Videos :: The Linux Channel

struct net_device, is the main Linux Kernel network interface or network port data-structure. Each network interface entry whatever you find in user-space commands like ifconfig, ip link, ip addr, is actually a struct net_device data-structure Linux Kernel driver instance for that corresponding port. In fact every packet buffer instance managed by the Linux Kernel via struct sk_buff contains a reference pointer pointing to its corresponding TX/ RX interface struct net_device instance. Hence here is my multi-part video series and research on the struct net_device data-structure.

When you work on Network Namespaces (which is a feature Linux Kernel provides), you usually create bunch of virtual ethernet ports called as veth interfaces. The veth interface itself is a separate LK virtual network driver which offers this specific functionality. But sometimes besides veth you can also configure an optional interface called dummy interface. The dummy interface, just like veth (and other such virtual interfaces) is provided by LK via the driver drivers/net/dummy.c. The interesting aspect of dummy interface is that it serves as an alter ego of the loop-back localhost (as mentioned in the tldp.org article link below). Which means you can set any valid IP and this can serve as alternate local host ip other than 127.0.0.1. So to learn more, kindly watch my complete video series on this fascinating network interface called Dummy Interface.