Intel Extensible Firmware Interface - G-1. Network Stacks with Three Classes of Drivers; G.1.3 os Network Stacks

Extensible Firmware Interface Specification
376 12/12/00 Version 1.02
Table G-2. Referenced Specification (continued)
Acronym Protocol/Specification
TCP Transmission Control Protocol
TCPv4: http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc0793.txt
TCPv6: ftp://ftp.ipv6.org/pub/rfc/rfc2147.txt
Required reading for those implementing the BC protocol.
TFTP Trivial File Transfer Protocol
TFTP over IPv4 (protocol: http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1350.txt, options:
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2347.txt, http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2348.txt and
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2349.txt).
TFTP over IPv6: %%TBD need URL and an RFC!
Required reading for those implementing the BC protocol.
UDP User Datagram Protocol
UDP over IPv4: http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc0768.txt
UDP over IPv6: http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2454.txt
Required reading for those implementing the BC protocol.
WfM
Wired for Management
ftp://download.intel.com/ial/wfm/baseline.pdf
Recommended reading for those implementing the BC protocol or PXE Bootservers.
G.1.3 OS Network Stacks
This is a simplified overview of three OS network stacks that contain three types of network
drivers: Custom, S/W UNDI and H/W UNDI. The figure below depicts an application bound to an
OS protocol stack, which is in turn bound to a protocol driver that is bound to three NICs. The
table below the figure gives a brief list of pros and cons about each type of driver implementation.
Custom
OS Protocol Stack
Application-1
NIC-3
Vend-B
NIC-2
Vend-B
NIC Specific
Protocol Driver
NIC-1
Vendor-A
NIC
Specific
Protocol
Driver
S/W UNDI
Application-2
NIC-5
Vend-D
UNDI
NIC-6
Vend-D
NIC-4
Vendor-C
UNDI
OS Protocol Stack
OS Universal Protocol Driver
H/W UNDI
Application-3
H/W UNDI
NIC-8
Vendor-F
H/W UNDI
NIC-7
Vendor-E
H/W UNDI
NIC-9
Vendor-F
OS Protocol Stack
OS Universal Protocol Driver
Figure G-1. Network Stacks with Three Classes of Drivers