Network Driver Programming Considerations

Microsoft Windows network drivers share similar design goals. Network drivers should be written to be portable and scalable, to provide simple configuration of hardware and software, to use object-based interfaces, and to support asynchronous I/O. This section describes how to apply these general design goals to the network drivers that you write for Microsoft Windows Vista and later operating systems.

This section includes the following topics:

• Performance in Network Drivers
• Performance in Network Adapters
• Portability in Network Drivers
• Multiprocessor Support in Network Drivers
• IRQLs in Network Drivers
• Synchronization and Notification in Network Drivers
• Packet Structures in Network Drivers
• Using Shared Memory in Network Drivers
• Asynchronous I/O and Completion Functions in Network Drivers
• Security Issues for Network Drivers