[dpdk-dev] Aligning DPDK Link bonding with current standards terminology

[Chas Williams]

On 6/15/20 6:52 PM, Stephen Hemminger wrote:
 > I am disturbed by the wide spread use of master/slave in Ethernet 
bonding.
 > Asked the current IEEE chairs and it looks like it is already fixed 
"upstream".
 >
 > The proper terminology is for Ethernet link aggregation in the
 > the current standard 802.1AX 2020 revision (pay walled) for the parts
 > formerly known as master and slave is now "Protocol Parser" and 
"Protocol multiplexer".
 >
 > Also it is not called bonding anywhere; it uses LACP only.
 >
 > Given the large scope of the name changes. Maybe it would be best to 
just convert the names
 > all of rte_eth_bond to rte_eth_lacp and fix the master/slave 
references at the same time.
 >
 > For one brief release (20.08) keep both drivers and mark the bond on 
as deprecated.
 > It would also help if all the documentation and tests were checked to 
see if they
 > align with the current standard.
 >

However, the bonding driver supports more than just the LACP protocol
for managing members of a bond group. I suggest renaming the existing
API that is objectionable and providing the old names for one release.
I will see if I can get a copy of the 802.1AX 2020 revision.