Address Families (NDIS 5.1)
Note NDIS 5. x has been deprecated and is superseded by NDIS 6. x. For new NDIS driver development, see Network Drivers Starting with Windows Vista. For information about porting NDIS 5. x drivers to NDIS 6. x, see Porting NDIS 5.x Drivers to NDIS 6.0.
An address family (AF) represents an association between either of the following sets of drivers:
A connection-oriented client, a call manager, and the underlying connection-oriented miniport driver, or
A connection-oriented client and an MCM driver for a specific signaling protocol
An address family also specifies a particular signaling protocol, such as ATM UNI 3.1.
A call manager or MCM driver advertises its call manager services for a specific signaling protocol by registering the address family with NDIS. NDIS then notifies each client on the binding of the newly registered address family. Before it can use the call manager services provided by a call manager or MCM driver, a connection-oriented client must open the address family with the call manager or MCM driver that advertised it.
For more information about operations on address families, see Registering and Opening an Address Familyand Closing an Address Family.