Readme - Simple Socket Server Software Example



DESCRIPTION:	

A Simple Socket Server that controls development board LEDs. This software 

application is targeted for TSE design having RGMII interface media between 

Ethernet MAC and Ethernet Phy. 



RGMII (Reduced Gigabit Media Independent Interface) is intended to be an 

alternative to GMII. The principle objective of RGMII is to reduce the number 

of pins from 22 (GMII) down to 12 in a cost-effective manner. RGMII interface 

require a 1.5 to 2ns delay (90 degree phase shift) on the transmitted clock 

over the data bus. This timing requirement can be achieved through a PCB trace 

delay, or optionally of introducing the delay on-chip at the physical layer 

transceiver chip. This example software include a configuration file to enable 

the on-chip delay method.



Requirements:

  -RTOS Type - MicroC/OS-II

  -Software Component - NicheStack TCP/IP Stack - Nios II Edition

  -Period System Timer - SYS_CLK_TIMER



PERIPHERALS USED:

This example exercises the following peripherals:

- Ethernet MAC

- PIO, 8-bit output (named "led_pio" in SOPC Builder)

- PIO, 16-bit output (named "seven_seg_pio" in SOPC Builder)

- STDOUT device (UART or JTAG UART)



SOFTWARE SOURCE FILES:

This example includes the following software source files:



- iniche_init.c: Contains main() and SSSInitialTask() to initialize NicheStack 

and then create the other tasks once network has been properly initialized.

Tasks which will use sockets, such as the SSSSimpleSocketServerTask() in this 

example, must be created with TK_NEWTASK.  All other tasks can be created by directly

calling the MicroC/OS-II API to create a task, i.e. OSTaskCreateExt().



- simple_socket_server.c: Implementation of a simple_socket_server including all necessary sockets

calls to handle a single socket connection & process received commands.



- network_utilities.c: Contains MAC address and IP address routines to

manage addressing. These are used by NicheStack during initialization, but are

implementation-specific (you set your MAC address to whatever you want.. or read

it from your own special non-volatile memory.



- network_utilities.h: Contains prototype for function get_board_mac_addr().



- led.c: Contains tasks to manage board LED commands and update LED displays.

LEDManagementTask interprets commands, and toggles the row of 8 LEDS or signals the 

LED7SegLightshowTask in response to commands received from the host running telnet.

The LEDManagementTask reads data from a MicroC/OS-II SSSLEDCommandQ Queue which

receives its data from the SSSSimpleSocketServerTask.  LED7SegLightshowTask controls the 

7-segment display.    



- simple_socket_server.h: Definitions for the entire example application.



- alt_error_handler.h: Definitions for 3 error handlers, one each for MicroC-OS/II, Network, 

and Simple Socket Server Application.



- alt_error_handler.c: Implementation for 3 error handlers, one each for MicroC-OS/II, 

Network, and Simple Socket Server Application.



- tse_my_system.c: Contain function to enable RGMII timing mode driver configuration.



BOARD/HOST REQUIREMENTS:

Altera CycloneIII Development Board with FPGA EP3C120F780 device on board, which exercise RGMII

interface to the Ethernet Phy will require this software example for its Ethernet functionality.



This example requires an Ethernet cable connected to the development board's 

RJ-45 jack, and a JTAG connection with the development board. If the host 

communication settings are changed from JTAG UART (default) to use a

conventional UART, a serial cable between board DB-9 connector  and the host is

required. 



If DHCP is available (and enabled in the Software component configuration page, from

the BSP properties configuration), NicheStack TCP/IP Stack will attempt 

to obtain an IP address from a DHCP server. Otherwise, a static IP address (defined in 

Simple_Socket_Server.h) will be assigned after a DHCP timeout.  



ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:



This is an example socket server using NicheStack TCP/IP Stack on MicroC/OS-II. The server

implements simple commands to control board LEDs through a separate MicroC/OS-II

task. It is in no way a complete implementation of a telnet server.



A good introduction to sockets programming is the book "Unix Network Programming" by 

Richard Stevens. Additionally, the text "Sockets in C", by Donahoo & Calvert, is a concise 

& inexpensive text for getting started with sockets programming.



This example will not run on the Instruction Set Simulator (ISS).



Once the simple socket server example is running and has obtained an IP address (shown 

in the terminal window of Nios II Software Build Tools for Eclipse), 

you can connect to it over a network by typing the 

following command in a command shell on a development host:



  telnet <ip address> 30



This command will try to connect to the Simple Socket Server using port 30.

