2. NDIS 6.20 Overview
Bob Combs Lead Program Manager Core Networking
Narsi Nagampalli
Lead Software Development Engineer
Core Networking

3. Agenda NDIS Version History Features added for NDIS 6.1 over 6.0
Features of 6.20
Porting guidelines to NDIS 6.20
Miniport drivers
Protocol drivers
Q&A

4. NDIS Version History Deprecation of NDIS 5.x post Windows 7
Windows Server 2008 / Vista SP1
NDIS 6.1
Windows Vista
NDIS 6.0
Windows Server 2003 SP2
NDIS 5.2
Windows XP / Server 2003
NDIS 5.1
Deprecation of NDIS 5.x post Windows 7
Deprecation of IrDA post Windows 7

5. Added Features of NDIS 6.1 Over 6.0
Header-Data split
Cache locality
IPsec Task Offload v2
Supports IPv6
Co-exists with LSOv2
New encryption & authentication algorithms
Direct OID requests
De-serialized OID requests
Can be issued at DISPATCH IRQL
MSI-X dynamic configuration
Used in dynamic RSS configuration
NetDMA V2
Support for IOATv2
Support for power management

6. Features of NDIS 6.20 Power management enhancements
Virtual machine queue (VMQ)
Support for more than 64 processors
Receive-side throttle (RST)
Media extensibility
Deprecated interfaces

7. Power Management Issues with current Wake on LAN (WoL) implementation
Spurious wakes from Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) / Neighbor Solicitation (NS)
Wake patterns not specific enough
Wake on LAN enhancements
Targeted wake patterns; e.g. TCP SYN
Protocol offloads in low power
IPv4 ARP
IPv6 NS
Wake on WLAN enhancements
rekey management
Wake on Media Connect
OS puts NIC in D3 when media is disconnected

8. Hyper-V Network Performance Improvement
Virtual Machine Queues
Classification of received packets based on destination VM
Packets can DMA directly to the guest shared memory
Scaling to multiple processors
Chimney support for child partitions
No driver changes needed

9. Support for More than 64 Processors
OS has removed limitation of 64 processors (32 in x86 version)
Support for processor groups
Updated NDIS interfaces
Receive-side scaling (RSS)
Processor information DDIs
Resource allocation
Read-write lock

10. Receive-Side Throttling
Glitch free – Multimedia applications are starved by long DPCs
NDIS 6.20 improves glitch-free implementation
Better network throughput
More efficient algorithm
NDIS 6.20 miniport drivers support RST
NDIS controls the number of packets indicated in a DPC

11. Media Extensibility Network layer can be media-agnostic
Reduce complexity for non media implementations
Eliminate ARP and DHCP emulation
Raw IP frame support
Generic media type (Raw IP)
Used by WWAN in next release of Windows
New media-specific out-of-band data
Media-specific information tag assigned by Microsoft
Multiple media-specific information tags

12. Revised Interfaces NDIS_MAX_PROCESSOR_COUNT /MAXIMUM_PROCESSORS
Use NdisGoupMaxProcessorCount instead
NdisSystemProcessorCount
Use NdisGroupMaxProcessorCount instead
NdisSystemActiveProcessorCount
Use NdisGroupActiveProcessorCount instead
NdisGetProcessorInformation
Use NdisGetProcessorInformationEx instead
NdisMQueueDpc
Use NdisMQueueDpcEx instead
MINIPORT_ISR_HANDLER and MINIPORT_MSI_ISR_HANDLER
TargetProcessors parameter should not be used
MediaSpecificInformation
Use MediaSpecificInformationEx instead
OID_GEN_PHYSICAL_MEDIUM
Use OID_GEN_PHYSICAL_MEDIUM_EX instead

13. Porting NDIS 6.x Miniport Drivers to NDIS 6.20
Replace preprocessor definition NDIS61_MINIPORT with NDIS620_MINIPORT
Pass NDIS version 6 as major version and 20 as minor version
Provide a DirectOIDRequest handler
Use the latest version of capability advertisement
Power management
RSS
Hardware assist (VMQ)
Support RST in processing receive interrupts
Don’t use deprecated DDIs
Use >64 processor conformant DDI
Use new NDIS read-write lock DDI when needed

14. Porting NDIS 6.x Protocol Drivers to NDIS 6.20
Replace preprocessor definition NDIS61 with NDIS620
Pass NDIS version 6 as major version and 20 as minor version
Don’t use deprecated DDIs
Use >64 processor conformant DDIs
Use new NDIS Read-Write lock DDI when needed
Use the latest version of interfaces
Power management
RSS
Above mostly applicable to Intermediate (IM) Protocol edge and filter drivers

15. Call to Action
Update hardware and drivers to NDIS 6.20 to take advantage of Windows 7 functionality
Use Windows 7 for driver and NIC testing

16. Resources Windows 7 WDK will be available as of WinHEC
Windows Logo Program:
NDIS 6 Feedback alias:

17. Related Sessions Session Day / Time
Network Power Management in Windows 7
Tues. 5:15-6:15
Windows Logo Program Tests for NDIS
Mon and
Wed. 9:45-10:45
Discussion: Porting Drivers to NDIS 6.20
Wed. 8:30-9:30
Lab: How to Debug an NDIS 6.20 Driver
Mon. 2:45-3:45 and
Mobile Broadband Driver Development for Windows 7
Mon. 1:30-2:30
Developing TCP Chimney Drivers for Windows 7
Tues
Implementing Efficient RSS Capable Hardware and Drivers for Windows 7
Tues. 1:30-2:30
Virtual Machine Queue Architecture Review
Tues. 2:45-3:45
Virtual Machine Queue Driver Development
Tues. 4-5
Driver Scalability

18. Questions?