irnet

IRNET(4)		     Linux-IrDA man pages		     IRNET(4)



NAME
       irnet - IrNET protocol device

DESCRIPTION
       File  /dev/irnet	 is  used  to access and configure the IrNET protocol
       part of the Linux-IrDA stack.

       IrNET is a protocol allowing to create TCP/IP connections between  two
       IrDA  peers  in an efficient fashion, and generally to enable standard
       networking over IrDA. It is a thin layer, passing PPP packets to IrTTP
       and vice versa. It uses PPP in synchronous mode, because IrTTP offer a
       reliable sequenced packet service (as opposed to a  byte	 stream).  In
       fact,  you  could see IrNET as carrying TCP/IP in a IrDA socket, using
       PPP to provide the glue.

       The main difference with traditional PPP over IrCOMM is that it avoids
       the  framing  and serial emulation which are a performance bottleneck.
       It also allows multipoint communications in a  sensible	fashion.  And
       finally,	 it  can  automatically	 handle incomming connections through
       irnetd.

       The main difference with IrLAN is that we use PPP for the link manage-
       ment,  which  is	 more  standard,  interoperable and flexible than the
       IrLAN protocol. For example, PPP adds authentication, encryption, com-
       pression,  header  compression  and  automated  routing setup. And, as
       IrNET let PPP do the hard work, the  implementation  is	much  simpler
       than IrLAN.

       IrNET  connections  are	initiated  and	managed	 with  pppd(8).	 File
       /dev/irnet also offer a control channel.	 Reads from  /dev/irnet	 will
       return  various	IrNET events.  Write to /dev/irnet allow to configure
       the IrNET connection.

CONFIGURATION
       If your system does not have /dev/irnet created	already,  it  can  be
       created with the following commands:

	       mknod -m 644 /dev/irnet c 10 187
	       chown root:root /dev/irnet

       You  will  also need to have IrNET support in your kernel or as module
       and the Linux-IrDA stack installed and configured (see irattach(8)).

       File /dev/irnet is supposed to only be used with the PPP	 line  disci-
       pline or for accessing the control channel, other use are unsupported.
       IrNET support multiple concurent	 connections  (limited	by  the	 IrDA
       stack),	all  those connections are multiplexed on a single /dev/irnet
       device (as opposed to IrCOMM which as one device per connection).

PARAMETERS
       Writing commands to /dev/irnet allow to configure the IrNET connection
       being  made. This need to be done through pppd(8) (see below for exam-
       ples). Commands are separated by comas.

       name <peer>
	      Connect to the IrDA device which IrDA nickname is <peer>.	  The
	      IrDA nickname is a string up to 31 characters.

       daddr <peer>
	      Connect  to  the IrDA device which IrDA address is <peer>.  The
	      IrDA address is a 32 bits hexadecimal number.

       raddr <port>
	      Restrict connections to the local	 IrDA  interface  which	 IrDA
	      address  is  <port>.  The IrDA address is a 32 bits hexadecimal
	      number.

DISPLAY
       Reading from /dev/irnet will show various IrNET events.	This is	 usu-
       ally done with the command cat /dev/irnet.

       Found  Dump of the current IrNET discovery log.

       Discovered
	      New IrNET device discovered.

       Expired
	      Previously discovered IrNET device no longer present.

       Connected to
	      This computer successfully established an IrNET connection to a
	      peer.

       Connection from
	      A peer successfully established an  IrNET	 connection  to	 this
	      computer.

       Request from
	      A peer attempted to connect to this computer, but no IrNET con-
	      nection was waiting for it.

       No-answer from
	      This computer attempted to connect to a peer, but no IrNET con-
	      nection was waiting for it.

       Blocked link with
	      The IrDA link of the IrNET connection is currently blocked.

       Disconnection from
	      A	 peer  successfully  terminated an IrNET connection with this
	      computer.

       Disconnected to
	      This computer successfully terminated an IrNET connection	 with
	      a peer.

       File /proc/net/irda/irnet will also show the current state of the var-
       ious IrNET connections.

EXAMPLE
       Start a IrNET server accepting any incomming connection:
	    pppd /dev/irnet 9600 local noauth nolock passive

       Start a IrNET client connecting to any IrDA peer:
	    pppd /dev/irnet 9600 local noauth nolock

       Start a IrNET client connecting to the IrDA peer called MyIrDANode:
	    pppd /dev/irnet 9600 local noauth nolock connect "echo name MyIr-
       DANode"

       Start  a	 IrNET	server	accepting incomming connection from peer with
       IrDA address 0x12345678 only on IrDA port 0x87654321:
	    pppd /dev/irnet 9600 local noauth nolock  passive  connect	"echo
       daddr 0x12345678 , saddr 0x87654321"

AUTHOR
       Jean Tourrilhes - jt@hpl.hp.com

FILES
       /dev/irnet
       /proc/net/irda/irnet

SEE ALSO
       irda(7), irnetd(8), pppd(8), irattach(8), irdadump(8).



irda-utils			  2 May 2003			     IRNET(4)