Protocols                                                dlpi(7P)

NAME
     dlpi - Data Link Provider Interface

SYNOPSIS
     #include <sys/dlpi.h>

DESCRIPTION
     SunOS STREAMS-based device drivers wishing  to  support  the
     STREAMS   TCP/IP and other STREAMS-based networking protocol
     suite implementations support Version 2  of  the  Data  Link
     Provider  Interface  ("DLPI").  DLPI  V2 enables a data link
     service user to access and use any of a variety of  conform-
     ing data link service providers without special knowledge of
     the provider's  protocol.  Specifically,  the  interface  is
     intended  to  support  Ethernet, X.25 LAPB, SDLC, ISDN LAPD,
     CSMA/CD, FDDI, token ring,  token  bus,  Bisync,  and  other
     datalink-level protocols.

     The interface specifies access to the data link service pro-
     vider  in  the form of  M_PROTO and  M_PCPROTO type  STREAMS
     messages and does not define a specific protocol implementa-
     tion.  The  interface  defines  the  syntax and semantics of
     primitives exchanged between the data link user and the data
     link  provider  to  attach  a physical device with physical-
     level address to a stream, bind a datalink-level address  to
     the stream, get implementation-specific information from the
     data link provider, exchange data with a peer data link user
     in one of three communication modes (connection, connection-
     less, acknowledged connectionless), enable/disable multicast
     group and promiscuous mode reception of datalink frames, get
     and set the physical address associated with a  stream,  and
     several other operations.

     For details on this interface  refer  to  the   <sys/dlpi.h>
     header and to the  STREAMS DLPI Specification, 800-6915-01.

FILES
     Files in or under /dev.

SEE ALSO
     le(7D)

SunOS 5.8            Last change: 2 Oct 1991                    1