lwIP

lwIP (lightweight IP) is a widely used open source TCP/IP stack designed for embedded systems. lwIP was originally developed by Adam Dunkels at the Swedish Institute of Computer Science and is now developed and maintained by a world wide network of developers. It is written in  “C” language.

Adam Dunkels

lwIP is used by many manufacturers of embedded systems. Examples include Altera (in the Nios II operating system), Analog Devices (for the Blackfin DSP chip), Xilinx, Honeywell (for some of their FAA certified avionics systems) and Freescale Semiconductor (Ethernet Streaming SW for Automotive microcontrollers).

The focus of the lwIP TCP/IP implementation is to reduce resource usage while still having a full-scale TCP. This makes lwIP suitable for use in embedded systems with tens of kilobytes of free RAM and room for around 40 kilobytes of code ROM.

lwIP features

•        IP (Internet Protocol) including packet forwarding over multiple network interfaces

•        ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) for network maintenance and debugging

•        IGMP (Internet Group Management Protocol) for multicast traffic management

•        UDP (User Datagram Protocol) including experimental UDP-lite extensions

•        TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) with congestion control, RTT estimation and fast recovery/fast retransmit

•        Specialized raw/native API for enhanced performance

•        Optional Berkeley-like socket API

•        DNS (Domain names resolver)

•        SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol)

•        DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol)

•        AUTOIP / Link-local address (for IPv4, conforms with RFC 3927)

•        PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol)

•        ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) for Ethernet