Protocol Drivers (Windows CE 5.0)

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The operating system provides protocol drivers for TCP/IP, Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP), and Infrared Data Association (IrDA). A protocol driver exports a set of ProtocolXXX functions at its lower edge. It communicates with NDIS to send and receive network packets and to bind to an underlying miniport network adapter driver or intermediate NDIS driver that exports a MiniportXXX interface at its upper edge.

Protocol drivers that communicate with underlying NDIS drivers call NDIS library functions to send and receive packets. To send a packet to an underlying NDIS driver, a protocol driver must call the NdisSend or NdisSendPackets function. A protocol driver must call the NdisRequest function to forward a request to the underlying driver that it queries for the capabilities or status of its network adapter or that it set the state of its network adapter.

The following illustration shows the NDIS protocol-driver architecture.

See Also

Miniports, Intermediate Drivers, and Protocol Drivers | NdisSend | NdisSendPackets | NdisRequest

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