37. Memif Poll Mode Driver
Shared memory packet interface (memif) PMD allows for DPDK and any other client using memif (DPDK, VPP, libmemif) to communicate using shared memory. Memif is Linux only.
The created device transmits packets in a raw format. It can be used with Ethernet mode, IP mode, or Punt/Inject. At this moment, only Ethernet mode is supported in DPDK memif implementation.
Memif works in two roles: server and client. Client connects to server over an
existing socket. It is also a producer of shared memory file and initializes
the shared memory. Each interface can be connected to one peer interface
at same time. The peer interface is identified by id parameter. Server
creates the socket and listens for any client connection requests. The socket
may already exist on the system. Be sure to remove any such sockets, if you
are creating a server interface, or you will see an “Address already in use”
error. Function rte_pmd_memif_remove()
, which removes memif interface,
will also remove a listener socket, if it is not being used by any other
interface.
The method to enable one or more interfaces is to use the
--vdev=net_memif0
option on the DPDK application command line. Each
--vdev=net_memif1
option given will create an interface named net_memif0,
net_memif1, and so on. Memif uses unix domain socket to transmit control
messages. Each memif has a unique id per socket. This id is used to identify
peer interface. If you are connecting multiple
interfaces using same socket, be sure to specify unique ids id=0
, id=1
,
etc. Note that if you assign a socket to a server interface it becomes a
listener socket. Listener socket can not be used by a client interface on same
client.
Option | Description | Default | Valid value |
---|---|---|---|
id=0 | Used to identify peer interface | 0 | uint32_t |
role=server | Set memif role | client | server|client |
bsize=1024 | Size of single packet buffer | 2048 | uint16_t |
rsize=11 | Log2 of ring size. If rsize is 10, actual ring size is 1024 | 10 | 1-14 |
socket=/tmp/memif.sock | Socket filename | /tmp/memif.sock | string len 108 |
socket-abstract=no | Set usage of abstract socket address | yes | yes|no |
owner-uid=1000 | Set socket listener owner uid. Only relevant to server with socket-abstract=no | unchanged | uid_t |
owner-gid=1000 | Set socket listener owner gid. Only relevant to server with socket-abstract=no | unchanged | gid_t |
mac=01:23:45:ab:cd:ef | Mac address | 01:ab:23:cd:45:ef | |
secret=abc123 | Secret is an optional security option, which if specified, must be matched by peer | string len 24 | |
zero-copy=yes | Enable/disable zero-copy client mode. Only relevant to client, requires ‘–single-file-segments’ eal argument | no | yes|no |
Connection establishment
In order to create memif connection, two memif interfaces, each in separate
process, are needed. One interface in server
role and other in
client
role. It is not possible to connect two interfaces in a single
process. Each interface can be connected to one interface at same time,
identified by matching id parameter.
Memif driver uses unix domain socket to exchange required information between
memif interfaces. Socket file path is specified at interface creation see
Memif configuration options table above. If socket is used by server
interface, it’s marked as listener socket (in scope of current process) and
listens to connection requests from other processes. One socket can be used by
multiple interfaces. One process can have client
and server
interfaces
at the same time, provided each role is assigned unique socket.
For detailed information on memif control messages, see: net/memif/memif.h.
Client interface attempts to make a connection on assigned socket. Process
listening on this socket will extract the connection request and create a new
connected socket (control channel). Then it sends the ‘hello’ message
(MEMIF_MSG_TYPE_HELLO
), containing configuration boundaries. Client interface
adjusts its configuration accordingly, and sends ‘init’ message
(MEMIF_MSG_TYPE_INIT
). This message among others contains interface id. Driver
uses this id to find server interface, and assigns the control channel to this
interface. If such interface is found, ‘ack’ message (MEMIF_MSG_TYPE_ACK
) is
sent. Client interface sends ‘add region’ message (MEMIF_MSG_TYPE_ADD_REGION
) for
every region allocated. Server responds to each of these messages with ‘ack’
message. Same behavior applies to rings. Client sends ‘add ring’ message
(MEMIF_MSG_TYPE_ADD_RING
) for every initialized ring. Server again responds to
each message with ‘ack’ message. To finalize the connection, client interface
sends ‘connect’ message (MEMIF_MSG_TYPE_CONNECT
). Upon receiving this message
server maps regions to its address space, initializes rings and responds with
‘connected’ message (MEMIF_MSG_TYPE_CONNECTED
). Disconnect
(MEMIF_MSG_TYPE_DISCONNECT
) can be sent by both server and client interfaces at
any time, due to driver error or if the interface is being deleted.
