diff mbox

[RESEND1,00/12] ALSA: vsnd: Add Xen para-virtualized frontend driver

Message ID d29615e8-0fc2-68b8-d158-90378dc5ebeb@gmail.com (mailing list archive)
State New, archived
Headers show

Commit Message

Oleksandr Andrushchenko Sept. 19, 2017, 8:57 a.m. UTC
Hi, all!

We did some work on implementing the idea with

feedback events from the backend to the frontend.

Please see attached the changes to the existing sndif protocol [1]:

1. Introduced a new event channel from back to front

2. New event with number of bytes played/captured (XENSND_EVT_CUR_POS,

to be used for sending snd_pcm_period_elapsed at frontend.

Sent in bytes, not frames to make the protocol generic and consistent)

3. New request for playback/capture control (XENSND_OP_TRIGGER)

with start/pause/stop/resume sub-ops.

The implementation we have showed that this is sufficient to
successfully play/capture w/o using emulated interrupts.

Clemens, Sakamoto-san,
could you please review the changes and confirm that these are ok to
be upstreamed to the sndif protocol and are enough for the frontend
driver we want to upstream (we have it implemented, just need to make
sure the general approach is accepted by the ALSA community).

Thank you very much for your time,
Oleksandr Andrushchenko
Oleksandr Grytsov

[1] 
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/include/xen/interface/io/sndif.h?h=v4.14-rc1

On 09/12/2017 10:52 AM, Oleksandr Grytsov wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 5, 2017 at 10:24 AM, Clemens Ladisch <clemens@ladisch.de> wrote:
>> Oleksandr Andrushchenko wrote:
>>>>> We understand that emulated interrupt on the frontend side is completely not
>>>>> acceptable
>> Allow me to expand on that:  Proper synchronization requires that the
>> exact position is communicated, not estimated.  Just because the nominal
>> rate of the stream is known does not imply that you know the actual rate.
>> Forget for the moment that there even is a nominal rate; assume that it
>> works like, e.g., a storage controller, and that you can know that a DMA
>> buffer was consumed by the device only after it has told you.
>>
>> It's possible and likely that there is a latency when reporting the
>> stream position, but that is still better than guessing what the DMA
>> is doing.  (You would never just try to guess when writing data to
>> disk, would you?)
>>
>>>>> and definitely we need to provide some feedback mechanism from
>>>>> Dom0 to DomU.
>>>>>
>>>>> In our case it is technically impossible to provide precise period interrupt
>>>>> (mostly because our backend is a user space application).
>> As far as I can see, all audio APIs (ALSA, PulseAudio, etc.) have poll()
>> or callbacks or similar mechanisms to inform you when new data can be
>> written, and always allow to query the current position.
>>
>>> [...]
>>> ok, so the main concern here is that we cannot properly synchronize Dom0-DomU.
>>> If we put this apart for a second are there any other concerns on having ALSA
>>> frontend driver? If not, can we have the driver with timer implementation upstreamed
>>> as experimental until we have some acceptable synchronization solution?
>>> This will allow broader audience to try and feel the solution and probably contribute?
>> I doubt that the driver architecture will stay completely the same, so I
>> do not think that this experimental driver would demonstrate how the
>> solution would feel.
>>
>> As the first step, I would suggest creating a driver with proper
>> synchronization, even if it has high latency.  Reducing the latency
>> would then be 'just' an optimization.
>>
>>
>> Regards,
>> Clemens
> Definitely feedback from the backend side is required. Currently
> we are working on synchronized version on the backend
> and frontend side. We will be back once we have the solution.
>
> Thanks.

Comments

Oleksandr Andrushchenko Sept. 26, 2017, 11:35 a.m. UTC | #1
Clemens, Sakamoto-san,

could you please review the below if you by chance have a minute?

