Abstract—Traditionally device drivers specially the network one’s are implemented and used in Linux Kernel for various reasons. However in recent trend, many network stack vendors are moving towards the user space based drivers. Open Source–‘GPL’ is one of strong reason for such a move. In the absence of generic guidelines, there are various options to implement device drivers in user space. Each has their advantage and disadvantage. In this paper, we will cover multiple issues with user space device driver and will give more insight about the Network Device Driver implementation in User Space
Index Terms—Network drivers, user space, zero copy.
The authors are with the Freescale Semiconductor, Plot-18, Sector 16A, Noida, UP-201301, INDIA (e-mail: hemant@freescale.com, ravi.malhotra@freescale.com).
Cite: Hemant Agrawal and Ravi Malhotra, "Device Drivers in User Space: A Case for Network Device Driver," International Journal of Information and Education Technology vol. 2, no. 5, pp. 461-463, 2012.