Network Interface Controller Drivers

1. Overview of Networking Drivers
2. Features Overview
- 2.1. Speed capabilities
- 2.2. Link status
- 2.3. Link status event
- 2.4. Removal event
- 2.5. Queue status event
- 2.6. Rx interrupt
- 2.7. Lock-free Tx queue
- 2.8. Fast mbuf free
- 2.9. Free Tx mbuf on demand
- 2.10. Queue start/stop
- 2.11. MTU update
- 2.12. Jumbo frame
- 2.13. Scattered Rx
- 2.14. LRO
- 2.15. TSO
- 2.16. Promiscuous mode
- 2.17. Allmulticast mode
- 2.18. Unicast MAC filter
- 2.19. Multicast MAC filter
- 2.20. RSS hash
- 2.21. RSS key update
- 2.22. RSS reta update
- 2.23. VMDq
- 2.24. SR-IOV
- 2.25. DCB
- 2.26. VLAN filter
- 2.27. Ethertype filter
- 2.28. N-tuple filter
- 2.29. SYN filter
- 2.30. Tunnel filter
- 2.31. Flexible filter
- 2.32. Hash filter
- 2.33. Flow director
- 2.34. Flow control
- 2.35. Flow API
- 2.36. Rate limitation
- 2.37. Traffic mirroring
- 2.38. Inline crypto
- 2.39. CRC offload
- 2.40. VLAN offload
- 2.41. QinQ offload
- 2.42. L3 checksum offload
- 2.43. L4 checksum offload
- 2.44. Timestamp offload
- 2.45. MACsec offload
- 2.46. Inner L3 checksum
- 2.47. Inner L4 checksum
- 2.48. Packet type parsing
- 2.49. Timesync
- 2.50. Rx descriptor status
- 2.51. Tx descriptor status
- 2.52. Basic stats
- 2.53. Extended stats
- 2.54. Stats per queue
- 2.55. FW version
- 2.56. EEPROM dump
- 2.57. Registers dump
- 2.58. LED
- 2.59. Multiprocess aware
- 2.60. BSD nic_uio
- 2.61. Linux UIO
- 2.62. Linux VFIO
- 2.63. Other kdrv
- 2.64. ARMv7
- 2.65. ARMv8
- 2.66. Power8
- 2.67. x86-32
- 2.68. x86-64
- 2.69. Usage doc
- 2.70. Design doc
- 2.71. Perf doc
- 2.72. Other dev ops not represented by a Feature
3. Compiling and testing a PMD for a NIC
- 3.1. Driver Compilation
- 3.2. Running testpmd in Linux
4. ARK Poll Mode Driver
- 4.1. Overview
- 4.2. Device Parameters
- 4.3. Data Path Interface
- 4.4. Configuration Information
- 4.5. Building DPDK
- 4.6. Supported ARK RTL PCIe Instances
- 4.7. Supported Operating Systems
- 4.8. Supported Features
- 4.9. Unsupported Features
- 4.10. Pre-Requisites
- 4.11. Usage Example
5. AVP Poll Mode Driver
- 5.1. Features and Limitations of the AVP PMD
- 5.2. Prerequisites
- 5.3. Launching a VM with an AVP type network attachment
6. BNX2X Poll Mode Driver
- 6.1. Supported Features
- 6.2. Non-supported Features
- 6.3. Co-existence considerations
- 6.4. Supported QLogic NICs
- 6.5. Prerequisites
- 6.6. Pre-Installation Configuration
  - 6.6.1. Config File Options
- 6.7. Driver compilation and testing
- 6.8. SR-IOV: Prerequisites and sample Application Notes
7. BNXT Poll Mode Driver
- 7.1. Limitations
8. CXGBE Poll Mode Driver
- 8.1. Features
- 8.2. Limitations
- 8.3. Supported Chelsio T5 NICs
- 8.4. Supported Chelsio T6 NICs
- 8.5. Prerequisites
- 8.6. Pre-Installation Configuration
  - 8.6.1. Config File Options
- 8.7. Driver compilation and testing
- 8.8. Linux
  - 8.8.1. Linux Installation
  - 8.8.2. Running testpmd
- 8.9. FreeBSD
  - 8.9.1. FreeBSD Installation
  - 8.9.2. Running testpmd
- 8.10. Sample Application Notes
  - 8.10.1. Enable/Disable Flow Control
  - 8.10.2. Jumbo Mode
9. DPAA Poll Mode Driver
- 9.1. NXP DPAA (Data Path Acceleration Architecture - Gen 1)
  - 9.1.1. DPAA Overview
- 9.2. DPAA DPDK - Poll Mode Driver Overview
- 9.3. Supported DPAA SoCs
- 9.4. Prerequisites
- 9.5. Pre-Installation Configuration
  - 9.5.1. Config File Options
  - 9.5.2. Environment Variables
- 9.6. Driver compilation and testing
- 9.7. Limitations
10. DPAA2 Poll Mode Driver
- 10.1. NXP DPAA2 (Data Path Acceleration Architecture Gen2)
- 10.2. DPAA2 DPDK - Poll Mode Driver Overview
- 10.3. Supported DPAA2 SoCs
- 10.4. Prerequisites
- 10.5. Pre-Installation Configuration
  - 10.5.1. Config File Options
