28. ICE Poll Mode Driver
The ice PMD (librte_net_ice) provides poll mode driver support for 10/25/50/100 Gbps Intel® Ethernet 800 Series Network Adapters based on the Intel Ethernet Controller E810 and Intel Ethernet Connection E822/E823.
28.1. Linux Prerequisites
- Follow the DPDK Getting Started Guide for Linux to setup the basic DPDK environment.
- To get better performance on Intel platforms, please follow the “How to get best performance with NICs on Intel platforms” section of the Getting Started Guide for Linux.
- Please follow the matching list to download specific kernel driver, firmware and DDP package from https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/search.html?ws=text#q=e810&t=Downloads&layout=table.
- To understand what is DDP package and how it works, please review Intel® Ethernet Controller E810 Dynamic Device Personalization (DDP) for Telecommunications Technology Guide.
- To understand DDP for COMMs usage with DPDK, please review Intel® Ethernet 800 Series Telecommunication (Comms) Dynamic Device Personalization (DDP) Package.
28.2. Windows Prerequisites
- Follow the guide for Windows to setup the basic DPDK environment.
- Identify the Intel® Ethernet adapter and get the latest NVM/FW version.
- To access any Intel® Ethernet hardware, load the NetUIO driver in place of existing built-in (inbox) driver.
- To load NetUIO driver, follow the steps mentioned in dpdk-kmods repository.
- Loading of private Dynamic Device Personalization (DDP) package is not supported on Windows.
28.3. Recommended Matching List
It is highly recommended to upgrade the ice kernel driver, firmware and DDP package to avoid the compatibility issues with ice PMD. Here is the suggested matching list which has been tested and verified. The detailed information can refer to chapter Tested Platforms/Tested NICs in release notes.
DPDK Kernel Driver OS Default DDP COMMS DDP Wireless DDP Firmware 20.11 1.3.2 1.3.20 1.3.24 N/A 2.3 21.02 1.4.11 1.3.24 1.3.28 1.3.4 2.4 21.05 1.6.5 1.3.26 1.3.30 1.3.6 3.0 21.08 1.7.16 1.3.27 1.3.31 1.3.7 3.1 21.11 1.7.16 1.3.27 1.3.31 1.3.7 3.1 22.03 1.8.3 1.3.28 1.3.35 1.3.8 3.2 22.07 1.9.11 1.3.30 1.3.37 1.3.10 4.0 22.11 1.10.1 1.3.30 1.3.37 1.3.10 4.1 23.03 1.11.1 1.3.30 1.3.40 1.3.10 4.2
28.4. Configuration
28.4.1. Runtime Configuration
Safe Mode Support
(default0
)If driver failed to load OS package, by default driver’s initialization failed. But if user intend to use the device without OS package, user can take
devargs
parametersafe-mode-support
, for example:-a 80:00.0,safe-mode-support=1
Then the driver will be initialized successfully and the device will enter Safe Mode. NOTE: In Safe mode, only very limited features are available, features like RSS, checksum, fdir, tunneling … are all disabled.
Generic Flow Pipeline Mode Support
(default0
)In pipeline mode, a flow can be set at one specific stage by setting parameter
priority
. Currently, we support two stages: priority = 0 or !0. Flows with priority 0 located at the first pipeline stage which typically be used as a firewall to drop the packet on a blocklist(we called it permission stage). At this stage, flow rules are created for the device’s exact match engine: switch. Flows with priority !0 located at the second stage, typically packets are classified here and be steered to specific queue or queue group (we called it distribution stage), At this stage, flow rules are created for device’s flow director engine. For none-pipeline mode,priority
is ignored, a flow rule can be created as a flow director rule or a switch rule depends on its pattern/action and the resource allocation situation, all flows are virtually at the same pipeline stage. By default, generic flow API is enabled in none-pipeline mode, user can choose to use pipeline mode by settingdevargs
parameterpipeline-mode-support
, for example:-a 80:00.0,pipeline-mode-support=1
Default MAC Disable
(default0
)Disable the default MAC make the device drop all packets by default, only packets hit on filter rules will pass.
Default MAC can be disabled by setting the devargs parameter
default-mac-disable
, for example:-a 80:00.0,default-mac-disable=1
Protocol extraction for per queue
Configure the RX queues to do protocol extraction into mbuf for protocol handling acceleration, like checking the TCP SYN packets quickly.
