[openib-general] iwarp: whats a pkey?

[Caitlin Bestler]

openib-general-bounces at openib.org wrote:
> On Fri, 2006-01-27 at 15:32, Roland Dreier wrote:
>>     Roland> No, I think trying to create a mapping is a bad idea. 
>>     The Roland> semantics of VLANs and IB partitions are sufficiently
>>     Roland> different that it's probably better to treat each
>> concept     Roland> natively. 
>> 
>>     Steve> Roland, can you expand on this some?
>> 
>> I don't think transport neutral code should be dealing with either
>> P_Keys or VLANs.  The Linux model for handling VLANs is that each
>> VLAN has a separate network interface.  So an iWARP consumer should
>> never deal with VLANs, just with a routing choice of interfaces.
>> 
>> Similarly if a consumer is using the iWARP-emulation CM for IB, then
>> the P_Key will come from the IPoIB interface.  Only native IB
>> consumers that understand partitions ever have to deal with P_Keys.
> 
> What about a gateway between iWARP and IB ? Would it need the
> mappings between VLAN and IB partition ? If so, I would
> presume that is at a layer above what you are talking about.
> 

If you are attempting to implement an iWARP/IB gateway *above*
transport neutral verbs then I don't think there is anything
that can be defined that will be of much help.