VDUSE (vDPA Device in Userspace) is a framework to support
implementing software-emulated vDPA devices in userspace. This
document is intended to clarify the VDUSE design and usage.
Signed-off-by: Xie Yongji <xieyongji@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
Documentation/userspace-api/index.rst | 1 +
Documentation/userspace-api/vduse.rst | 112 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
2 files changed, 113 insertions(+)
create mode 100644 Documentation/userspace-api/vduse.rst
diff --git a/Documentation/userspace-api/index.rst b/Documentation/userspace-api/index.rst
index acd2cc2a538d..f63119130898 100644
--- a/Documentation/userspace-api/index.rst
+++ b/Documentation/userspace-api/index.rst
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ place where this information is gathered.
ioctl/index
iommu
media/index
+ vduse
.. only:: subproject and html
diff --git a/Documentation/userspace-api/vduse.rst b/Documentation/userspace-api/vduse.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..2a20e686bb59
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/userspace-api/vduse.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,112 @@
+==================================
+VDUSE - "vDPA Device in Userspace"
+==================================
+
+vDPA (virtio data path acceleration) device is a device that uses a
+datapath which complies with the virtio specifications with vendor
+specific control path. vDPA devices can be both physically located on
+the hardware or emulated by software. VDUSE is a framework that makes it
+possible to implement software-emulated vDPA devices in userspace.
+
+How VDUSE works
+------------
+Each userspace vDPA device is created by the VDUSE_CREATE_DEV ioctl on
+the character device (/dev/vduse/control). Then a device file with the
+specified name (/dev/vduse/$NAME) will appear, which can be used to
+implement the userspace vDPA device's control path and data path.
+
+To implement control path, a message-based communication protocol and some
+types of control messages are introduced in the VDUSE framework:
+
+- VDUSE_SET_VQ_ADDR: Set the vring address of virtqueue.
+
+- VDUSE_SET_VQ_NUM: Set the size of virtqueue
+
+- VDUSE_SET_VQ_READY: Set ready status of virtqueue
+
+- VDUSE_GET_VQ_READY: Get ready status of virtqueue
+
+- VDUSE_SET_VQ_STATE: Set the state for virtqueue
+
+- VDUSE_GET_VQ_STATE: Get the state for virtqueue
+
+- VDUSE_SET_FEATURES: Set virtio features supported by the driver
+
+- VDUSE_GET_FEATURES: Get virtio features supported by the device
+
+- VDUSE_SET_STATUS: Set the device status
+
+- VDUSE_GET_STATUS: Get the device status
+
+- VDUSE_SET_CONFIG: Write to device specific configuration space
+
+- VDUSE_GET_CONFIG: Read from device specific configuration space
+
+- VDUSE_UPDATE_IOTLB: Notify userspace to update the memory mapping in device IOTLB
+
+Those control messages are mostly based on the vdpa_config_ops in
+include/linux/vdpa.h which defines a unified interface to control
+different types of vdpa device. Userspace needs to read()/write()
+on the VDUSE device file to receive/reply those control messages
+from/to VDUSE kernel module as follows:
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+ static int vduse_message_handler(int dev_fd)
+ {
+ int len;
+ struct vduse_dev_request req;
+ struct vduse_dev_response resp;
+
+ len = read(dev_fd, &req, sizeof(req));
+ if (len != sizeof(req))
+ return -1;
+
+ resp.request_id = req.unique;
+
+ switch (req.type) {
+
+ /* handle different types of message */
+
+ }
+
+ len = write(dev_fd, &resp, sizeof(resp));
+ if (len != sizeof(resp))
+ return -1;
+
+ return 0;
+ }
+
+In the deta path, vDPA device's iova regions will be mapped into userspace
+with the help of VDUSE_IOTLB_GET_FD ioctl on the VDUSE device file:
+
+- VDUSE_IOTLB_GET_FD: get the file descriptor to iova region. Userspace can
+ access this iova region by passing the fd to mmap().
+
+Besides, the following ioctls on the VDUSE device file are provided to support
+interrupt injection and setting up eventfd for virtqueue kicks:
+
+- VDUSE_VQ_SETUP_KICKFD: set the kickfd for virtqueue, this eventfd is used
+ by VDUSE kernel module to notify userspace to consume the vring.
+
+- VDUSE_INJECT_VQ_IRQ: inject an interrupt for specific virtqueue
+
+- VDUSE_INJECT_CONFIG_IRQ: inject a config interrupt
+
+MMU-based IOMMU Driver
+----------------------
+In virtio-vdpa case, VDUSE framework implements an MMU-based on-chip IOMMU
+driver to support mapping the kernel DMA buffer into the userspace iova
+region dynamically.
+
+The basic idea behind this driver is treating MMU (VA->PA) as IOMMU (IOVA->PA).
+The driver will set up MMU mapping instead of IOMMU mapping for the DMA transfer
+so that the userspace process is able to use its virtual address to access
+the DMA buffer in kernel.
+
+And to avoid security issue, a bounce-buffering mechanism is introduced to
+prevent userspace accessing the original buffer directly which may contain other
+kernel data. During the mapping, unmapping, the driver will copy the data from
+the original buffer to the bounce buffer and back, depending on the direction of
+the transfer. And the bounce-buffer addresses will be mapped into the user address
+space instead of the original one.
--
2.11.0