The argument format is:
18:00.0,proto_xtr=<queues:protocol>[<queues:protocol>...],field_offs=<offset>, \ field_name=<name> 18:00.0,proto_xtr=<protocol>,field_offs=<offset>,field_name=<name>
Queues are grouped by
(
and)
within the group. The-
character is used as a range separator and,
is used as a single number separator. The grouping()
can be omitted for single element group. If no queues are specified, PMD will use this protocol extraction type for all queues.field_offs
is the offset of mbuf dynamic field for protocol extraction data.field_name
is the name of mbuf dynamic field for protocol extraction data.field_offs
andfield_name
will be checked whether it is valid. If invalid, an error print will be returned:Invalid field offset or name, no match dynfield
, and the proto_ext function will not be enabled.Protocol is :
vlan, ipv4, ipv6, ipv6_flow, tcp, ip_offset
.dpdk-testpmd -c 0xff -- -i port stop 0 port detach 0 port attach 18:00.0,proto_xtr='[(1,2-3,8-9):tcp,10-13:vlan]',field_offs=92,field_name=pmd_dyn
This setting means queues 1, 2-3, 8-9 are TCP extraction, queues 10-13 are VLAN extraction, other queues run with no protocol extraction. The offset of mbuf dynamic field is 92 for all queues with protocol extraction.
dpdk-testpmd -c 0xff -- -i port stop 0 port detach 0 port attach 18:00.0,proto_xtr=vlan,proto_xtr='[(1,2-3,8-9):tcp,10-23:ipv6]', \ field_offs=92,field_name=pmd_dyn
This setting means queues 1, 2-3, 8-9 are TCP extraction, queues 10-23 are IPv6 extraction, other queues use the default VLAN extraction. The offset of mbuf dynamic field is 92 for all queues with protocol extraction.
The extraction metadata is copied into the registered dynamic mbuf field, and the related dynamic mbuf flags is set.
Table 28.4 Protocol extraction : vlan
VLAN2 VLAN1 PCP D VID PCP D VID VLAN1 - single or EVLAN (first for QinQ).
VLAN2 - C-VLAN (second for QinQ).
Table 28.5 Protocol extraction : ipv4
IPHDR2 IPHDR1 Ver Hdr Len ToS TTL Protocol IPHDR1 - IPv4 header word 4, “TTL” and “Protocol” fields.
IPHDR2 - IPv4 header word 0, “Ver”, “Hdr Len” and “Type of Service” fields.
Table 28.6 Protocol extraction : ipv6
IPHDR2 IPHDR1 Ver Traffic class Flow Next Header Hop Limit IPHDR1 - IPv6 header word 3, “Next Header” and “Hop Limit” fields.
IPHDR2 - IPv6 header word 0, “Ver”, “Traffic class” and high 4 bits of “Flow Label” fields.
Table 28.7 Protocol extraction : ipv6_flow
IPHDR2 IPHDR1 Ver Traffic class Flow Label IPHDR1 - IPv6 header word 1, 16 low bits of the “Flow Label” field.
IPHDR2 - IPv6 header word 0, “Ver”, “Traffic class” and high 4 bits of “Flow Label” fields.
Table 28.8 Protocol extraction : tcp
TCPHDR2 TCPHDR1 Reserved Offset RSV Flags TCPHDR1 - TCP header word 6, “Data Offset” and “Flags” fields.
TCPHDR2 - Reserved
Table 28.9 Protocol extraction : ip_offset
IPHDR2 IPHDR1 IPv6 HDR Offset IPv4 HDR Offset IPHDR1 - Outer/Single IPv4 Header offset.
IPHDR2 - Outer/Single IPv6 Header offset.
Hardware debug mask log support
(default0
)User can enable the related hardware debug mask such as ICE_DBG_NVM:
-a 0000:88:00.0,hw_debug_mask=0x80 --log-level=pmd.net.ice.driver:8
These ICE_DBG_XXX are defined in
drivers/net/ice/base/ice_type.h
.1PPS out support
The E810 supports four single-ended GPIO signals (SDP[20:23]). The 1PPS signal outputs via SDP[20:23]. User can select GPIO pin index flexibly. Pin index 0 means SDP20, 1 means SDP21 and so on. For example:
-a af:00.0,pps_out='[pin:0]'
Low Rx latency
(default0
)vRAN workloads require low latency DPDK interface for the front haul interface connection to Radio. By specifying
1
for parameterrx_low_latency
, each completed Rx descriptor can be written immediately to host memory and the Rx interrupt latency can be reduced to 2us:-a 0000:88:00.0,rx_low_latency=1
As a trade-off, this configuration may cause the packet processing performance degradation due to the PCI bandwidth limitation.
