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+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+I/O request handling
+====================
+
+An I/O request of a User VM, which is constructed by the hypervisor, is
+distributed by the ACRN Hypervisor Service Module to an I/O client
+corresponding to the address range of the I/O request. Details of I/O request
+handling are described in the following sections.
+
+1. I/O request
+--------------
+
+For each User VM, there is a shared 4-KByte memory region used for I/O requests
+communication between the hypervisor and Service VM. An I/O request is a
+256-byte structure buffer, which is 'struct acrn_io_request', that is filled by
+an I/O handler of the hypervisor when a trapped I/O access happens in a User
+VM. ACRN userspace in the Service VM first allocates a 4-KByte page and passes
+the GPA (Guest Physical Address) of the buffer to the hypervisor. The buffer is
+used as an array of 16 I/O request slots with each I/O request slot being 256
+bytes. This array is indexed by vCPU ID.
+
+2. I/O clients
+--------------
+
+An I/O client is responsible for handling User VM I/O requests whose accessed
+GPA falls in a certain range. Multiple I/O clients can be associated with each
+User VM. There is a special client associated with each User VM, called the
+default client, that handles all I/O requests that do not fit into the range of
+any other clients. The ACRN userspace acts as the default client for each User
+VM.
+
+Below illustration shows the relationship between I/O requests shared buffer,
+I/O requests and I/O clients.
+
+::
+
+ +------------------------------------------------------+
+ | Service VM |
+ |+--------------------------------------------------+ |
+ || +----------------------------------------+ | |
+ || | shared page ACRN userspace | | |
+ || | +-----------------+ +------------+ | | |
+ || +----+->| acrn_io_request |<-+ default | | | |
+ || | | | +-----------------+ | I/O client | | | |
+ || | | | | ... | +------------+ | | |
+ || | | | +-----------------+ | | |
+ || | +-|--------------------------------------+ | |
+ ||---|----|-----------------------------------------| |
+ || | | kernel | |
+ || | | +----------------------+ | |
+ || | | | +-------------+ HSM | | |
+ || | +--------------+ | | | |
+ || | | | I/O clients | | | |
+ || | | | | | | |
+ || | | +-------------+ | | |
+ || | +----------------------+ | |
+ |+---|----------------------------------------------+ |
+ +----|-------------------------------------------------+
+ |
+ +----|-------------------------------------------------+
+ | +-+-----------+ |
+ | | I/O handler | ACRN Hypervisor |
+ | +-------------+ |
+ +------------------------------------------------------+
+
+3. I/O request state transition
+-------------------------------
+
+The state transitions of an ACRN I/O request are as follows.
+
+::
+
+ FREE -> PENDING -> PROCESSING -> COMPLETE -> FREE -> ...
+
+- FREE: this I/O request slot is empty
+- PENDING: a valid I/O request is pending in this slot
+- PROCESSING: the I/O request is being processed
+- COMPLETE: the I/O request has been processed
+
+An I/O request in COMPLETE or FREE state is owned by the hypervisor. HSM and
+ACRN userspace are in charge of processing the others.
+
+4. Processing flow of I/O requests
+----------------------------------
+
+a. The I/O handler of the hypervisor will fill an I/O request with PENDING
+ state when a trapped I/O access happens in a User VM.
+b. The hypervisor makes an upcall, which is a notification interrupt, to
+ the Service VM.
+c. The upcall handler schedules a worker to dispatch I/O requests.
+d. The worker looks for the PENDING I/O requests, assigns them to different
+ registered clients based on the address of the I/O accesses, updates
+ their state to PROCESSING, and notifies the corresponding client to handle.
+e. The notified client handles the assigned I/O requests.
+f. The HSM updates I/O requests states to COMPLETE and notifies the hypervisor
+ of the completion via hypercalls.