Thank you,
Oleksandr

On 09/19/2017 11:57 AM, Oleksandr Andrushchenko wrote:
> Hi, all!
>
> We did some work on implementing the idea with
>
> feedback events from the backend to the frontend.
>
> Please see attached the changes to the existing sndif protocol [1]:
>
> 1. Introduced a new event channel from back to front
>
> 2. New event with number of bytes played/captured (XENSND_EVT_CUR_POS,
>
> to be used for sending snd_pcm_period_elapsed at frontend.
>
> Sent in bytes, not frames to make the protocol generic and consistent)
>
> 3. New request for playback/capture control (XENSND_OP_TRIGGER)
>
> with start/pause/stop/resume sub-ops.
>
> The implementation we have showed that this is sufficient to
> successfully play/capture w/o using emulated interrupts.
>
> Clemens, Sakamoto-san,
> could you please review the changes and confirm that these are ok to
> be upstreamed to the sndif protocol and are enough for the frontend
> driver we want to upstream (we have it implemented, just need to make
> sure the general approach is accepted by the ALSA community).
>
> Thank you very much for your time,
> Oleksandr Andrushchenko
> Oleksandr Grytsov
>
> [1] 
> https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/include/xen/interface/io/sndif.h?h=v4.14-rc1
>
> On 09/12/2017 10:52 AM, Oleksandr Grytsov wrote:
>> On Tue, Sep 5, 2017 at 10:24 AM, Clemens Ladisch <clemens@ladisch.de> 
>> wrote:
>>> Oleksandr Andrushchenko wrote:
>>>>>> We understand that emulated interrupt on the frontend side is 
>>>>>> completely not
>>>>>> acceptable
>>> Allow me to expand on that:  Proper synchronization requires that the
>>> exact position is communicated, not estimated.  Just because the 
>>> nominal
>>> rate of the stream is known does not imply that you know the actual 
>>> rate.
>>> Forget for the moment that there even is a nominal rate; assume that it
>>> works like, e.g., a storage controller, and that you can know that a 
>>> DMA
>>> buffer was consumed by the device only after it has told you.
>>>
>>> It's possible and likely that there is a latency when reporting the
>>> stream position, but that is still better than guessing what the DMA
>>> is doing.  (You would never just try to guess when writing data to
>>> disk, would you?)
>>>
>>>>>> and definitely we need to provide some feedback mechanism from
>>>>>> Dom0 to DomU.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> In our case it is technically impossible to provide precise 
>>>>>> period interrupt
>>>>>> (mostly because our backend is a user space application).
>>> As far as I can see, all audio APIs (ALSA, PulseAudio, etc.) have 
>>> poll()
>>> or callbacks or similar mechanisms to inform you when new data can be
>>> written, and always allow to query the current position.
>>>
>>>> [...]
>>>> ok, so the main concern here is that we cannot properly synchronize 
>>>> Dom0-DomU.
>>>> If we put this apart for a second are there any other concerns on 
>>>> having ALSA
>>>> frontend driver? If not, can we have the driver with timer 
>>>> implementation upstreamed
>>>> as experimental until we have some acceptable synchronization 
>>>> solution?
>>>> This will allow broader audience to try and feel the solution and 
>>>> probably contribute?
>>> I doubt that the driver architecture will stay completely the same, 
>>> so I
>>> do not think that this experimental driver would demonstrate how the
>>> solution would feel.
>>>
>>> As the first step, I would suggest creating a driver with proper
>>> synchronization, even if it has high latency.  Reducing the latency
>>> would then be 'just' an optimization.
>>>
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Clemens
>> Definitely feedback from the backend side is required. Currently
>> we are working on synchronized version on the backend
>> and frontend side. We will be back once we have the solution.
>>
>> Thanks.
>
Oleksandr Andrushchenko Oct. 4, 2017, 6:50 a.m. UTC | #2
gentle reminder