- 10.6. Driver compilation and testing
- 10.7. Limitations
11. Driver for VM Emulated Devices
- 11.1. Validated Hypervisors
- 11.2. Recommended Guest Operating System in Virtual Machine
- 11.3. Setting Up a KVM Virtual Machine
- 11.4. Known Limitations of Emulated Devices
12. ENA Poll Mode Driver
- 12.1. Overview
- 12.2. Management Interface
- 12.3. Data Path Interface
- 12.4. Configuration information
- 12.5. Building DPDK
- 12.6. Supported ENA adapters
- 12.7. Supported Operating Systems
- 12.8. Supported features
- 12.9. Unsupported features
- 12.10. Prerequisites
- 12.11. Usage example
13. ENIC Poll Mode Driver
- 13.1. How to obtain ENIC PMD integrated DPDK
- 13.2. Configuration information
- 13.3. Flow director support
- 13.4. SR-IOV mode utilization
- 13.5. Generic Flow API support
- 13.6. Limitations
- 13.7. How to build the suite
- 13.8. Supported Cisco VIC adapters
- 13.9. Supported Operating Systems
- 13.10. Supported features
- 13.11. Known bugs and unsupported features in this release
- 13.12. Prerequisites
- 13.13. Additional Reference
- 13.14. Contact Information
14. FM10K Poll Mode Driver
- 14.1. FTAG Based Forwarding of FM10K
- 14.2. Vector PMD for FM10K
  - 14.2.1. RX Constraints
  - 14.2.2. TX Constraint
- 14.3. Limitations
15. I40E Poll Mode Driver
- 15.1. Features
- 15.2. Prerequisites
- 15.3. Pre-Installation Configuration
  - 15.3.1. Config File Options
  - 15.3.2. Runtime Config Options
- 15.4. Driver compilation and testing
- 15.5. SR-IOV: Prerequisites and sample Application Notes
- 15.6. Sample Application Notes
- 15.7. Limitations or Known issues
- 15.8. High Performance of Small Packets on 40G NIC
  - 15.8.1. Use 16 Bytes RX Descriptor Size
  - 15.8.2. High Performance and per Packet Latency Tradeoff
- 15.9. Example of getting best performance with l3fwd example
16. IGB Poll Mode Driver
- 16.1. Features
- 16.2. Limitations or Known issues
- 16.3. Supported Chipsets and NICs
17. IXGBE Driver
- 17.1. Vector PMD for IXGBE
  - 17.1.1. RX Constraints
  - 17.1.2. TX Constraint
- 17.2. Application Programming Interface
- 17.3. Sample Application Notes
  - 17.3.1. l3fwd
  - 17.3.2. load_balancer
- 17.4. Limitations or Known issues
- 17.5. Inline crypto processing support
- 17.6. Supported Chipsets and NICs
18. Intel Virtual Function Driver
- 18.1. SR-IOV Mode Utilization in a DPDK Environment
- 18.2. Setting Up a KVM Virtual Machine Monitor
- 18.3. DPDK SR-IOV PMD PF/VF Driver Usage Model
  - 18.3.1. Fast Host-based Packet Processing
- 18.4. SR-IOV (PF/VF) Approach for Inter-VM Communication
19. KNI Poll Mode Driver
- 19.1. Usage
- 19.2. Default interface configuration
- 19.3. PMD arguments
- 19.4. PMD log messages
- 19.5. PMD testing
20. LiquidIO VF Poll Mode Driver
- 20.1. Supported LiquidIO Adapters
- 20.2. Pre-Installation Configuration
- 20.3. SR-IOV: Prerequisites and Sample Application Notes
- 20.4. Limitations
21. MLX4 poll mode driver library
- 21.1. Implementation details
- 21.2. Configuration
- 21.3. Prerequisites
  - 21.3.1. Current RDMA core package and Linux kernel (recommended)
  - 21.3.2. Mellanox OFED as a fallback
- 21.4. Supported NICs
- 21.5. Quick Start Guide
- 21.6. Performance tuning
- 21.7. Usage example
22. MLX5 poll mode driver
- 22.1. Implementation details
- 22.2. Features
- 22.3. Limitations
- 22.4. Statistics
- 22.5. Configuration
- 22.6. Prerequisites
  - 22.6.1. Installation
- 22.7. Supported NICs
- 22.8. Quick Start Guide on OFED
- 22.9. Performance tuning
- 22.10. Notes for testpmd
- 22.11. Usage example
23. MRVL Poll Mode Driver
- 23.1. Features
- 23.2. Limitations
- 23.3. Prerequisites
- 23.4. Config File Options
- 23.5. QoS Configuration
  - 23.5.1. Configuration syntax
- 23.6. Building DPDK
- 23.7. Usage Example
