Re: Moving ppp-manager into ModemManager

[Marcel Holtmann <marcel holtmann org>]

Hi Dan,

> > >         what do you guys think about moving the ppp-manager part from
> > >         NetworkManager into ModemManager?
> > >         
> > >         What is the actual reason why ModemManager doesn't handle the
> > >         PPP part
> > >         of a data connection?
> > > 
> > > Because NetworkManager also happens to support pppoe and friends
> > 
> > and with the same argument the support for DSL modems etc. could also be
> > moved into ModemManager.
> > 
> > My problem is that if ModemManager as a standalone can not deal with the
> > PPP portion of a dialup connection, then it is nothing more than an AT
> > command parser with D-Bus interface. I am failing to see the point why
> > this code was ever moved outside NetworkManager to begin with then.
> 
> Not all modems are PPP.  The IP layer handling isn't the responsibility
> of the modem manager, it's the responsibility of the connection manager,
> since the conneciton manager applies the IP-layer policies and such.
> 
> There are a number of different IP configuration methods that modems use
> these days:  PPP, static IP, and DHCP.  It makes no sense to put PPP
> into ModemManager without putting the other two in as well.  But putting
> the other two into MM is clearly expanding the scope of MM way beyond
> what it should be.

I am fine with ModemManager not doing IP configuration, but PPP is
mostly a transport layer. The IP configuration aspects are only on top
of it. So I would expect ModemManager to do the PPP handling and then
tell the application the IP details (routing, nameserver etc.) to
actually set these details.

Regards

Marcel