On 09/26/2017 02:35 PM, Oleksandr Andrushchenko wrote:
> Clemens, Sakamoto-san,
>
> could you please review the below if you by chance have a minute?
>
> Thank you,
> Oleksandr
>
> On 09/19/2017 11:57 AM, Oleksandr Andrushchenko wrote:
>> Hi, all!
>>
>> We did some work on implementing the idea with
>>
>> feedback events from the backend to the frontend.
>>
>> Please see attached the changes to the existing sndif protocol [1]:
>>
>> 1. Introduced a new event channel from back to front
>>
>> 2. New event with number of bytes played/captured (XENSND_EVT_CUR_POS,
>>
>> to be used for sending snd_pcm_period_elapsed at frontend.
>>
>> Sent in bytes, not frames to make the protocol generic and consistent)
>>
>> 3. New request for playback/capture control (XENSND_OP_TRIGGER)
>>
>> with start/pause/stop/resume sub-ops.
>>
>> The implementation we have showed that this is sufficient to
>> successfully play/capture w/o using emulated interrupts.
>>
>> Clemens, Sakamoto-san,
>> could you please review the changes and confirm that these are ok to
>> be upstreamed to the sndif protocol and are enough for the frontend
>> driver we want to upstream (we have it implemented, just need to make
>> sure the general approach is accepted by the ALSA community).
>>
>> Thank you very much for your time,
>> Oleksandr Andrushchenko
>> Oleksandr Grytsov
>>
>> [1] 
>> https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/include/xen/interface/io/sndif.h?h=v4.14-rc1
>>
>> On 09/12/2017 10:52 AM, Oleksandr Grytsov wrote:
>>> On Tue, Sep 5, 2017 at 10:24 AM, Clemens Ladisch 
>>> <clemens@ladisch.de> wrote:
>>>> Oleksandr Andrushchenko wrote:
>>>>>>> We understand that emulated interrupt on the frontend side is 
>>>>>>> completely not
>>>>>>> acceptable
>>>> Allow me to expand on that:  Proper synchronization requires that the
>>>> exact position is communicated, not estimated.  Just because the 
>>>> nominal
>>>> rate of the stream is known does not imply that you know the actual 
>>>> rate.
>>>> Forget for the moment that there even is a nominal rate; assume 
>>>> that it
>>>> works like, e.g., a storage controller, and that you can know that 
>>>> a DMA
>>>> buffer was consumed by the device only after it has told you.
>>>>
>>>> It's possible and likely that there is a latency when reporting the
>>>> stream position, but that is still better than guessing what the DMA
>>>> is doing.  (You would never just try to guess when writing data to
>>>> disk, would you?)
>>>>
>>>>>>> and definitely we need to provide some feedback mechanism from
>>>>>>> Dom0 to DomU.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> In our case it is technically impossible to provide precise 
>>>>>>> period interrupt
>>>>>>> (mostly because our backend is a user space application).
>>>> As far as I can see, all audio APIs (ALSA, PulseAudio, etc.) have 
>>>> poll()
>>>> or callbacks or similar mechanisms to inform you when new data can be
>>>> written, and always allow to query the current position.
>>>>
>>>>> [...]
>>>>> ok, so the main concern here is that we cannot properly 
>>>>> synchronize Dom0-DomU.
>>>>> If we put this apart for a second are there any other concerns on 
>>>>> having ALSA
>>>>> frontend driver? If not, can we have the driver with timer 
>>>>> implementation upstreamed
>>>>> as experimental until we have some acceptable synchronization 
>>>>> solution?
>>>>> This will allow broader audience to try and feel the solution and 
>>>>> probably contribute?
>>>> I doubt that the driver architecture will stay completely the same, 
>>>> so I
>>>> do not think that this experimental driver would demonstrate how the
>>>> solution would feel.
>>>>
>>>> As the first step, I would suggest creating a driver with proper
>>>> synchronization, even if it has high latency.  Reducing the latency
>>>> would then be 'just' an optimization.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>> Clemens
>>> Definitely feedback from the backend side is required. Currently
>>> we are working on synchronized version on the backend
>>> and frontend side. We will be back once we have the solution.
>>>
>>> Thanks.
>>
>
Oleksandr Andrushchenko Oct. 13, 2017, 6:15 a.m. UTC | #3
ping

