How do I know when the dsa_loop and dsa_loop_bdinfo linux kernel modules are working?

Question

I am working on an embedded system that will connect a processor running Linux to an Ethernet switch via a "conduit" Ethernet link (e.g. eth0) using one of the port-based DSA frame tagging protocols, so that the Linux kernel will present the userspace with separate Ethernet links for each of the switch's user ports (e.g. lan1, lan2, lan3).

As I understand it this is usually done via a fixed phy-less conduit (e.g. xMII) and an MDIO link between the processor and the switch so that the processor can configure and control the physical user ports.

I want to do some software development ahead of receiving the hardware, so I want to "fake" the MDIO link, or in some other way configure the kernel, such that it uses port-based DSA frame tagging over an ordinary (PHY-equipped) Ethernet port.

The documentation of kernel modules dsa_loop and dsa_loop_bdinfo imply that these might be suitable, and the source code seems to link .netdev = "eth0" to some user ports ("lan1".."lan4") but even though I can modprobe dsa_loop into my kernel I don't see any virtual port devices created by the kernel (I am using ifconfig -a to show net devices).

~# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
dsa_loop               16384  0
dsa_core              118784  1 dsa_loop

When doing the modprobe dsa_loop I see a call to dsa_loop_init but no call to dsa_loop_drv_probe.

So I guess I have several questions:

1. Are the dsa_loop and dsa_loop_init modules intended to allow DSA tagging to be performed on a "normal" Ethernet link?

2. How are these modules intended to be used?

3. Are there any other ways of configuring Linux to do this without access to the switch MDIO?