Converged network stack
Discuss requirements of converged network stack for Ubuntu Touch and Desktop; mobile data support etc.
Blueprint information
- Status:
- Complete
- Approver:
- None
- Priority:
- Essential
- Drafter:
- Loïc Minier
- Direction:
- Approved
- Assignee:
- Stéphane Graber
- Definition:
- Approved
- Series goal:
- Accepted for raring
- Implementation:
-
Implemented
- Milestone target:
-
ubuntu-13.05
- Started by
- Martin Pitt
- Completed by
- Martin Pitt
Whiteboard
== Issues with current network stacks ==
Main missing piece is data support (over 3G/4G) for Ubuntu Touch
Certification will be required for the whole phone stack
Leveraging RILd and binary libraries for it
Memory consumption is really high with NM + nm-applet + dhclient
== ConnMan v.s. NM ==
https:/
Considering ConnMan as a replacement; but need to estimate the amount of work in both cases amongst many angles
ModemManager currently used in NM; could support both ModemManager and oFono at the same time in NM
Support for specific WiFi drivers: relatively on equal footing here; most patches go in wpasupplicant anyway
Transition to ConnMan: would require converting the settings on upgrade
== Estimate amount of work required ==
* (Stephane) Looked at how much effort it would be to add oFono support to Network Manager
* Not a huge effort, and could support both MM and oFono at the same time; probably a month worth of work
* Upstream NM ready to take oFono support
* Could whitelist modems for oFono vs. MM
* Possibility of using MM
* ChromeBooks happily using MM, but lacks voice support
* MM could get voice support, but was never certified on a phone
* Voice has lots of ancillary features that may need to be developed as well (call forwarding, blocking, etc.)
* Current MM iface (in git) supports more capability detection than pervious versions (example: SIM support lacking on CDMA modems)
* (Stephane) Looked at how much effort it would be to add fast DHCP support to dhclient
* dhclient needed for advanced support of features (example: infiniband)
* Conmann DHCP support is much faster
* Would require pulling the changes into dhclient (might be a large patch)
* Security concerns should probably not block DHCP client choice (we can mitigate with apparmor)
* NM does caching on a per-network basis to try and help the situation
* concerned about creating DCHP network storms on large networks
* (Alberto) Looked at how much work it would be to port Chewie to ConnMan
* Security review
* No issues with code quality (on either)
* Connman is more engineered as a single user solution rather than multi-user
* Might cause issues with settings being shared
* Perhaps would need to be added after further review
* Might be more of an issue for enterprise issue with network logins that might be based on domain login
* NM has a fine grained PK access control
* Used in guest session and on login screen
* Removes some features for security reasons
* (Tony) Looked at how much work it would be to add dhclient support to ConnMan
* (Tony) Looked at how much work it would be to implement a RILd backend for oFono
* Built initial framework for CES/MWC demo
* Pulled pieces out of RILd for various features
* Doesn't preclue usage of oFono directly for modems that have full support
* Missing most advanced features like PINs on SIMs -- needs more work (not impossible)
* (Mathieu) To check whether we can improve memory consumption
* Dropping nm-applet (which seems to be the worst)
* There hasn't been much profiling done currently, could be improved.
* Is there a target? No specific target, just a observation more than a specific problem.
* NM is looking for, in the future, to have the features being dynamically loadable to reduce memory consumption
* (Mathieu) To look for ConnMan UIs to allow testing (just for evaluation)
* https:/
* oFono supports SIM Toolkit already (took 6 people 12 months), so not easy to replicate; that's high-level and hw independent, modem plugin just needs a transport plugin
== !! Decision on NM vs. ConnMan !! ==
* Default: use oFono (no disagreement)
* Stephane: NM
* Tony: NM
* Mathieu: NM
* Marc: Unable to commit :-)
* Loic: NM
Stack:
oFono
== Security model ==
Security review of ConnMan
https:/
AppArmor profiles
Secure storage of WiFi passwords
== QA ==
Need strong QA for WiFi and telephony stack. Test plan, automated testing of middleware, of drivers etc. There's only 15 manual tests and 5 automated tests targeting WiFi.
* http://
*13 test cases, covering basic connection to: ethernet, WPA/WPA2 encrypted network, WEP network, open network, 3G network, Cisco VPN network, OpenVPN, PPTP VPN, OpenConnect VPN.
* http://
* 2 and a half test cases: connect to a wireless network from unity, from gnome classic, the half test case is one where you verify you have connection, but it doesn't specify how to establish it.
* Connect to allowed bands covered by 5 cert tests, they need to be run regularly on new images.
* Rfkill, scanning, association tests missing
* state transitioning testing needs to be created (suspend/
Saucy network test development is covered by https:/
== Indicators ==
Want to drop nm-applet anyway, even if we keep Network Manager.
Chewie implementation started against Network Manager, but only covering WiFi at this point; misses e.g. wired ethernet and VPN connections. Estimate to rewrite the Chewie bits for ConnMan are around 8-10 weeks of work.
Need to sync with design on complete design that suits the implementation requirements.
== wpasupplicant ==
Which version to use? Issues with iw, there’s an Android version
WiFi direct support is in Android, not clear how important it is for touch tough
= Notes =
mathieu-tl, 2013-05-03:
Carried over 13.05 work items to client-
Work Items
Work items for ubuntu-
[stgraber] prototype oFono support for NM: DONE
Work items for ubuntu-
[cyphermox] debug oFono modem detection code from stgraber: DONE
[stgraber] Ensure ModemManager continues handling bluetooth connections: DONE
[pitti] investigate how mac80211_hwsim kernel module works, and its utility for test automation: DONE
[pitti] investigate how to use hostapd for simulating an access point with mac80211_hwsim: DONE
[pitti] write wpa_supplicant autopkgtest for open/WPA/WPA2: DONE
[pitti] write dhclient autopkgtest for IPv4 and IPv6: DONE
[pitti] fix mac80211_hwsim kernel module to get accepted by NetworkManager: DONE
[pitti] get mac80211_hwsim fix into raring kernel: DONE
[pitti] write network-manager autopkgtest for WPA/WPA2: DONE
[pitti] write network-manager autopkgtest for IPv4, IPv6+DHCP, IPV6+RA-only: DONE
[pitti] write network-manager autopkgtest for killswitch handling (tear down on kill, reconnect on unkill): DONE
[pitti] write network-manager autopkgtest for reconnect after suspend: DONE
[pitti] make network-manager tests work against upstream trunk: DONE
[lool] Loic to followup on testing with Gema and cert guys: DONE
