Introduction

• EthWAN provides the functionality to enable wan side connection through Ethernet port.
• The functionality is being used in deployments with ONU and Gateways.
• It can co-exist with DOCSIS, so that the WAN source can switch between EthWAN or DOCSIS
• If syndication partners want to deploy Comcast gateway and Wi-Fi solution for customers who have fiber connection, they will require this EthWAN feature.
• In other words this feature allows our syndication partners to offer service to their fiber customers.

Architecture

• Once enabled in device all internet data traffic including voice and device management will be done through Ethernet Port of the device.
• In Ethernet WAN mode device will connect to ONU* (at the customer premises) before it connects to Internet.
    *ONU = Optical Network Unit.This is fiber MODEM equivalent of Cable MODEM (DOCSIS device)

         Network < -- > ONU < -- > EthWAN XB6

• Adds two new components to RDK-B
   CcspEthAgent                  – Ccsp component to control EthWAN feature along with data model support
   Gw-prov-app-EthWAN    – Gateway provisioning component for EthWAN
• diagram

Important Data models

How to Enable EthWan

TR-69 Data model:

dmcli eRT setv Device.Ethernet.X_RDKCENTRAL-COM_WAN.Enabled bool True
dmcli eRT setv Device.Ethernet.X_RDKCENTRAL-COM_WAN.Port uint 0

WebUI:

To support manual configuration via local GUI (user side) to change configuration to Ethernet WAN or DOCSIS WAN is under Gateway> Connection > WAN Network

screenshot of Xfinity page

Code Flow

Ccsp EthAgent DMCLI Code flow

dgm

GW Prov Ethwan Code flow

dgm

Commands to get EthWAN info from hal

*All are Broadcom specific commands

EthWAN interface configuration details

Once we get the interface name from HAL, below are the steps to create the interface.
Below is the example for eth0 interface.

# ifconfig eth0 down                                           //Bring down the eth0 interface

# vlan_util del_interface brlan0 eth0                   // Delete interface eth0 under brlan0

# ip link set erouter0 name dummy-rf               // Rename erouter0 interface to “dummy-rf”

# brctl addbr erouter0;                                       // Add a new bridge erouter0

# brctl addif erouter0 eth0;                                // Add interface eth0 under erouter0

# ifconfig erouter0 down;                                  // Bring down the erouter0 interface

# ifconfig erouter0 hw ether                             //Assign the mac address to erouter0 interface

# sysevent set eth_wan_mac                            //Set eth_wan interface mac as erouter0 mac

# ifconfig erouter0 up                                      // Bring up the erouter0 interface

Once completed, the interface status can be verified by the below commands.

              # brctl  show
              erouter0      8000.021018d8443c    no      cm0
                                                                                eth0      

EthWAN mode Functionality changes in XB6

• When device is in EthWAN Mode, WebPA & Reverse SSH works over WAN MAC assigned to erouter0 interface ,where as in DOCSIS Mode, device is using CM MAC as defined in hardware system.
• In EthWAN Mode, the Cable Modem is not active and device will not be having CM IP since CcspCMAgentSsp is down so erouter0 IP is mentioned as CM IP.

The below DM’s shows the same erouter0 ip address as output

• Device.DeviceInfo.X_COMCAST-COM_CM_IP                                                   // CM ip is changed to erouter0  ip
• Device.DeviceInfo.X_COMCAST-COM_WAN_IPv6                                            // erouter0 ip

Even after reboot and firmware upgrade, The EthWAN feature remains enabled.

Can be verified using the below DM’s

• Device.Ethernet.X_RDKCENTRAL-COM_WAN.Enabled                                   // value is true
• Device.DeviceInfo.X_RDKCENTRAL-COM_Syndication.PartnerId                   //syndication partners

When the configuration is set to EthWAN, a telemetry marker must be sent to report that the device is operating in Ethernet WAN mode and to report the PHY rate of the Ethernet link during each power up/reboot

The PHY rate must be reported in mbps (example: 10, 100, 1000) Suggested telemetry marker is WAN_MODE: Ethernet $phyrate

• Example to report 1 Gbps Ethernet WAN mode- WAN_MODE: Ethernet 1000

Remove parodus2ccsp, xsmart ,ccsp LM lite and WebPA dependencies from CM agent.To get the CM mac query the sysevent variable instead of CMAgent

MTA Functionality is supported in ETH WAN Mode

No CM IP available in ETHWAN Mode. Hence, MSO WebUI is not accessible over CM IP. ( MSO WebUI is accessed by mapping erouter IP to CM IP )

SNMP walk on CM OIDs will fail in EthWan mode

No compile time configuration is needed to enable the EthWan to build (it is suppose to be run time)

In EthWan mode, the Docsis path is un-available, so it is not possible to use Ethwan as backhaul network with Docsis

SOC/ OEM contribution for Ethwan feature

• New hal API to get EthWAN interface name
• New callback to get EthWAN interface name from gateway provisioning
• Broadcom ccsp-hal-test support is added in the package group so that we can execute
  the hal_test commands on console.
• Build support for all EthWAN related changes( including new components )
• Created a new configuration and recipe file for gw prov EthWAN
• EthWAN configuration is enabled only if Lattice version > 17.2 and Moca function calls are invoked only if the lattice version is 18.3 and kernel 4.9
• Replace CM dynamic nonvol with latticecli reset method
• Add 18.1 SDK support in stable2, Adding a patch which specifies the ETHWAN_INTERFACE_FILE location in NVRAM

Differences between Docsis and EthWAN