8. Cryptodev Scheduler Poll Mode Driver Library

Scheduler PMD is a software crypto PMD, which has the capabilities of attaching hardware and/or software cryptodevs, and distributes ingress crypto ops among them in a certain manner.

Fig. 8.1 Cryptodev Scheduler Overview

The Cryptodev Scheduler PMD library (librte_pmd_crypto_scheduler) acts as a software crypto PMD and shares the same API provided by librte_cryptodev. The PMD supports attaching multiple crypto PMDs, software or hardware, as slaves, and distributes the crypto workload to them with certain behavior. The behaviors are categorizes as different “modes”. Basically, a scheduling mode defines certain actions for scheduling crypto ops to its slaves.

The librte_pmd_crypto_scheduler library exports a C API which provides an API for attaching/detaching slaves, set/get scheduling modes, and enable/disable crypto ops reordering.

8.1. Limitations

  • Sessionless crypto operation is not supported
  • OOP crypto operation is not supported when the crypto op reordering feature is enabled.

8.2. Installation

To build DPDK with CRYTPO_SCHEDULER_PMD the user is required to set CONFIG_RTE_LIBRTE_PMD_CRYPTO_SCHEDULER=y in config/common_base, and recompile DPDK

8.3. Initialization

To use the PMD in an application, user must:

  • Call rte_eal_vdev_init(“crpyto_scheduler”) within the application.
  • Use –vdev=”crpyto_scheduler” in the EAL options, which will call rte_eal_vdev_init() internally.

The following parameters (all optional) can be provided in the previous two calls:

  • socket_id: Specify the socket where the memory for the device is going to be allocated (by default, socket_id will be the socket where the core that is creating the PMD is running on).
  • max_nb_sessions: Specify the maximum number of sessions that can be created. This value may be overwritten internally if there are too many devices are attached.
  • slave: If a cryptodev has been initialized with specific name, it can be attached to the scheduler using this parameter, simply filling the name here. Multiple cryptodevs can be attached initially by presenting this parameter multiple times.

Example:

... --vdev "crypto_aesni_mb_pmd,name=aesni_mb_1" --vdev "crypto_aesni_mb_pmd,name=aesni_mb_2" --vdev "crypto_scheduler_pmd,slave=aesni_mb_1,slave=aesni_mb_2" ...

Note

  • The scheduler cryptodev cannot be started unless the scheduling mode is set and at least one slave is attached. Also, to configure the scheduler in the run-time, like attach/detach slave(s), change scheduling mode, or enable/disable crypto op ordering, one should stop the scheduler first, otherwise an error will be returned.
  • The crypto op reordering feature requires using the userdata field of every mbuf to be processed to store temporary data. By the end of processing, the field is set to pointing to NULL, any previously stored value of this field will be lost.

8.4. Cryptodev Scheduler Modes Overview

Currently the Crypto Scheduler PMD library supports following modes of operation:

  • CDEV_SCHED_MODE_ROUNDROBIN:
Round-robin mode, which distributes the enqueued burst of crypto ops among its slaves in a round-robin manner. This mode may help to fill the throughput gap between the physical core and the existing cryptodevs to increase the overall performance.