Section 1 Overview

The Media Oriented Systems Transport (MOST) driver gives Linux applications
access a MOST network: The Automotive Information Backbone and the de-facto
standard for high-bandwidth automotive multimedia networking.

MOST defines the protocol, hardware and software layers necessary to allow
for the efficient and low-cost transport of control, real-time and packet
data using a single medium (physical layer). Media currently in use are
fiber optics, unshielded twisted pair cables (UTP) and coax cables. MOST
also supports various speed grades up to 150 Mbps.
For more information on MOST, visit the MOST Cooperation website:
www.mostcooperation.com.

Cars continue to evolve into sophisticated consumer electronics platforms,
increasing the demand for reliable and simple solutions to support audio,
video and data communications. MOST can be used to connect multiple
consumer devices via optical or electrical physical layers directly to one
another or in a network configuration. As a synchronous network, MOST
provides excellent Quality of Service and seamless connectivity for
audio/video streaming. Therefore, the driver perfectly fits to the mission
of Automotive Grade Linux to create open source software solutions for
automotive applications.

The driver consists basically of three layers. The hardware layer, the
core layer and the application layer. The core layer consists of the core
module only. This module handles the communication flow through all three
layers, the configuration of the driver, the configuration interface
representation in sysfs, and the buffer management.
For each of the other two layers a selection of modules is provided. These
modules can arbitrarily be combined to meet the needs of the desired
system architecture. A module of the hardware layer is referred to as an
HDM (hardware dependent module). Each module of this layer handles exactly
one of the peripheral interfaces of a network interface controller (e.g.
USB, MediaLB, I2C). A module of the application layer is referred to as an
AIM (application interfacing module). The modules of this layer give access
to MOST via one the following ways: character devices, ALSA, Networking or
V4L2.

To physically access MOST, an Intelligent Network Interface Controller
(INIC) is needed. For more information on available controllers visit:
www.microchip.com



		Section 1.1 Hardware Layer

The hardware layer contains so called hardware dependent modules (HDM). For each
peripheral interface the hardware supports the driver has a suitable module
that handles the interface.

The HDMs encapsulate the peripheral interface specific knowledge of the driver
and provides an easy way of extending the number of supported interfaces.
Currently the following HDMs are available:

	1) MediaLB (DIM2)
	   Host wants to communicate with hardware via MediaLB.

	2) I2C
	   Host wants to communicate with the hardware via I2C.

	3) USB
	   Host wants to communicate with the hardware via USB.


		Section 1.2 Core Layer

The core layer contains the mostcore module only, which processes the driver
configuration via sysfs, buffer management and data forwarding.



		Section 1.2 Application Layer

The application layer contains so called application interfacing modules (AIM).
Depending on how the driver should interface to the application, one or more
suitable modules can be selected.

The AIMs encapsulate the application interface specific knowledge of the driver
and provides access to user space or other kernel subsystems.
Currently the following AIMs are available

	1) Character Device
	   Applications can access the driver by means of character devices.

	2) Networking
	   Standard networking applications (e.g. iperf) can by used to access
	   the driver via the networking subsystem.

	3) Video4Linux (v4l2)
	   Standard video applications (e.g. VLC) can by used to access the
	   driver via the V4L subsystem.

	4) Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA)
	   Standard sound applications (e.g. aplay, arecord, audacity) can by
	   used to access the driver via the ALSA subsystem.



		Section 2 Configuration

See ABI/sysfs-class-most.txt



		Section 3 USB Padding

When transceiving synchronous or isochronous data, the number of packets per USB
transaction and the sub-buffer size need to be configured. These values
are needed for the driver to process buffer padding, as expected by hardware,
which is for performance optimization purposes of the USB transmission.

When transmitting synchronous data the allocated channel width needs to be
written to 'set_subbuffer_size'. Additionally, the number of MOST frames that
should travel to the host within one USB transaction need to be written to
'packets_per_xact'.

Internally the synchronous threshold is calculated as follows:

	frame_size = set_subbuffer_size * packets_per_xact

In case 'packets_per_xact' is set to 0xFF the maximum number of packets,
allocated within one MOST frame, is calculated that fit into _one_ 512 byte
USB full packet.

	frame_size = floor(MTU_USB / bandwidth_sync) * bandwidth_sync

This frame_size is the number of synchronous data within an USB transaction,
which renders MTU_USB - frame_size bytes for padding.

When transmitting isochronous AVP data the desired packet size needs to be
written to 'set_subbuffer_size' and hardware will always expect two isochronous
packets within one USB transaction. This renders

	MTU_USB - (2 * set_subbuffer_size)

bytes for padding.

Note that at least 2 times set_subbuffer_size bytes for isochronous data or
set_subbuffer_size times packts_per_xact bytes for synchronous data need to be
put in the transmission buffer and passed to the driver.

Since HDMs are allowed to change a chosen configuration to best fit its
constraints, it is recommended to always double check the configuration and read
back the previously written files.



		Section 4 Routing Channels

To connect a channel that has been configured as outlined above to an AIM and
make it accessible to user space applications, the attribute file 'add_link' is
used. To actually bind a channel to the AIM a string needs to be written to the
file that complies with the following syntax:

	"most_device:channel_name:link_name[.param]"

The example above links the channel "channel_name" of the device "most_device"
to the AIM. In case the AIM interfaces the VFS this would also create a device
node "link_name" in the /dev directory. The parameter "param" is an AIM dependent
string, which can be omitted in case the used AIM does not make any use of it.

Cdev AIM example:
        $ echo "mdev0:ep_81:my_rx_channel" >add_link
        $ echo "mdev0:ep_81" >add_link


Sound/ALSA AIM example:

The sound/ALSA AIM needs an additional parameter to determine the audio resolution
that is going to be used. The following strings can be used:

	- "1x8" (Mono)
	- "2x16" (16-bit stereo)
	- "2x24" (24-bit stereo)
	- "2x32" (32-bit stereo)

        $ echo "mdev0:ep_81:audio_rx.2x16" >add_link
        $ echo "mdev0:ep_81" >add_link