Data Sheet

System Manageability—Ethernet Controller I210
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10.2.2 Logical Layer
10.2.2.1 Legacy SMBus
The protocol layer for SMBus consists of commands the MC issues to configure filtering for the I210
management traffic and the reading and writing of Ethernet frames over the SMBus interface. There is
no industry standard protocol for sideband traffic over SMBus. The protocol layer for SMBus on the I210
is Intel proprietary. The Legacy SMBus protocol is described in Section 10.5.
10.2.2.2 NC-SI
The DMTF also defines the protocol layer for the NC-SI interface. NC-SI compliant devices are required
to implement a minimum set of commands. The specification also provides a mechanism for vendors to
add additional capabilities through the use of OEM commands. Intel OEM NC-SI commands for the I210
are discussed in this document. For information on base NC-SI commands, see the NC-SI specification.
NC-SI traffic can run on top of three different Physical layers:
1. NC-SI Physical layer as described in Section 10.2.1.2.
2. MCTP over PCIe.This protocol allows control and pass through traffic over PCIe of a NIC or a LOM
device. The NC-SI over MCTP protocol is slightly different than the standard NC-SI as it includes
additional NC-SI commands. This mode is usually paired with an MCTP over SMBus, where this
mode is used in S0 states and the SMBus interface is used in Sx state.The MCTP protocol and the
differences from standard NC-SI is described in Section 10.7.
3. MCTP over SMBus. As described above, this layer is paired with the MCTP over PCIe to support Sx
modes.
The package ID can be set either from the Flash Package ID field in the NC-SI Configuration - Offset
0x06 Flash word (Section 6.7.3.7) or from SDP0/2 pins. In this case, the Package ID is
{0,SDP2,SDP0}. The mode used is set by the Read NCSI Package ID from SDP field in the NC-SI
Configuration - Offset 0x07 Flash word (Section 6.7.3.8). Note that when the package ID is set from
the SDP pins, the used SDPs should be set as input in the relevant Software Defined Pins Control Flash
words.
The I210 supports a single channel, so the internal channel ID is always zero.
10.3 Packet Filtering
Since both the host operating system and MC use the I210 to send and receive Ethernet traffic, there
needs to be a mechanism by which incoming Ethernet packets can be identified as those that should be
sent to the MC rather than the host operating system.
There are two different types of filtering available. The first is filtering based upon the MAC address.
With this filtering, the MC has at least one dedicated MAC address and incoming Ethernet traffic with
the matching MAC address(es) are passed to the MC. This is the simplest filtering mechanism to utilize
and it allows an MC to receive all types traffic (including, but not limited to, IPMI, NFS, HTTP etc).
The other mechanism available utilizes a highly configurable mechanism by which packets can be
filtered using a wide range of parameters. Using this method, an MC can share a MAC address (and IP
address, if desired) with the host OS and receive only specific Ethernet traffic. This method is useful if
the MC is only interested in specific traffic, such as IPMI packets.