Diff: source/nRF5xGap.h

Revision:

471:945e53179855

Parent:

470:2c1d3b1fe249

Child:

475:fe3d08b3a8e9

--- a/source/nRF5xGap.h	Thu Nov 26 14:33:45 2015 +0000
+++ b/source/nRF5xGap.h	Thu Nov 26 14:33:45 2015 +0000
@@ -110,36 +110,50 @@
 
 private:
 #ifdef YOTTA_CFG_MBED_OS
-    /* Store the current radio notification value that will be used in the next callback */
-    bool radioNotificationCallbackParam;
-
     /*
-     * In mbed OS, the idea is to post all callbacks through minar scheduler. However, the radio notifications
-     * are handled in IRQs with very high priority. Trying to post a minar callback directly in
-     * processRadioNotification() will result in a hard-fault. This is because minar asumes that all callbacks
-     * are posted from low priority context, so when minar schedules the callback it attempts to enter a
-     * critical section and disable all interrupts. The problem is that minar tries to do this by invoking the
-     * SoftDevice with a call to sd_nvic_critical_region_enter() while already running in high priority. This
-     * results in the SoftDevice generating a hard-fault.
-     * A solution is to reduce the priority from which the callback is posted to minar. Unfortunately, there
-     * are not clean ways to do this. The solution implemented uses a Timeout to call
-     * postRadioNotificationCallback() after a very short delay (1 us) and post the minar callback there.
+     * In mbed OS, all user-facing BLE events (interrupts) are posted to the
+     * MINAR scheduler to be executed as callbacks in thread mode. MINAR guards
+     * its critical sections from interrupts by acquiring CriticalSectionLock,
+     * which results in a call to sd_nvic_critical_region_enter(). Thus, it is
+     * safe to invoke MINAR APIs from interrupt context as long as those
+     * interrupts are blocked by sd_nvic_critical_region_enter().
+     *
+     * Radio notifications are a special case for the above. The Radio
+     * Notification IRQ is handled at a very high priority--higher than the
+     * level blocked by sd_nvic_critical_region_enter(). Thus Radio Notification
+     * events can preempt MINAR's critical sections. Using MINAR APIs (such as
+     * posting an event) directly in processRadioNotification() may result in a
+     * race condition ending in a hard-fault.
      *
-     * !!!WARNING!!! Radio notifications are very time critical events. The current solution is expected to
-     * work under the assumption that postRadioNotificationCalback() will be executed BEFORE the next radio
+     * The solution is to *not* call MINAR APIs directly from the Radio
+     * Notification handling; i.e. to do the bulk of RadioNotification
+     * processing at a reduced priority which respects MINAR's critical
+     * sections. Unfortunately, on a cortex-M0, there is no clean way to demote
+     * priority for the currently executing interrupt--we wouldn't want to
+     * demote the radio notification handling anyway because it is sensitive to
+     * timing, and the system expects to finish this handling very quickly. The
+     * workaround is to employ a Timeout to trigger
+     * postRadioNotificationCallback() after a very short delay (~0 us) and post
+     * the MINAR callback that context.
+     *
+     * !!!WARNING!!! Radio notifications are very time critical events. The
+     * current solution is expected to work under the assumption that
+     * postRadioNotificationCalback() will be executed BEFORE the next radio
      * notification event is generated.
      */
+
+    bool    radioNotificationCallbackParam; /* parameter to be passed into the Timeout-generated radio notification callback. */
     Timeout radioNotificationTimeout;
 
     /*
-     * A helper function to post radio notification callbacks through minar when using mbed OS.
+     * A helper function to post radio notification callbacks through MINAR when using mbed OS.
      */
     void postRadioNotificationCallback(void) {
         minar::Scheduler::postCallback(
             mbed::util::FunctionPointer1<void, bool>(&radioNotificationCallback, &FunctionPointerWithContext<bool>::call).bind(radioNotificationCallbackParam)
         );
     }
-#endif
+#endif /* #ifdef YOTTA_CFG_MBED_OS */
 
     /**
      * A helper function to process radio-notification events; to be called internally.