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Network Architecture

Mac OS X kernel extensions (KEXTs) provide mechanisms to extend and modify the networking infrastructure of Mac OS X dynamically, without recompiling or relinking the kernel. The effect is immediate and does not require rebooting the system.

Networking KEXTs can be used to

• monitor network traffic

• modify network traffic

• receive notification of asynchronous events from the driver layer

In the last case, such events are received by the data link and network layers. Examples of these events include power management events and interface status changes.

Specifically, KEXTs allow you to

• create protocol stacks that can be loaded and unloaded dynamically and configured automatically

• create modules that can be loaded and unloaded dynamically at specific positions in the network hierarchy.

The Kernel Extension Manager dynamically adds KEXTs to the running Mac OS X kernel inside the kernel’s address space. An installed and enabled network-related KEXT is invoked automatically, depending on its position in the sequence of protocol components, to process an incoming or outgoing packet.

All KEXTs provide initialization and termination routines that the Kernel Extension Manager invokes when it loads or unloads the KEXT. The initialization routine handles any operations that are needed to complete the incorporation of the KEXT into the kernel, such as updating protosw and domain structures (through programmatic interfaces). Similarly, the termination routine must remove references to the NKE from these structures to unload itself successfully. NKEs must provide a mechanism, such as a reference count, to ensure that the NKE can terminate without leaving dangling pointers.

For additional information on the networking portions of the Mac OS X kernel, you should read the document Network Kernel Extensions Programming Guide.

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