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Calling NetIF_IO_Ctrl() will poll the hardware for the current link state. Alternatively, NetIF_LinkStateGet() gets the approximate link state by reading the interface link state flag. Polling the Ethernet hardware for link state takes significantly longer due to the speed and latency of the MII bus. Consequently, it may not be desirable to poll the hardware in a tight loop. Reading the interface flag is fast, but the flag is only periodically updated by the Net IF every 250mS (default) when using the generic Ethernet PHY driver. PHY drivers that implement link state change interrupts may change the value of the interface flag immediately upon link state change detection. In this scenario, calling NetIF_LinkStateGet() is ideal for these interfaces.
Wait Until the Cable is Connected (Link
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Up)
Sometime the application might want to wait until the link is up before starting doing things on the network. The function NetIF_LinkStateWaitUntilUp can be use to do such functionality.
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