On 10/04/2017 09:50 AM, Oleksandr Andrushchenko wrote:
> gentle reminder
>
> On 09/26/2017 02:35 PM, Oleksandr Andrushchenko wrote:
>> Clemens, Sakamoto-san,
>>
>> could you please review the below if you by chance have a minute?
>>
>> Thank you,
>> Oleksandr
>>
>> On 09/19/2017 11:57 AM, Oleksandr Andrushchenko wrote:
>>> Hi, all!
>>>
>>> We did some work on implementing the idea with
>>>
>>> feedback events from the backend to the frontend.
>>>
>>> Please see attached the changes to the existing sndif protocol [1]:
>>>
>>> 1. Introduced a new event channel from back to front
>>>
>>> 2. New event with number of bytes played/captured (XENSND_EVT_CUR_POS,
>>>
>>> to be used for sending snd_pcm_period_elapsed at frontend.
>>>
>>> Sent in bytes, not frames to make the protocol generic and consistent)
>>>
>>> 3. New request for playback/capture control (XENSND_OP_TRIGGER)
>>>
>>> with start/pause/stop/resume sub-ops.
>>>
>>> The implementation we have showed that this is sufficient to
>>> successfully play/capture w/o using emulated interrupts.
>>>
>>> Clemens, Sakamoto-san,
>>> could you please review the changes and confirm that these are ok to
>>> be upstreamed to the sndif protocol and are enough for the frontend
>>> driver we want to upstream (we have it implemented, just need to make
>>> sure the general approach is accepted by the ALSA community).
>>>
>>> Thank you very much for your time,
>>> Oleksandr Andrushchenko
>>> Oleksandr Grytsov
>>>
>>> [1] 
>>> https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/include/xen/interface/io/sndif.h?h=v4.14-rc1
>>>
>>> On 09/12/2017 10:52 AM, Oleksandr Grytsov wrote:
>>>> On Tue, Sep 5, 2017 at 10:24 AM, Clemens Ladisch 
>>>> <clemens@ladisch.de> wrote:
>>>>> Oleksandr Andrushchenko wrote:
>>>>>>>> We understand that emulated interrupt on the frontend side is 
>>>>>>>> completely not
>>>>>>>> acceptable
>>>>> Allow me to expand on that:  Proper synchronization requires that the
>>>>> exact position is communicated, not estimated.  Just because the 
>>>>> nominal
>>>>> rate of the stream is known does not imply that you know the 
>>>>> actual rate.
>>>>> Forget for the moment that there even is a nominal rate; assume 
>>>>> that it
>>>>> works like, e.g., a storage controller, and that you can know that 
>>>>> a DMA
>>>>> buffer was consumed by the device only after it has told you.
>>>>>
>>>>> It's possible and likely that there is a latency when reporting the
>>>>> stream position, but that is still better than guessing what the DMA
>>>>> is doing.  (You would never just try to guess when writing data to
>>>>> disk, would you?)
>>>>>
>>>>>>>> and definitely we need to provide some feedback mechanism from
>>>>>>>> Dom0 to DomU.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> In our case it is technically impossible to provide precise 
>>>>>>>> period interrupt
>>>>>>>> (mostly because our backend is a user space application).
>>>>> As far as I can see, all audio APIs (ALSA, PulseAudio, etc.) have 
>>>>> poll()
>>>>> or callbacks or similar mechanisms to inform you when new data can be
>>>>> written, and always allow to query the current position.
>>>>>
>>>>>> [...]
>>>>>> ok, so the main concern here is that we cannot properly 
>>>>>> synchronize Dom0-DomU.
>>>>>> If we put this apart for a second are there any other concerns on 
>>>>>> having ALSA
>>>>>> frontend driver? If not, can we have the driver with timer 
>>>>>> implementation upstreamed
>>>>>> as experimental until we have some acceptable synchronization 
>>>>>> solution?
>>>>>> This will allow broader audience to try and feel the solution and 
>>>>>> probably contribute?
>>>>> I doubt that the driver architecture will stay completely the 
>>>>> same, so I
>>>>> do not think that this experimental driver would demonstrate how the
>>>>> solution would feel.
>>>>>
>>>>> As the first step, I would suggest creating a driver with proper
>>>>> synchronization, even if it has high latency.  Reducing the latency
>>>>> would then be 'just' an optimization.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Regards,
>>>>> Clemens
>>>> Definitely feedback from the backend side is required. Currently
>>>> we are working on synchronized version on the backend
>>>> and frontend side. We will be back once we have the solution.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks.
>>>
>>
>
Oleksandr Andrushchenko Oct. 30, 2017, 6:33 a.m. UTC | #4
Hi, all!

This is an attempt to summarize previous discussions on Xen para-virtual
sound driver.

A first attempt has been made to upstream the driver [1] which brought 
number
of fundamental questions, one of the biggest ones was that the frontend 
driver
has no means to synchronize its period elapsed event with the host driver,
but uses software emulation on the guest side [2] with a timer.
In order to address this a change to the existing Xen para-virtual sound
protocol [3] was proposed to fill this gap [4] and remove emulation:
1. Introduced a new event channel from back to front
2. New event with number of bytes played/captured (XENSND_EVT_CUR_POS,
to be used for sending snd_pcm_period_elapsed at frontend
(in Linux implementation, sent in bytes, not frames to make the protocol
generic and consistent)
3. New request for playback/capture control (XENSND_OP_TRIGGER) with
start/pause/stop/resume sub-ops.

Along with these changes other comments on the driver were addressed,
e.g. split into smaller chunks, moved the driver from misc to xen etc. [5].