24. NFP poll mode driver library
- 24.1. Dependencies
- 24.2. Building the software
- 24.3. Driver compilation and testing
- 24.4. Using the PF
- 24.5. PF multiport support
- 24.6. System configuration
25. OCTEONTX Poll Mode driver
- 25.1. Features
- 25.2. Supported OCTEONTX SoCs
- 25.3. Unsupported features
- 25.4. Prerequisites
- 25.5. Pre-Installation Configuration
  - 25.5.1. Config File Options
  - 25.5.2. Driver compilation and testing
- 25.6. Initialization
  - 25.6.1. Device arguments
  - 25.6.2. Dependency
- 25.7. Limitations
26. QEDE Poll Mode Driver
- 26.1. Supported Features
- 26.2. Non-supported Features
- 26.3. Co-existence considerations
- 26.4. Supported QLogic Adapters
- 26.5. Prerequisites
  - 26.5.1. Performance note
  - 26.5.2. Config File Options
- 26.6. Driver compilation and testing
- 26.7. SR-IOV: Prerequisites and Sample Application Notes
27. Solarflare libefx-based Poll Mode Driver
- 27.1. Features
- 27.2. Non-supported Features
- 27.3. Limitations
- 27.4. Tunnels support
- 27.5. Flow API support
  - 27.5.1. Ethernet destinaton individual/group match
- 27.6. Supported NICs
- 27.7. Prerequisites
- 27.8. Pre-Installation Configuration
  - 27.8.1. Config File Options
  - 27.8.2. Per-Device Parameters
28. SZEDATA2 poll mode driver library
- 28.1. Prerequisites
- 28.2. Configuration
- 28.3. Using the SZEDATA2 PMD
- 28.4. Example of usage
29. Tap Poll Mode Driver
- 29.1. Flow API support
  - 29.1.1. Examples of testpmd flow rules
- 29.2. Example
- 29.3. RSS specifics
- 29.4. Systems supporting flow API
30. ThunderX NICVF Poll Mode Driver
- 30.1. Features
- 30.2. Supported ThunderX SoCs
- 30.3. Prerequisites
- 30.4. Pre-Installation Configuration
  - 30.4.1. Config File Options
- 30.5. Driver compilation and testing
- 30.6. Linux
- 30.7. Limitations
31. VDEV_NETVSC driver
- 31.1. Implementation details
- 31.2. Build options
- 31.3. Run-time parameters
32. Poll Mode Driver for Emulated Virtio NIC
- 32.1. Virtio Implementation in DPDK
- 32.2. Features and Limitations of virtio PMD
- 32.3. Prerequisites
- 32.4. Virtio with kni vhost Back End
- 32.5. Virtio with qemu virtio Back End
- 32.6. Virtio PMD Rx/Tx Callbacks
- 32.7. Interrupt mode
  - 32.7.1. Prerequisites for Rx interrupts
  - 32.7.2. Example
33. Poll Mode Driver that wraps vhost library
- 33.1. Vhost Implementation in DPDK
- 33.2. Features and Limitations of vhost PMD
- 33.3. Vhost PMD arguments
- 33.4. Vhost PMD event handling
- 33.5. Vhost PMD with testpmd application
34. Poll Mode Driver for Paravirtual VMXNET3 NIC
- 34.1. VMXNET3 Implementation in the DPDK
- 34.2. Features and Limitations of VMXNET3 PMD
- 34.3. Prerequisites
- 34.4. VMXNET3 with a Native NIC Connected to a vSwitch
- 34.5. VMXNET3 Chaining VMs Connected to a vSwitch
35. Libpcap and Ring Based Poll Mode Drivers
- 35.1. Using the Drivers from the EAL Command Line
36. Fail-safe poll mode driver library
- 36.1. Features
- 36.2. Compilation option
- 36.3. Using the Fail-safe PMD from the EAL command line
  - 36.3.1. Fail-safe command line parameters
  - 36.3.2. Usage example
- 36.4. Using the Fail-safe PMD from an application
- 36.5. Plug-in feature
- 36.6. Plug-out feature
- 36.7. Fail-safe glossary

Figures

Fig. 18.4 Virtualization for a Single Port NIC in SR-IOV Mode

Fig. 18.5 Performance Benchmark Setup

Fig. 18.6 Fast Host-based Packet Processing

Fig. 18.7 Inter-VM Communication

Fig. 32.1 Host2VM Communication Example Using kni vhost Back End

Fig. 32.3 Host2VM Communication Example Using qemu vhost Back End

Fig. 34.2 Assigning a VMXNET3 interface to a VM using VMware vSphere Client

Fig. 34.3 VMXNET3 with a Native NIC Connected to a vSwitch

Fig. 34.4 VMXNET3 Chaining VMs Connected to a vSwitch