USB: update documentation for URB_ISO_ASAP

This patch (as1611) updates the USB documentation and kerneldoc to
give a more precise meaning for the URB_ISO_ASAP flag and to explain
more of the details of scheduling for isochronous URBs.

Signed-off-by: Alan Stern <stern@rowland.harvard.edu>
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>

3 files changed, 37 insertions, 17 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/usb/error-codes.txt b/Documentation/usb/error-codes.txt
index b3f606b81a03..8d1e2a9ebbba 100644
--- a/Documentation/usb/error-codes.txt
+++ b/Documentation/usb/error-codes.txt
@@ -35,9 +35,8 @@ USB-specific:
 		d) ISO: number_of_packets is < 0
 		e) various other cases
 
--EAGAIN		a) specified ISO start frame too early
-		b) (using ISO-ASAP) too much scheduled for the future
-		   wait some time and try again.
+-EXDEV		ISO: URB_ISO_ASAP wasn't specified and all the frames
+		the URB would be scheduled in have already expired.
 
 -EFBIG		Host controller driver can't schedule that many ISO frames.
 
diff --git a/drivers/usb/core/urb.c b/drivers/usb/core/urb.c
index 9d912bfdcffe..3662287e2f4f 100644
--- a/drivers/usb/core/urb.c
+++ b/drivers/usb/core/urb.c
@@ -214,9 +214,25 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(usb_unanchor_urb);
  * urb->interval is modified to reflect the actual transfer period used
  * (normally some power of two units).  And for isochronous urbs,
  * urb->start_frame is modified to reflect when the URB's transfers were
- * scheduled to start.  Not all isochronous transfer scheduling policies
- * will work, but most host controller drivers should easily handle ISO
- * queues going from now until 10-200 msec into the future.
+ * scheduled to start.
+ *
+ * Not all isochronous transfer scheduling policies will work, but most
+ * host controller drivers should easily handle ISO queues going from now
+ * until 10-200 msec into the future.  Drivers should try to keep at
+ * least one or two msec of data in the queue; many controllers require
+ * that new transfers start at least 1 msec in the future when they are
+ * added.  If the driver is unable to keep up and the queue empties out,
+ * the behavior for new submissions is governed by the URB_ISO_ASAP flag.
+ * If the flag is set, or if the queue is idle, then the URB is always
+ * assigned to the first available (and not yet expired) slot in the
+ * endpoint's schedule.  If the flag is not set and the queue is active
+ * then the URB is always assigned to the next slot in the schedule
+ * following the end of the endpoint's previous URB, even if that slot is
+ * in the past.  When a packet is assigned in this way to a slot that has
+ * already expired, the packet is not transmitted and the corresponding
+ * usb_iso_packet_descriptor's status field will return -EXDEV.  If this
+ * would happen to all the packets in the URB, submission fails with a
+ * -EXDEV error code.
  *
  * For control endpoints, the synchronous usb_control_msg() call is
  * often used (in non-interrupt context) instead of this call.
diff --git a/include/linux/usb.h b/include/linux/usb.h
index 10278d18709c..f92cdf0c1457 100644
--- a/include/linux/usb.h
+++ b/include/linux/usb.h
@@ -1129,8 +1129,8 @@ extern int usb_disabled(void);
  * Note: URB_DIR_IN/OUT is automatically set in usb_submit_urb().
  */
 #define URB_SHORT_NOT_OK	0x0001	/* report short reads as errors */
-#define URB_ISO_ASAP		0x0002	/* iso-only, urb->start_frame
-					 * ignored */
+#define URB_ISO_ASAP		0x0002	/* iso-only; use the first unexpired
+					 * slot in the schedule */
 #define URB_NO_TRANSFER_DMA_MAP	0x0004	/* urb->transfer_dma valid on submit */
 #define URB_NO_FSBR		0x0020	/* UHCI-specific */
 #define URB_ZERO_PACKET		0x0040	/* Finish bulk OUT with short packet */
@@ -1309,15 +1309,20 @@ typedef void (*usb_complete_t)(struct urb *);
  * the transfer interval in the endpoint descriptor is logarithmic.
  * Device drivers must convert that value to linear units themselves.)
  *
- * Isochronous URBs normally use the URB_ISO_ASAP transfer flag, telling
- * the host controller to schedule the transfer as soon as bandwidth
- * utilization allows, and then set start_frame to reflect the actual frame
- * selected during submission.  Otherwise drivers must specify the start_frame
- * and handle the case where the transfer can't begin then.  However, drivers
- * won't know how bandwidth is currently allocated, and while they can
- * find the current frame using usb_get_current_frame_number () they can't
- * know the range for that frame number.  (Ranges for frame counter values
- * are HC-specific, and can go from 256 to 65536 frames from "now".)
+ * If an isochronous endpoint queue isn't already running, the host
+ * controller will schedule a new URB to start as soon as bandwidth
+ * utilization allows.  If the queue is running then a new URB will be
+ * scheduled to start in the first transfer slot following the end of the
+ * preceding URB, if that slot has not already expired.  If the slot has
+ * expired (which can happen when IRQ delivery is delayed for a long time),
+ * the scheduling behavior depends on the URB_ISO_ASAP flag.  If the flag
+ * is clear then the URB will be scheduled to start in the expired slot,
+ * implying that some of its packets will not be transferred; if the flag
+ * is set then the URB will be scheduled in the first unexpired slot,
+ * breaking the queue's synchronization.  Upon URB completion, the
+ * start_frame field will be set to the (micro)frame number in which the
+ * transfer was scheduled.  Ranges for frame counter values are HC-specific
+ * and can go from as low as 256 to as high as 65536 frames.
  *
  * Isochronous URBs have a different data transfer model, in part because
  * the quality of service is only "best effort".  Callers provide specially