Hope, this helps to get the full picture of what was discussed and makes it
possible to move forward: if the approach seems ok, then I'll start
upstreaming the changes to the sndif protocol and then will send the 
updated
version of the driver for the further review.

Thank you,
Oleksandr


[1] https://lkml.org/lkml/2017/8/7/363
[2] https://lkml.org/lkml/2017/8/9/1167
[3] 
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/include/xen/interface/io/sndif.h
[4] https://lkml.org/lkml/2017/9/19/121
[5] https://github.com/andr2000/linux/tree/snd_upstream_v1/sound/xen
Takashi Sakamoto Nov. 2, 2017, 9:44 a.m. UTC | #5
On Oct 30 2017 15:33, Oleksandr Andrushchenko wrote:
> This is an attempt to summarize previous discussions on Xen para-virtual
> sound driver.
> 
> A first attempt has been made to upstream the driver [1] which brought 
> number
> of fundamental questions, one of the biggest ones was that the frontend 
> driver
> has no means to synchronize its period elapsed event with the host driver,
> but uses software emulation on the guest side [2] with a timer.
> In order to address this a change to the existing Xen para-virtual sound
> protocol [3] was proposed to fill this gap [4] and remove emulation:
> 1. Introduced a new event channel from back to front
> 2. New event with number of bytes played/captured (XENSND_EVT_CUR_POS,
> to be used for sending snd_pcm_period_elapsed at frontend
> (in Linux implementation, sent in bytes, not frames to make the protocol
> generic and consistent)
> 3. New request for playback/capture control (XENSND_OP_TRIGGER) with
> start/pause/stop/resume sub-ops.
> 
> Along with these changes other comments on the driver were addressed,
> e.g. split into smaller chunks, moved the driver from misc to xen etc. [5].
> 
> Hope, this helps to get the full picture of what was discussed and makes it
> possible to move forward: if the approach seems ok, then I'll start
> upstreaming the changes to the sndif protocol and then will send the 
> updated
> version of the driver for the further review.

This message has below line in its header.

 > In-Reply-To: <e56a09e9-da66-b748-4e82-4b96a18cef32@gmail.com>

This field is defined in RFC822[1], and recent mail clients use this 
header field to associate the message to a message which the field 
indicates. This results in a series of messages, so-called 'message 
thread'. Iwai-san would like you to start a new message thread for your 
topic. Would you please post this message again without the header field?

Generally, receiving no reactions means that readers/reviewers don't get 
enough information for your idea yet. (Of course, there's a probability 
that your work attracts no one...) In this case, submitting more 
resources is better, rather than requesting comments to them. For 
instance, you can point links to backend/frontend implementation as 
para-virtualization drivers which use the new feature of interface, if 
you did work for it. Indicating procedure to use a series of your work 
is better for test, if possible.

[1] https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc0822.txt

Regards

Takashi Sakamoto
Oleksandr Andrushchenko Nov. 2, 2017, 9:55 a.m. UTC | #6
On 11/02/2017 11:44 AM, Takashi Sakamoto wrote:
> On Oct 30 2017 15:33, Oleksandr Andrushchenko wrote:
>> This is an attempt to summarize previous discussions on Xen para-virtual
>> sound driver.
>>
>> A first attempt has been made to upstream the driver [1] which 
>> brought number
>> of fundamental questions, one of the biggest ones was that the 
>> frontend driver
>> has no means to synchronize its period elapsed event with the host 
>> driver,
>> but uses software emulation on the guest side [2] with a timer.
>> In order to address this a change to the existing Xen para-virtual sound
>> protocol [3] was proposed to fill this gap [4] and remove emulation:
>> 1. Introduced a new event channel from back to front
>> 2. New event with number of bytes played/captured (XENSND_EVT_CUR_POS,
>> to be used for sending snd_pcm_period_elapsed at frontend
>> (in Linux implementation, sent in bytes, not frames to make the protocol
>> generic and consistent)
>> 3. New request for playback/capture control (XENSND_OP_TRIGGER) with
>> start/pause/stop/resume sub-ops.
>>
>> Along with these changes other comments on the driver were addressed,
>> e.g. split into smaller chunks, moved the driver from misc to xen 
>> etc. [5].
>>
>> Hope, this helps to get the full picture of what was discussed and 
>> makes it
>> possible to move forward: if the approach seems ok, then I'll start
>> upstreaming the changes to the sndif protocol and then will send the 
>> updated
>> version of the driver for the further review.
>
> This message has below line in its header.
>
> > In-Reply-To: <e56a09e9-da66-b748-4e82-4b96a18cef32@gmail.com>
>
> This field is defined in RFC822[1], and recent mail clients use this 
> header field to associate the message to a message which the field 
> indicates. This results in a series of messages, so-called 'message 
> thread'. Iwai-san would like you to start a new message thread for 
> your topic. Would you please post this message again without the 
> header field?
of course, sorry about that
>
> Generally, receiving no reactions means that readers/reviewers don't 
> get enough information for your idea yet. (Of course, there's a 
> probability that your work attracts no one...) In this case, 
> submitting more resources is better, rather than requesting comments 
> to them. For instance, you can point links to backend/frontend 
> implementation as para-virtualization drivers which use the new 
> feature of interface, if you did work for it. Indicating procedure to 
> use a series of your work is better for test, if possible.
>
will do
> [1] https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc0822.txt
>
> Regards
>
> Takashi Sakamoto
Thank you,
Oleksandr
diff mbox