28.5. Driver compilation and testing
Refer to the document compiling and testing a PMD for a NIC for details.
28.6. Features
28.6.1. Vector PMD
Vector PMD for RX and TX path are selected automatically. The paths are chosen based on 2 conditions.
CPU
On the X86 platform, the driver checks if the CPU supports AVX2. If it’s supported, AVX2 paths will be chosen. If not, SSE is chosen. If the CPU supports AVX512 and EAL argument--force-max-simd-bitwidth
is set to 512, AVX512 paths will be chosen.Offload features
The supported HW offload features are described in the document ice.ini, A value “P” means the offload feature is not supported by vector path. If any not supported features are used, ICE vector PMD is disabled and the normal paths are chosen.
28.6.2. Malicious driver detection (MDD)
It’s not appropriate to send a packet, if this packet’s destination MAC address is just this port’s MAC address. If SW tries to send such packets, HW will report a MDD event and drop the packets.
The APPs based on DPDK should avoid providing such packets.
28.6.3. Device Config Function (DCF)
This section demonstrates ICE DCF PMD, which shares the core module with ICE PMD and iAVF PMD.
A DCF (Device Config Function) PMD bounds to the device’s trusted VF with ID 0, it can act as a sole controlling entity to exercise advance functionality (such as switch, ACL) for the rest VFs.
The DCF PMD needs to advertise and acquire DCF capability which allows DCF to send AdminQ commands that it would like to execute over to the PF and receive responses for the same from PF.
28.6.3.1. Additional Options
Disable ACL Engine
(defaultenabled
)By default, all flow engines are enabled. But if user does not need the ACL engine related functions, user can set
devargs
parameteracl=off
to disable the ACL engine and shorten the startup time.-a 18:01.0,cap=dcf,acl=off
Fig. 28.2 DCF Communication flow.
Create the VFs:
echo 4 > /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000\:18\:00.0/sriov_numvfs
Enable the VF0 trust on:
ip link set dev enp24s0f0 vf 0 trust on
Bind the VF0, and run testpmd with ‘cap=dcf’ with port representor for VF 1 and 2:
dpdk-testpmd -l 22-25 -n 4 -a 18:01.0,cap=dcf,representor=vf[1-2] -- -i
Monitor the VF2 interface network traffic:
tcpdump -e -nn -i enp24s1f2
Create one flow to redirect the traffic to VF2 by DCF (assume the representor port ID is 5):
flow create 0 priority 0 ingress pattern eth / ipv4 src is 192.168.0.2 \ dst is 192.168.0.3 / end actions represented_port ethdev_port_id 5 / end
Send the packet, and it should be displayed on tcpdump:
sendp(Ether(src='3c:fd:fe:aa:bb:78', dst='00:00:00:01:02:03')/IP(src=' \ 192.168.0.2', dst="192.168.0.3")/TCP(flags='S')/Raw(load='XXXXXXXXXX'), \ iface="enp24s0f0", count=10)
28.7. Sample Application Notes
28.7.1. Vlan filter
Vlan filter only works when Promiscuous mode is off.
To start testpmd
, and add vlan 10 to port 0:
./app/dpdk-testpmd -l 0-15 -n 4 -- -i
...
testpmd> rx_vlan add 10 0
28.8. Limitations or Known issues
The Intel E810 requires a programmable pipeline package be downloaded by the driver to support normal operations. The E810 has a limited functionality built in to allow PXE boot and other use cases, but the driver must download a package file during the driver initialization stage.
The default DDP package file name is ice.pkg. For a specific NIC, the
DDP package supposed to be loaded can have a filename: ice-xxxxxx.pkg,
where ‘xxxxxx’ is the 64-bit PCIe Device Serial Number of the NIC. For
example, if the NIC’s device serial number is 00-CC-BB-FF-FF-AA-05-68,
the device-specific DDP package filename is ice-00ccbbffffaa0568.pkg
(in hex and all low case). During initialization, the driver searches
in the following paths in order: /lib/firmware/updates/intel/ice/ddp
and /lib/firmware/intel/ice/ddp. The corresponding device-specific DDP
package will be downloaded first if the file exists. If not, then the
driver tries to load the default package. The type of loaded package
is stored in ice_adapter->active_pkg_type
.
A symbolic link to the DDP package file is also ok. The same package file is used by both the kernel driver and the DPDK PMD.
Note
Windows support: The DDP package is not supported on Windows so, loading of the package is disabled on Windows.