[dpdk-dev,v7,6/7] doc: add event timer adapter section to programmer's guide

diff --git a/doc/guides/prog_guide/event_timer_adapter.rst b/doc/guides/prog_guide/event_timer_adapter.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..423b91d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/guides/prog_guide/event_timer_adapter.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,277 @@ 
+..  SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
+    Copyright(c) 2017 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.
+
+Event Timer Adapter Library
+=================================
+
+The DPDK
+`Event Device library <http://dpdk.org/doc/guides/prog_guide/eventdev.html>`_
+introduces an event driven programming model which presents applications with
+an alternative to the polling model traditionally used in DPDK
+applications. Event devices can be coupled with arbitrary components to provide
+new event sources by using **event adapters**. The Event Timer Adapter is one
+such adapter; it bridges event devices and timer mechanisms.
+
+The Event Timer Adapter library extends the event driven model
+by introducing a :ref:`new type of event <timer_expiry_event>` that represents
+a timer expiration, and providing an API with which adapters can be created or
+destroyed, and :ref:`event timers <event_timer>` can be armed and canceled.
+
+The Event Timer Adapter library is designed to interface with hardware or
+software implementations of the timer mechanism; it will query an eventdev PMD
+to determine which implementation should be used.  The default software
+implementation manages timers using the DPDK
+`Timer library <http://dpdk.org/doc/guides/prog_guide/timer_lib.html>`_.
+
+Examples of using the API are presented in the `API Overview`_ and
+`Processing Timer Expiry Events`_ sections.  Code samples are abstracted and
+are based on the example of handling a TCP retransmission.
+
+.. _event_timer:
+
+Event Timer struct
+------------------
+Event timers are timers that enqueue a timer expiration event to an event
+device upon firing.
+
+The Event Timer Adapter API represents each event timer with a generic struct,
+which contains an event and user metadata.  The ``rte_event_timer`` struct is
+defined in ``lib/librte_event/librte_event_timer_adapter.h``.
+
+.. _timer_expiry_event:
+
+Timer Expiry Event
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The event contained by an event timer is enqueued in the event device when the
+timer expires, and the event device uses the attributes below when scheduling
+it:
+
+* ``event_queue_id`` - Application should set this to specify an event queue to
+  which the timer expiry event should be enqueued
+* ``event_priority`` - Application can set this to indicate the priority of the
+  timer expiry event in the event queue relative to other events
+* ``sched_type`` - Application can set this to specify the scheduling type of
+  the timer expiry event
+* ``flow_id`` - Application can set this to indicate which flow this timer
+  expiry event corresponds to
+* ``op`` - Will be set to ``RTE_EVENT_OP_NEW`` by the event timer adapter
+* ``event_type`` - Will be set to ``RTE_EVENT_TYPE_TIMER`` by the event timer
+  adapter
+
+Timeout Ticks
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The number of ticks from now in which the timer will expire. The ticks value
+has a resolution (``timer_tick_ns``) that is specified in the event timer
+adapter configuration.
+
+User Metadata
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Memory to store user specific metadata.  The event timer adapter implementation
+will not modify this area.
+
+API Overview
+----------------
+
+This section will introduce the reader to the event timer adapter API, showing
+how to create and configure an event timer adapter and use it to manage event
+timers.
+
+From a high level, the setup steps are:
+
+* rte_event_timer_adapter_create()
+* rte_event_timer_adapter_start()
+
+And to start and stop timers:
+
+* rte_event_timer_init()
+* rte_event_timer_arm_burst()
+* rte_event_timer_cancel_burst()
+
+Create and Configure an Adapter Instance
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+To create an event timer adapter instance, initialize an
+``rte_event_timer_adapter_conf`` struct with the desired values, and pass it
+to ``rte_event_timer_adapter_create()``.
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+	#define NSECPERSEC 1E9 // No of ns in 1 sec
+	const struct rte_event_timer_adapter_config adapter_config = {
+                .event_dev_id = event_dev_id,
+                .timer_adapter_id = 0,
+                .clk_src = RTE_EVENT_TIMER_WHEEL_CPU_CLK,
+                .timer_tick_ns = NSECPERSEC / 10, // 100 milliseconds
+                .max_tmo_nsec = 180 * NSECPERSEC // 2 minutes
+                .nb_timers = 40000,
+                .timer_adapter_flags = 0,
+	};
+
+	struct rte_event_timer_adapter *adapter = NULL;
+	adapter = rte_event_timer_adapter_create(&adapter_config);
+
+	if (adapter == NULL) { ... };
+
+Before creating an instance of a timer adapter, the application should create
+and configure an event device along with its event ports. Based on the event
+device capability, it might require creating an additional event port to be
+used by the timer adapter.  If required, the
+``rte_event_timer_adapter_create()`` function will use a default method to
+configure an event port;  it will examine the current event device
+configuration, determine the next available port identifier number, and create
+a new event port with a default port configuration.
+
+If the application desires to have finer control of event port allocation
+and setup, it can use the ``rte_event_timer_adapter_create_ext()`` function.
+This function is passed a callback function that will be invoked if the
+adapter needs to create an event port, giving the application the opportunity
+to control how it is done.
