Standardized INF Keywords for NDIS QoS

A standardized INF keyword is defined to enable or disable support for NDIS Quality of Service (QoS) on a miniport driver.

The INF file for the miniport driver of an adapter that supports NDIS QoS must specify the *QOS standardized INF keyword. After the driver is installed, administrators can update the *QOS keyword value in the Advanced property page for the adapter. For more information about advanced properties, see Specifying Configuration Parameters for the Advanced Properties Page.

Note   The miniport driver is automatically restarted after a change is made in the Advanced property page for the adapter.

The *QOS INF keyword is an enumeration keyword. The following table describes the possible INF entries for the *QOS INF keyword. The columns in this table describe the following attributes for an enumeration keyword:

SubkeyName
The name of the keyword that you must specify in the INF file. This name also appears in the registry under the NDI\params\ key for the network adapter.

ParamDesc
The display text that is associated with SubkeyName.

Note  The independent hardware vendor (IHV) can define any descriptive text for SubkeyName.

Value
The enumeration integer value that is associated with each SubkeyName in the list.

EnumDesc
The display text that is associated with each value that appears in the menu.

When NDIS calls the miniport driver's MiniportInitializeEx function, the driver must do the following:

• The miniport driver must register the NDIS QoS hardware capabilities that the network adapter supports.

• The miniport driver must also read the *QOS keyword value in the registry to register the current status of the adapter's NDIS QoS hardware capabilities.

The miniport driver must follow these guidelines when it registers the current status of the NDIS QoS hardware capabilities:

• If the *QOS keyword has a value of one, the miniport driver must register all NDIS QoS hardware capabilities as currently enabled. The driver must enable its NDIS QoS hardware capabilities regardless of the following:

  • Whether the Microsoft Data Center Bridging (DCB) server feature is installed or enabled on Windows Server 2012 and later versions of Windows Server. For more information about this server feature and related components, see NDIS QoS Architecture for Data Center Bridging.

  • Whether the local Data Center Bridging Exchange (DCBX) Willing state is enabled on the network adapter. When this state is enabled, the network adapter and miniport driver can resolve its operational NDIS QoS parameters from remote NDIS QoS parameters that were received from the remote peer. For more information, see Managing the Local DCBX Willing State.

  For more information on how to register QoS hardware and current capabilities, see Registering NDIS QoS Capabilities.

  Note  The miniport driver must always issue NDIS_STATUS_QOS_OPERATIONAL_PARAMETERS_CHANGE and NDIS_STATUS_QOS_REMOTE_PARAMETERS_CHANGE status indications if its NDIS QoS hardware capabilities are currently enabled. Starting with Windows Server 2012, these status indications report on the current operational and remote QoS parameter settings, respectively. These indications allow system administrators to view NDIS QoS and DCB settings regardless of whether the Microsoft DCB server feature is installed. For more information, see Indicating NDIS QoS Parameter Status.

• If the *QOS keyword has a value of zero, the miniport driver must report all NDIS QoS hardware capabilities as currently disabled. In this case, the operating system will not configure the driver with NDIS QoS capabilities.

  Note  The driver must disable DCB and DCBX on the network adapter if the *QOS keyword has a value of zero.

• If the *QOS keyword is not present in the registry, the miniport driver must not report any NDIS QoS hardware capabilities. In this case, the operating system will not configure the driver with NDIS QoS capabilities.

  Note  The driver must disable DCB and DCBX on the network adapter if the *QOS keyword is not present in the registry.

In addition to the *QOS keyword, the miniport driver must read the *PriorityVLANTag keyword. This keyword specifies whether the network adapter is enabled to insert the 802.1Q tags for packet priority and virtual LANs (VLANs).

The following table summarizes the relationship between the *QOS and *PriorityVLANTag keyword values.

For more information about the *PriorityVLANTag keyword, see Enumeration Keywords.

For more information about standardized INF keywords, see Standardized INF Keywords for Network Devices.

For more information on how to register NDIS QoS capabilities, see Registering NDIS QoS Capabilities.