+An Ethernet Interface from userspace's poing of view is nothing but a

point

+:c:type:`struct net_device <net_device>`, which exposes configuration options
+trough the legacy ioctls and the ethool netlink commands. The base assumption

through 

+when designing these configuration channels were that the link looked
+something like this ::
+
+  +-----------------------+        +----------+      +--------------+
+  | Ethernet Controller / |        | Ethernet |      | Connector /  |
+  |       MAC             | ------ |   PHY    | ---- |    Port      | ---... to LP
+  +-----------------------+        +----------+      +--------------+
+  struct net_device               struct phy_device
+
+Commands that needs to configure the PHY will go through the net_device.phydev
+field to reach the PHY and perform the relevant configuration.
+
+This assumption falls appart in more complex topologies that can arise when,

apart.

	Andrew