *dev_id);
130 void (*disable)(void *dev_id);
133 enable(): turn the phy on (power on), make it ready to transfer data
134 disable(): turn the phy off
135 write(): Send a data frame to the chip. Note that to enable higher
136 layers such as an llc to store the frame for re-emission, this function must
137 not alter the skb. It must also not return a positive result (return 0 for
138 success, negative for failure).
140 Data coming from the chip shall be sent directly to nfc_hci_recv_frame().
145 Communication between the CPU and the chip often requires some link layer
146 protocol. Those are isolated as modules managed by the HCI layer. There are
147 currently two modules : nop (raw transfert) and shdlc.
148 A new llc must implement the following functions:
151 void *(*init) (struct nfc_hci_dev *hdev, xmit_to_drv_t xmit_to_drv,
152 rcv_to_hci_t rcv_to_hci, int tx_headroom,
153 int tx_tailroom, int *rx_headroom, int *rx_tailroom,
154 llc_failure_t llc_failure);
155 void (*deinit) (struct nfc_llc *llc);
156 int (*start) (struct nfc_llc *llc);
157 int (*stop) (struct nfc_llc *llc);
158 void (*rcv_from_drv) (struct nfc_llc *llc, struct sk_buff *skb);
159 int (*xmit_from_hci) (struct nfc_llc *llc, struct sk_buff *skb);
162 - init() : allocate and init your private storage
164 - start() : establish the logical connection
165 - stop () : terminate the logical connection
166 - rcv_from_drv() : handle data coming from the chip, going to HCI
167 - xmit_from_hci() : handle data sent by HCI, going to the chip
169 The llc must be registered with nfc before it can be used. Do that by
170 calling nfc_llc_register(const char *name, struct nfc_llc_ops *ops);
172 Again, note that the llc does not handle the physical link. It is thus very
173 easy to mix any physical link with any llc for a given chip driver.
178 An HCI based driver for an NXP PN544, connected through I2C bus, and using
184 The execution contexts are the following:
185 - IRQ handler (IRQH):
186 fast, cannot sleep. sends incoming frames to HCI where they are passed to
187 the current llc. In case of shdlc, the frame is queued in shdlc rx queue.
189 - SHDLC State Machine worker (SMW)
190 Only when llc_shdlc is used: handles shdlc rx & tx queues.
191 Dispatches HCI cmd responses.
193 - HCI Tx Cmd worker (MSGTXWQ)
194 Serializes execution of HCI commands. Completes execution in case of response
197 - HCI Rx worker (MSGRXWQ)
198 Dispatches incoming HCI commands or events.
200 - Syscall context from a userspace call (SYSCALL)
201 Any entrypoint in HCI called from NFC Core
203 Workflow executing an HCI command (using shdlc)
204 -----------------------------------------------
206 Executing an HCI command can easily be performed synchronously using the
209 int nfc_hci_send_cmd (struct nfc_hci_dev *hdev, u8 gate, u8 cmd,
210 const u8 *param, size_t param_len, struct sk_buff **skb)
212 The API must be invoked from a context that can sleep. Most of the time, this
213 will be the syscall context. skb will return the result that was received in
216 Internally, execution is asynchronous. So all this API does is to enqueue the
217 HCI command, setup a local wait queue on stack, and wait_event() for completion.
218 The wait is not interruptible because it is guaranteed that the command will
219 complete after some short timeout anyway.
221 MSGTXWQ context will then be scheduled and invoke nfc_hci_msg_tx_work().
222 This function will dequeue the next pending command and send its HCP fragments
223 to the lower layer which happens to be shdlc. It will then start a timer to be
224 able to complete the command with a timeout error if no response arrive.
226 SMW context gets scheduled and invokes nfc_shdlc_sm_work(). This function
227 handles shdlc framing in and out. It uses the driver xmit to send frames and
228 receives incoming frames in an skb queue filled from the driver IRQ handler.
229 SHDLC I(nformation) frames payload are HCP fragments. They are aggregated to
230 form complete HCI frames, which can be a response, command, or event.
232 HCI Responses are dispatched immediately from this context to unblock
233 waiting command execution. Response processing involves invoking the completion
234 callback that was provided by nfc_hci_msg_tx_work() when it sent the command.
235 The completion callback will then wake the syscall context.
237 It is also possible to execute the command asynchronously using this API:
239 static int nfc_hci_execute_cmd_async(struct nfc_hci_dev *hdev, u8 pipe, u8 cmd,
240 const u8 *param, size_t param_len,
241 data_exchange_cb_t cb, void *cb_context)
243 The workflow is the same, except that the API call returns immediately, and
244 the callback will be called with the result from the SMW context.
246 Workflow receiving an HCI event or command
247 ------------------------------------------
249 HCI commands or events are not dispatched from SMW context. Instead, they are
250 queued to HCI rx_queue and will be dispatched from HCI rx worker
251 context (MSGRXWQ). This is done this way to allow a cmd or event handler
252 to also execute other commands (for example, handling the
253 NFC_HCI_EVT_TARGET_DISCOVERED event from PN544 requires to issue an
254 ANY_GET_PARAMETER to the reader A gate to get information on the target
255 that was discovered).
257 Typically, such an event will be propagated to NFC Core from MSGRXWQ context.
262 Errors that occur synchronously with the execution of an NFC Core request are
263 simply returned as the execution result of the request. These are easy.
265 Errors that occur asynchronously (e.g. in a background protocol handling thread)
266 must be reported such that upper layers don't stay ignorant that something
267 went wrong below and know that expected events will probably never happen.
268 Handling of these errors is done as follows:
270 - driver (pn544) fails to deliver an incoming frame: it stores the error such
271 that any subsequent call to the driver will result in this error. Then it calls
272 the standard nfc_shdlc_recv_frame() with a NULL argument to report the problem
273 above. shdlc stores a EREMOTEIO sticky status, which will trigger SMW to
274 report above in turn.
276 - SMW is basically a background thread to handle incoming and outgoing shdlc
277 frames. This thread will also check the shdlc sticky status and report to HCI
278 when it discovers it is not able to run anymore because of an unrecoverable
279 error that happened within shdlc or below. If the problem occurs during shdlc
280 connection, the error is reported through the connect completion.
282 - HCI: if an internal HCI error happens (frame is lost), or HCI is reported an
283 error from a lower layer, HCI will either complete the currently executing
284 command with that error, or notify NFC Core directly if no command is executing.
286 - NFC Core: when NFC Core is notified of an error from below and polling is
287 active, it will send a tag discovered event with an empty tag list to the user
288 space to let it know that the poll operation will never be able to detect a tag.
289 If polling is not active and the error was sticky, lower levels will return it