Patch

diff --git a/include/xen/interface/io/sndif.h b/include/xen/interface/io/sndif.h
index 5c918276835e..763a3f0164f4 100644
--- a/include/xen/interface/io/sndif.h
+++ b/include/xen/interface/io/sndif.h
@@ -38,6 +38,13 @@ 
 
 /*
  ******************************************************************************
+ *                           Protocol version
+ ******************************************************************************
+ */
+#define XENDISPL_PROTOCOL_VERSION	"2"
+
+/*
+ ******************************************************************************
  *                  Feature and Parameter Negotiation
  ******************************************************************************
  *
@@ -104,8 +111,10 @@ 
  * /local/domain/1/device/vsnd/0/0/0/sample-formats = "s8,u8"
  * /local/domain/1/device/vsnd/0/0/0/unique-id = "0"
  *
- * /local/domain/1/device/vsnd/0/0/0/ring-ref = "386"
- * /local/domain/1/device/vsnd/0/0/0/event-channel = "15"
+ * /local/domain/1/device/vsnd/0/0/0/req-ring-ref = "386"
+ * /local/domain/1/device/vsnd/0/0/0/req-event-channel = "15"
+ * /local/domain/1/device/vsnd/0/0/0/evt-ring-ref = "1386"
+ * /local/domain/1/device/vsnd/0/0/0/evt-event-channel = "215"
  *
  *------------------------------ Stream 1, capture ----------------------------
  *
@@ -113,8 +122,10 @@ 
  * /local/domain/1/device/vsnd/0/0/1/channels-max = "2"
  * /local/domain/1/device/vsnd/0/0/1/unique-id = "1"
  *
- * /local/domain/1/device/vsnd/0/0/1/ring-ref = "384"
- * /local/domain/1/device/vsnd/0/0/1/event-channel = "13"
+ * /local/domain/1/device/vsnd/0/0/1/req-ring-ref = "384"
+ * /local/domain/1/device/vsnd/0/0/1/req-event-channel = "13"
+ * /local/domain/1/device/vsnd/0/0/1/evt-ring-ref = "1384"
+ * /local/domain/1/device/vsnd/0/0/1/evt-event-channel = "213"
  *
  *------------------------------- PCM device 1 --------------------------------
  *
@@ -126,8 +137,10 @@ 
  * /local/domain/1/device/vsnd/0/1/0/type = "c"
  * /local/domain/1/device/vsnd/0/1/0/unique-id = "2"
  *
- * /local/domain/1/device/vsnd/0/1/0/ring-ref = "387"
- * /local/domain/1/device/vsnd/0/1/0/event-channel = "151"
+ * /local/domain/1/device/vsnd/0/1/0/req-ring-ref = "387"
+ * /local/domain/1/device/vsnd/0/1/0/req-event-channel = "151"
+ * /local/domain/1/device/vsnd/0/1/0/evt-ring-ref = "1387"
+ * /local/domain/1/device/vsnd/0/1/0/evt-event-channel = "351"
  *
  *------------------------------- PCM device 2 --------------------------------
  *
@@ -138,8 +151,10 @@ 
  * /local/domain/1/device/vsnd/0/2/0/type = "p"
  * /local/domain/1/device/vsnd/0/2/0/unique-id = "3"
  *
- * /local/domain/1/device/vsnd/0/2/0/ring-ref = "389"
- * /local/domain/1/device/vsnd/0/2/0/event-channel = "152"
+ * /local/domain/1/device/vsnd/0/2/0/req-ring-ref = "389"
+ * /local/domain/1/device/vsnd/0/2/0/req-event-channel = "152"
+ * /local/domain/1/device/vsnd/0/2/0/evt-ring-ref = "1389"
+ * /local/domain/1/device/vsnd/0/2/0/evt-event-channel = "452"
  *
  ******************************************************************************
  *                            Backend XenBus Nodes
@@ -273,13 +288,30 @@ 
  *
  *-------------------- Stream Request Transport Parameters --------------------
  *
- * event-channel
+ * req-event-channel
+ *      Values:         <uint32_t>
+ *
+ *      The identifier of the Xen event channel used to signal activity
+ *      in the ring buffer.
+ *
+ * req-ring-ref
+ *      Values:         <uint32_t>
+ *
+ *      The Xen grant reference granting permission for the backend to map
+ *      a sole page in a single page sized ring buffer.
+ *
+ *--------------------- Stream Event Transport Parameters ---------------------
+ *
+ * This communication path is used to deliver asynchronous events from backend
+ * to frontend, set up per stream.
+ *
+ * evt-event-channel
  *      Values:         <uint32_t>
  *
  *      The identifier of the Xen event channel used to signal activity
  *      in the ring buffer.
  *
- * ring-ref
+ * evt-ring-ref
  *      Values:         <uint32_t>
  *
  *      The Xen grant reference granting permission for the backend to map
@@ -432,6 +464,19 @@ 
 #define XENSND_OP_GET_VOLUME		5
 #define XENSND_OP_MUTE			6
 #define XENSND_OP_UNMUTE		7
+#define XENSND_OP_TRIGGER		8
+
+#define XENSND_OP_TRIGGER_START		0
+#define XENSND_OP_TRIGGER_PAUSE		1
+#define XENSND_OP_TRIGGER_STOP		2
+#define XENSND_OP_TRIGGER_RESUME	3
+
+/*
+ ******************************************************************************
+ *                                 EVENT CODES
+ ******************************************************************************
+ */
+#define XENSND_EVT_CUR_POS		0
 