+
+Retrieve Event Timer Adapter Contextual Information
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+The event timer adapter implementation may have constraints on tick resolution
+or maximum timer expiry timeout based on the given event timer adapter or
+system.  In this case, the implementation may adjust the tick resolution or
+maximum timeout to the best possible configuration.
+
+Upon successful event timer adapter creation, the application can get the
+configured resolution and max timeout with
+``rte_event_timer_adapter_get_info()``. This function will return an
+``rte_event_timer_adapter_info`` struct, which contains the following members:
+
+* ``min_resolution_ns`` - Minimum timer adapter tick resolution in ns.
+* ``max_tmo_ns`` - Maximum timer timeout(expiry) in ns.
+* ``adapter_conf`` - Configured event timer adapter attributes
+
+Configuring the Service Component
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+If the adapter uses a service component, the application is required to map
+the service to a service core before starting the adapter:
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+        uint32_t service_id;
+
+        if (rte_event_timer_adapter_service_id_get(adapter, &service_id) == 0)
+                rte_service_map_lcore_set(service_id, EVTIM_CORE_ID);
+
+An event timer adapter uses a service component if the event device PMD
+indicates that the adapter should use a software implementation.
+
+Starting the Adapter Instance
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The application should call ``rte_event_timer_adapter_start()`` to start
+running the event timer adapter. This function calls the start entry points
+defined by eventdev PMDs for hardware implementations or puts a service
+component into the running state in the software implementation.
+
+Arming Event Timers
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Once an event timer adapter has been started, an application can begin to
+manage event timers with it.
+
+The application should allocate ``struct rte_event_timer`` objects from a
+mempool or huge-page backed application buffers of required size. Upon
+successful allocation, the application should initialize the event timer, and
+then set any of the necessary event attributes described in the
+`Timer Expiry Event`_ section. In the following example, assume ``conn``
+represents a TCP connection and that ``event_timer_pool`` is a mempool that
+was created previously:
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+	rte_mempool_get(event_timer_pool, (void **)&conn->evtim);
+	if (conn->evtim == NULL) { ... }
+
+        rte_event_timer_init(&conn->evtim);
+
+	/* Set up the expiry event. */
+	conn->evtim->ev.event_ptr = conn;
+	conn->evtim->ev.queue_id = event_queue_id;
+	...
+	conn->evtim->timeout_ticks = 30; //3 sec Per RFC1122(TCP returns)
+
+Note that we have saved a pointer to the ``conn`` object in the timer's event
+payload. This will allow us to locate the connection object again once we
+dequeue the timer expiry event from the event device later.
+
+Now we can arm the event timer with ``rte_event_timer_arm_burst()``:
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+	ret = rte_event_timer_arm_burst(adapter, &conn->evtim, 1);
+	if (ret != 1) { ... }
+
+Multiple Event Timers with Same Expiry Value
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+In the special case that there is a set of event timers that should all expire
+at the same time, the application may call
+``rte_event_timer_arm_tmo_tick_burst()``, which allows the implementation to
+optimize the operation if possible.
+
+Canceling Event Timers
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+An event timer that has been armed as described in `Arming Event Timers`_ can
+be canceled by calling ``rte_event_timer_cancel_burst()``:
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+	/* Ack for the previous tcp data packet has been received;
+	 * cancel the retransmission timer
+         */
+	rte_event_timer_cancel_burst(adapter, &conn->timer, 1);
+
+Processing Timer Expiry Events
+------------------------------
+
+Once an event timer has successfully enqueued a timer expiry event in the event
+device, the application will subsequently dequeue it from the event device.
+The application can use the event payload to retrieve a pointer to the object
+associated with the event timer. It can then re-arm the event timer or free the
+event timer object as desired:
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+	void
+	event_processing_loop(...)
+	{
+		while (...) {
+			/* Receive events from the configured event port. */
+			rte_event_dequeue_burst(event_dev_id, event_port, &ev, 1, 0);
+			...
+			switch(ev.event_type) {
+				...
+				case RTE_EVENT_TYPE_TIMER:
+					process_timer_event(ev);
+					...
+					break;
+			}
+		}
+	}
+
+	uint8_t
+	process_timer_event(...)
+	{
+		/* A retransmission timeout for the connection has been received. */
+		conn = ev.event_ptr;
+		/* Retransmit last packet (e.g. TCP segment). */
+		...
+		/* Re-arm timer using original values. */
+		rte_event_timer_arm_burst(wheel_id, &conn->timer, 1);
+	}
+
+Summary
+-------
+
+The Event Timer Adapter library extends the DPDK event-based programming model
+by representing timer expirations as events in the system and allowing
+applications to use existing event processing loops to arm and cancel event
+timers or handle timer expiry events.
diff --git a/doc/guides/prog_guide/index.rst b/doc/guides/prog_guide/index.rst
index bbbe789..589c05d 100644
--- a/doc/guides/prog_guide/index.rst
+++ b/doc/guides/prog_guide/index.rst
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@  Programmer's Guide
     thread_safety_dpdk_functions
     eventdev
     event_ethernet_rx_adapter
+    event_timer_adapter
     qos_framework
     power_man
     packet_classif_access_ctrl