Files
- net/memif/memif.h - control messages definitions
- net/memif/memif_socket.h
- net/memif/memif_socket.c
37.2. Zero-copy client
Zero-copy client can be enabled with memif configuration option ‘zero-copy=yes’. This option is only relevant to client and requires eal argument ‘–single-file-segments’. This limitation is in place, because it is too expensive to identify memseg for each packet buffer, resulting in worse performance than with zero-copy disabled. With single file segments we can calculate offset from the beginning of the file for each packet buffer.
Shared memory format
Region 0 is created by memif driver and contains rings. Client interface exposes DPDK memory (memseg). Instead of using memfd_create() to create new shared file, existing memsegs are used. Server interface functions the same as with zero-copy disabled.
region 0:
Rings | |
C2S rings | S2C rings |
region n:
Buffers |
memseg |
Buffers are dequeued and enqueued as needed. Offset descriptor field is calculated at tx. Only single file segments mode (EAL option –single-file-segments) is supported, as calculating offset from multiple segments is too expensive.
37.2.1. Example: testpmd
In this example we run two instances of testpmd application and transmit packets over memif.
First create server
interface:
# ./<build_dir>/app/dpdk-testpmd -l 0-1 --proc-type=primary --file-prefix=pmd1 --vdev=net_memif,role=server -- -i
Now create client
interface (server must be already running so the client will connect):
# ./<build_dir>/app/dpdk-testpmd -l 2-3 --proc-type=primary --file-prefix=pmd2 --vdev=net_memif -- -i
You can also enable zero-copy
on client
interface:
# ./<build_dir>/app/dpdk-testpmd -l 2-3 --proc-type=primary --file-prefix=pmd2 --vdev=net_memif,zero-copy=yes --single-file-segments -- -i
Start forwarding packets:
Client:
testpmd> start
Server:
testpmd> start tx_first
Show status:
testpmd> show port stats 0
For more details on testpmd please refer to Testpmd Application User Guide.
37.2.2. Example: testpmd and VPP
For information on how to get and run VPP please see https://wiki.fd.io/view/VPP.
Start VPP in interactive mode (should be by default). Create memif server interface in VPP:
vpp# create interface memif id 0 server no-zero-copy
vpp# set interface state memif0/0 up
vpp# set interface ip address memif0/0 192.168.1.1/24
To see socket filename use show memif command:
vpp# show memif
sockets
id listener filename
0 yes (1) /run/vpp/memif.sock
...
Now create memif interface by running testpmd with these command line options:
# ./dpdk-testpmd --vdev=net_memif,socket=/run/vpp/memif.sock -- -i
Testpmd should now create memif client interface and try to connect to server. In testpmd set forward option to icmpecho and start forwarding:
testpmd> set fwd icmpecho
testpmd> start
Send ping from VPP:
vpp# ping 192.168.1.2
64 bytes from 192.168.1.2: icmp_seq=2 ttl=254 time=36.2918 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.2: icmp_seq=3 ttl=254 time=23.3927 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.2: icmp_seq=4 ttl=254 time=24.2975 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.2: icmp_seq=5 ttl=254 time=17.7049 ms
37.2.3. Example: testpmd memif loopback
In this example we will create 2 memif ports connected into loopback. The situation is analogous to cross connecting 2 ports of the NIC by cable.
To set the loopback, just use the same socket and id with different roles:
# ./dpdk-testpmd --vdev=net_memif0,role=server,id=0 --vdev=net_memif1,role=client,id=0 -- -i
Then start the communication:
testpmd> start tx_first
Finally we can check port stats to see the traffic:
testpmd> show port stats all