 /*
  ******************************************************************************
@@ -446,8 +491,10 @@ 
 #define XENSND_FIELD_FE_VERSION		"version"
 #define XENSND_FIELD_VCARD_SHORT_NAME	"short-name"
 #define XENSND_FIELD_VCARD_LONG_NAME	"long-name"
-#define XENSND_FIELD_RING_REF		"ring-ref"
-#define XENSND_FIELD_EVT_CHNL		"event-channel"
+#define XENSND_FIELD_REQ_RING_REF	"req-ring-ref"
+#define XENSND_FIELD_REQ_EVT_CHNL	"req-event-channel"
+#define XENSND_FIELD_EVT_RING_REF	"evt-ring-ref"
+#define XENSND_FIELD_EVT_EVT_CHNL	"evt-event-channel"
 #define XENSND_FIELD_DEVICE_NAME	"name"
 #define XENSND_FIELD_TYPE		"type"
 #define XENSND_FIELD_STREAM_UNIQUE_ID	"unique-id"
@@ -559,9 +606,7 @@ 
  * +----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
  * |                           gref_directory                          | 24
  * +----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
- * |                             reserved                              | 28
- * +----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
- * |/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/|
+ * |                             period_sz                             | 28
  * +----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
  * |                             reserved                              | 32
  * +----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
@@ -571,6 +616,14 @@ 
  * pcm_channels - uint8_t, number of channels of this stream,
  *   [channels-min; channels-max]
  * buffer_sz - uint32_t, buffer size to be allocated, octets
+ * period_sz - uint32_t, recommended event period size, octets
+ *   This is the recommended (hint) value of the period at which frontend would
+ *   like to receive XENSND_EVT_CUR_POS notifications from the backend when
+ *   stream position advances during playback/capture.
+ *   It shows how many octets are expected to be played/captured before
+ *   sending such an event.
+ *   If set to 0 no XENSND_EVT_CUR_POS events are sent by the backend.
+ *
  * gref_directory - grant_ref_t, a reference to the first shared page
  *   describing shared buffer references. At least one page exists. If shared
  *   buffer size  (buffer_sz) exceeds what can be addressed by this single page,
@@ -585,6 +638,11 @@  struct xensnd_open_req {
 	uint16_t reserved;
 	uint32_t buffer_sz;
 	grant_ref_t gref_directory;
+	uint32_t period_sz;
+};
+
+struct xensnd_trigger_req {
+	uint8_t type;
 };
 
