Merge pull request #402 from CodeConstruct/mi-kdoc

doc: check-in processed mi.rst

Author: dwsuse

doc/mi.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+NVMe Management Interface (NVMe-MI) support
+===========================================
+
+This libnvme project also includes support for the NVMe Management Interface
+(NVMe-MI), currently over a Management Component Transport (MCTP)
+protocol link. This MCTP link will typically use i2c/SMBus as the
+hardware transport, enabling out-of-band management and control over NVMe
+devices using a simple SMBus interface.
+
+The MI interface is compiled into a separate shared object, ``libnvme-mi.so``.
+
+Most of the MI API is transport-agnostic, except for the endpoint constructor
+functions. Once an endpoint object (``nvme_mi_ep_t``) is created, the generic
+functions can be used to manage it.
+
+MCTP Transport
+--------------
+
+The MI API is generally transport-agnostic, but the only currently-supported
+transport is MCTP, using the kernel ``AF_MCTP`` socket interface.
+
+MCTP endpoints are addressed by a (network-id, endpoint-id) pair. Endpoint
+IDs (EIDs) are defined by the MCTP standard as an 8-bit value. Since the
+address space is somewhat limited, the Linux `AF_MCTP` support allows for
+separate MCTP "networks", which provide separate address spaces. These networks
+each have a unique ``unsigned int`` as their ID.
+
+The default Network ID is 1; unless you have configured otherwise, MCTP
+endpoints will appear on this network.