doc/connectivity/networking/overview.rst
.. _ip_stack_overview:
Overview ########
.. contents:: :local: :depth: 2
Supported Features
The networking IP stack is modular and highly configurable via build-time configuration options. You can minimize system memory consumption by enabling only those network features required by your application. Almost all features can be disabled if not needed.
IPv6 (:rfc:8200) is supported. Various IPv6 sub-options
can be enabled or disabled depending on networking needs.
4862).4861) is enabled by default.3810) is enabled by default.4944).8415) client
functionality is supported.8981) is supported.IPv4 (:rfc:791) is supported. It cannot be used by IEEE 802.15.4 as
this network technology supports only IPv6. IPv4 can be used for example
in Ethernet, Wi-Fi and Cellular based networks.
2131).Dual stack support. The networking stack allows a developer to configure the system to use both IPv6 and IPv4 at the same time.
UDP User Datagram Protocol (:rfc:768) is supported.
The developer can send UDP datagrams (client side support) or create a
listener to receive UDP packets destined to certain port (server side
support).
TCP Transmission Control Protocol (:rfc:793) is supported. Both server
and client roles can be used the application. The amount of TCP sockets
that are available to applications can be configured at build time.
BSD Sockets API Support for a subset of a
:ref:BSD sockets compatible API <bsd_sockets_interface> is
implemented. Both blocking and non-blocking datagram (UDP) and stream (TCP)
sockets are supported. Packet sockets (AF_PACKET) are also supported.
Secure Sockets API Experimental support for TLS/DTLS secure protocols and configuration options for sockets API. Secure functions for the implementation are provided by mbedTLS library.
MQTT Message Queue Telemetry Transport (ISO/IEC PRF 20922) versions 3.1.1 and 5.0
are supported.
A sample :zephyr:code-sample:mqtt-publisher client application for MQTT v3.1.1 and v5.0
is provided.
MQTT-SN MQTT for Sensor Networks version 1.2 is supported.
A sample :zephyr:code-sample:mqtt-sn-publisher client application is provided.
CoAP Constrained Application Protocol (:rfc:7252) is supported.
Both :zephyr:code-sample:coap-client and :zephyr:code-sample:coap-server sample
applications are provided.
LWM2M OMA Lightweight Machine-to-Machine Protocol
(LwM2M specification 1.0.2) is supported via the "Bootstrap", "Client
Registration", "Device Management & Service Enablement" and "Information
Reporting" interfaces. The required core LwM2M objects are implemented as
well as several IPSO Smart Objects. (LwM2M specification 1.1.1) is
supported in similar manner when enabled with a Kconfig option.
:zephyr:code-sample:lwm2m-client sample implements the library as an example.
HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol client and server are supported.
:ref:http_client_interface library supports HTTP/1.1 (:rfc:2616).
:ref:http_server_interface library supports HTTP/1.1 (:rfc:2616) and
HTTP/2 (:rfc:9113).
:zephyr:code-sample:sockets-http-client and
:zephyr:code-sample:sockets-http-server samples are provided.
Websocket (:rfc:6455) client is supported.
:zephyr:code-sample:sockets-websocket-client sample is provided.
DNS Domain Name Service (:rfc:1035) client functionality is supported.
Applications can use the DNS API to query domain name information or IP
addresses from the DNS server. Both IPv4 (A) and IPv6 (AAAA) records can
be queried.
Both multicast DNS (mDNS) (:rfc:6762) and link-local multicast name resolution
(LLMNR, :rfc:4795) are supported.
The DNS Service Discovery (:rfc:6763) is also supported.
Network Management API. Applications can use network management API to listen management events generated by core network stack when for example IP address is added to the device, or network interface is coming up etc.
Wi-Fi Management API. Applications can use Wi-Fi management API to manage the interface, in example to connect to Wi-Fi network and to scan available Wi-Fi networks.
Wi-Fi Network Manager API. Wi-Fi Network Managers can now register themselves to the Wi-Fi stack. The Network Managers can then implement the Wi-Fi Management API and manage the Wi-Fi interface.
Multiple Network Technologies. The Zephyr OS can be configured to support multiple network technologies at the same time simply by enabling them in Kconfig: for example, Ethernet, Wi-Fi and 802.15.4 support. Note that no automatic IP routing functionality is provided between these technologies. Applications can send data according to their needs to desired network interface.
Minimal Copy Network Buffer Management. It is possible to have minimal copy network data path. This means that the system tries to avoid copying application data when it is sent to the network.
Virtual LAN support. Virtual LANs (VLANs) allow partitioning of physical
ethernet networks into logical networks.
See :ref:VLAN support <vlan_interface> for more details.
Network traffic classification. The sent and received network packets can
be prioritized depending on application needs.
See :ref:traffic classification <traffic-class-support> for more details.
Time Sensitive Networking. Both the gPTP (generalized Precision Time Protocol)
and PTP (Precision Time Protocol, IEEE 1588) are supported.
See :ref:gPTP support <gptp_interface> and :ref:PTP support <ptp_interface>
for more details.
SNTP Simple Network Time Protocol (:rfc:5905) client is supported.
:zephyr:code-sample:sntp-client sample is provided.
SOCKS5 proxy version 5 (:rfc:1928) is supported.
TFTP Trivial File Transfer Protocol (:rfc:1350) client is supported.
:zephyr:code-sample:tftp-client sample is provided.
MIDI2 MIDI 2.0 network UDP transport is supported.
:zephyr:code-sample:netmidi2 sample is provided.
OCPP Open Charge Point Protocol is supported.
:zephyr:code-sample:ocpp sample is provided.
Prometheus Metric Server functionality is supported.
:zephyr:code-sample:prometheus is provided.
Network shell. The network shell provides helpers for figuring out
network status, enabling/disabling features, and issuing commands like ping
or DNS resolving. The net-shell is useful when developing network software.
See :ref:network shell <net_shell> for more details.
zperf is an iPerf v2 network performance and bandwidth measurement tool.
Both client and server functionality is supported. :zephyr:code-sample:zperf
sample is provided.
Additionally these network technologies (link layers) are supported in Zephyr OS:
1661)openthread samples are provided)Source Tree Layout
The networking stack source code tree is organized as follows:
:zephyr_file:subsys/net/
Various optional network stack components like connection manager,
packet filter code and hostname handling are located here.
:zephyr_file:subsys/net/ip/
This is where the core network stack code is located.
:zephyr_file:subsys/net/l2
This is where the IP stack layer 2 code is located. This includes generic
support for Ethernet, IEEE 802.15.4 and Wi-Fi.
:zephyr_file:subsys/net/lib/
Application-level protocols (DNS, MQTT, etc.) and additional stack
components (BSD Sockets, etc.).
:zephyr_file:include/zephyr/net/
Public API header files. These are the header files applications need
to include to use IP networking functionality.
:zephyr_file:samples/net/
Sample networking code. This is a good reference to get started with
network application development.
:zephyr_file:tests/net/
Test applications. These applications are used to verify the
functionality of the IP stack, but are not the best
source for sample code (see :zephyr_file:samples/net/ instead).
.. _LwM2M specification 1.0.2: https://www.openmobilealliance.org/release/LightweightM2M/V1_0_2-20180209-A/OMA-TS-LightweightM2M-V1_0_2-20180209-A.pdf
.. _LwM2M specification 1.1.1: https://www.openmobilealliance.org/release/LightweightM2M/V1_1_1-20190617-A/