 /*
@@ -767,8 +825,51 @@  struct xensnd_rw_req {
  * id - uint16_t, copied from the request
  * operation - uint8_t, XENSND_OP_* - copied from request
  * status - int32_t, response status, zero on success and -XEN_EXX on failure
+ *
+ *----------------------------------- Events ----------------------------------
+ *
+ * Events are sent via a shared page allocated by the front and propagated by
+ *   evt-event-channel/evt-ring-ref XenStore entries
+ * All event packets have the same length (32 octets)
+ * All event packets have common header:
+ *         0                1                 2               3        octet
+ * +----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
+ * |               id                |      type      |   reserved     | 4
+ * +----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
+ * |                             reserved                              | 8
+ * +----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
+ *
+ * id - uint16_t, event id, may be used by front
+ * type - uint8_t, type of the event
+ *
+ *
+ * Current stream position - event from back to front when stream's
+ *   playback/capture position has advanced:
+ *         0                1                 2               3        octet
+ * +----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
+ * |               id                |   _EVT_CUR_POS |   reserved     | 4
+ * +----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
+ * |                             reserved                              | 8
+ * +----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
+ * |                         position low 32-bit                       | 12
+ * +----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
+ * |                         position high 32-bit                      | 16
+ * +----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
+ * |                             reserved                              | 20
+ * +----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
+ * |/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/|
+ * +----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
+ * |                             reserved                              | 32
+ * +----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
+ *
+ * position - current value of stream's playback/capture position, octets
+ *
  */
 
+struct xensnd_cur_pos_evt {
+	uint64_t position;
+};
+
 struct xensnd_req {
 	uint16_t id;
 	uint8_t operation;
@@ -776,6 +877,7 @@  struct xensnd_req {
 	union {
 		struct xensnd_open_req open;
 		struct xensnd_rw_req rw;
+		struct xensnd_trigger_req trigger;
 		uint8_t reserved[24];
 	} op;
 };
@@ -788,6 +890,47 @@  struct xensnd_resp {
 	uint8_t reserved1[24];
 };
 
+struct xensnd_evt {
+	uint16_t id;
+	uint8_t type;
+	uint8_t reserved[5];
+	union {
+		struct xensnd_cur_pos_evt cur_pos;
+		uint8_t reserved[24];
+	} op;
+};
+
 DEFINE_RING_TYPES(xen_sndif, struct xensnd_req, struct xensnd_resp);
 
+/*
+ ******************************************************************************
+ *                        Back to front events delivery
+ ******************************************************************************
+ * In order to deliver asynchronous events from back to front a shared page is
+ * allocated by front and its granted reference propagated to back via
+ * XenStore entries (evt-ring-ref/evt-event-channel).
+ * This page has a common header used by both front and back to synchronize
+ * access and control event's ring buffer, while back being a producer of the
+ * events and front being a consumer. The rest of the page after the header
+ * is used for event packets.
+ *
+ * Upon reception of an event(s) front may confirm its reception
+ * for either each event, group of events or none.
+ */
+
+struct xensnd_event_page {
+	uint32_t in_cons;
+	uint32_t in_prod;
+	uint8_t reserved[24];
+};
+
+#define XENSND_EVENT_PAGE_SIZE XEN_PAGE_SIZE
+#define XENSND_IN_RING_OFFS (sizeof(struct xensnd_event_page))
+#define XENSND_IN_RING_SIZE (XENSND_EVENT_PAGE_SIZE - XENSND_IN_RING_OFFS)
+#define XENSND_IN_RING_LEN (XENSND_IN_RING_SIZE / sizeof(struct xensnd_evt))
+#define XENSND_IN_RING(page) \
+	((struct xensnd_evt *)((char *)(page) + XENSND_IN_RING_OFFS))
+#define XENSND_IN_RING_REF(page, idx) \
+	(XENSND_IN_RING((page))[(idx) % XENSND_IN_RING_LEN])
+
 #endif /* __XEN_PUBLIC_IO_SNDIF_H__ */