FAIFA(8)							    User manual 							  FAIFA(8)

NAME

       faifa - configure HomePlug 1.0/AV devices

SYNOPSIS

       faifa [OPTIONS]
       -i   specify network interface to use
       -m   show the menu asking for known MM types
       -a   destination MAC address to send frames to
       -k   network key to set
       -v   be verbose (default: no)
       -e   set error stream (default: stderr)
       -o   set output stream (default: stdout)
       -s   set input stream (default: stdin)
       -h   show the usage

DESCRIPTION

       faifa  can configure any Intellon-based PowerLine Communication device using the Intellon INT5000 and INT6000 HomePlug AV (200Mbits) chips.
       It supports all Intellon-specific management and control frames.

MENU COMMANDS

       -i   specify network interface to use
       -m   show the menu asking for known MM types
       -a   destination MAC address to send frames to
       -k   network key to set
       -v   be verbose (default: no)
       -e   set error stream (default: stderr)
       -o   set output stream (default: stdout)
       -s   set input stream (default: stdin)
       -h   show the usage

       HomePlug AV protocol

	      The HomePlug AV protocol was developed by Intellon and specifies how the powerline PHY layer and HPAV  MAC  layer  can  converge	to
	      allow  Ethernet  frames to be sent on the medium. It handles all the low-level modulation and constellation building plus the Medium
	      Access Control handling between devices.	The HomePlug AV network topology consists of one coordinator (called CCo) for a given log-
	      ical  HPAV  network (i.e: with the same Network Encryption Key) and none or several stations (called STAs). Other devices can have a
	      specific role which is a bridge, between several logical networks.

	      ------------------------------------
	      | HomePlug PHY			 |
	      ------------------------------------
	      | HomePlug MAC convergence layer	 |
	      ------------------------------------
	      | Ethernet MAC layer		 |
	      ------------------------------------

	      It is possible to configure the HPAV MAC convergence layer by using specific Ethernet frames with the 0x88e1 Ethertype. Such  frames
	      will be interpreted by the Intellon controller present in the devices and are known as control or management frames.

	      Such  frames can be either protocol specific (i.e: common to all HPAV implementations) or vendor specific. There is no convention to
	      specify whether an HPAV configuration and management frame is vendor specific or not. Most implementations will share a common  for-
	      mat for basic network operations like setting the Network Management Key or the Encryption Key.

	      A HomePlug AV management frame is described below :

		   8 bits	  16 bits
	      ---------------------------------------------------
	      | MM version |	       MM type			|
	      ---------------------------------------------------
	      | 	OUI (24 bits)				|
	      ---------------------------------------------------
	      | 	Payload   (var) 			|
	      ---------------------------------------------------

	      The  payload is highly dependent on the implementation though most vendors will try to define a common template for it. Such manage-
	      ment frame should be encapsulated in standard ethernet frames with the 0x88e1 ethertype.

	      Faifa operations

	      Faifa basically performs 3 main operations :

	      - send all vendor and protocol specific frames with the corresponding parameters
	      - dump all vendor and HomePlug 1.0/AV frames with the appropriate frame parsing
	      - discover the HPAV network topology

	      The available vendor specific operations are stored in an array of struct hpav_frame_ops. For each entry the mmtype and the descrip-
	      tion is specified, with possible callbacks to handle frame initialization and dump function.

	      Using the faifa library

	      Faifa is also provided as shared library (so file) and static library so that you can link programs with to send HomePlug AV frames.
	      The library allows you, specifying a given mmtype to send the corresponding HPAV frame to a given device.

	      Linking with faifa

	      You should include faifa.h into your C source file and then you can directly call functions that are provided by the faifa  library.
	      When linking with the faifa library, make sure your linker flags include "-lfaifa" or the absolute path of the shared object to make
	      sure your program will successfully link.

	      Sending frames using do_frame

	      The main function you want to call is do_frame and pass it the MMtype and destination MAC address you want to  send  the	frame  to.
	      This function will :

	      - lookup the mmtype by reading the array containing available frame operations
	      - initialize the frame header (MM version, type, source and destination MAC addresses)
	      - call the initialisation function (if needed) to let the user input the parameters (or any other input method)
	      - calculate the appropriate frame size
	      - send it to the device
	      - close the network socket descriptor

	      This function propagates the return code from the write command on the socket descriptor.

	      Receiving frames using do_receive_frame

	      This function will listen for received frames on the specified interface and will :

	      - check that the ethertype is set to 0x88e1 otherwise it will discard the frame
	      - cast the received packet to an HPAV management frame structure
	      - lookup for the received MM type into the arrays of known response/indications
	      - call the frame parsing function (based on the mmtype) accordingly

	      You  will  probably  want  to  set  the  network	descriptor in reading mode non-blocking. Faifa uses this function with a call to a
	      pcap_loop method inside a dedicated thread to receive all frames.

SEE ALSO

       ifconfig(8)

AUTHORS

       Florian Fainelli <florian@openwrt.org>, Xavier Carcelle <xavier.carcelle@gmail.com>, Nicolas Thill <nico@openwrt.org>

Linux								    April 2011								  FAIFA(8)