---
name: "fwe"
section: "4"
platform: "linux"
package: "freebsd-manpages"
version: "6.0-5"
release: "Debian 4.0 (Etch)"
platforms: ["linux", "freebsd"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/fwe"
---

# fwe(4)

Ethernet emulation driver for FireWire

## NAME

**fwe** – Ethernet emulation driver for FireWire

## SYNOPSIS

To compile support for the

**fwe** driver into your kernel, place the following lines in your kernel configuration file:

**device firewire** **device fwe**

Alternatively, to load the

**fwe** driver at boot time, place the following line in [loader.conf(5)](/loader.conf/5.md):

```
if_fwe_load="YES"
```

## DESCRIPTION

The **fwe** driver provides non-standard Ethernet emulation over FireWire (IEEE 1394).

[firewire(4)](/firewire/4.md) and [fwohci(4)](/fwohci/4.md) must be configured in the kernel as well.

This driver exploits asynchronous stream over IEEE 1394 to carry Ethernet frames. The stream channel can be specified by the *hw.firewire.fwe.stream\_ch* [sysctl(8)](/sysctl/8.md).

This driver supports [polling(4)](/polling/4.md) as well if it is compiled with the DEVICE\_POLLING option.

## SEE ALSO

[arp(4)](/arp/4.md), [firewire(4)](/firewire/4.md), [fwip(4)](/fwip/4.md), [fwohci(4)](/fwohci/4.md), [netintro(4)](/netintro/4.md), [ng\_ether(4)](/ng_ether/4.md), [polling(4)](/polling/4.md), [ifconfig(8)](/ifconfig/8.md), [kldload(8)](/kldload/8.md), [sysctl(8)](/sysctl/8.md)

## HISTORY

The **fwe** device driver first appeared in FreeBSD 5.0.

## AUTHORS

The **fwe** driver and this manual page were written by Hidetoshi Shimokawa.

## BUGS

This driver emulates Ethernet in a very adhoc way and it does not reserve a stream channel using an isochronous manager. Note that this driver uses a protocol which is very different from RFC 2734 (IPv4 over IEEE 1394).