25. IPN3KE Poll Mode Driver

The ipn3ke PMD (librte_pmd_ipn3ke) provides poll mode driver support for Intel® FPGA PAC(Programmable Acceleration Card) N3000 based on the Intel Ethernet Controller X710/XXV710 and Intel Arria 10 FPGA.

In this card, FPGA is an acceleration bridge between network interface and the Intel Ethernet Controller. Although both FPGA and Ethernet Controllers are connected to CPU with PCIe Gen3x16 Switch, all the packet RX/TX is handled by Intel Ethernet Controller. So from application point of view the data path is still the legacy Intel Ethernet Controller X710/XXV710 PMD. Besides this, users can enable more acceleration features by FPGA IP.

25.1. Prerequisites

• Identifying your adapter using Intel Support and get the latest NVM/FW images.
• 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.

25.2. Pre-Installation Configuration

25.2.1. Config File Options

The following options can be modified in the config file.

• CONFIG_RTE_LIBRTE_IPN3KE_PMD (default y)

  Toggle compilation of the librte_pmd_ipn3ke driver.

25.2.2. Runtime Config Options

• AFU name

  AFU name identifies which AFU is used by IPN3KE. The AFU name format is “Port|BDF”, Each FPGA can be divided into four blocks at most. “Port” identifies which FPGA block the AFU bitstream belongs to, but currently only 0 IPN3KE support. “BDF” means FPGA PCIe BDF. For example:

  --vdev 'ipn3ke_cfg0,afu=0|b3:00.0'
  

• FPGA Acceleration list

  For IPN3KE FPGA can provide different bitstream, different bitstream includes different Acceleration, so users need to identify which Acceleration is used. Current IPN3KE can support TM and Flow Acceleration, for example:

  --vdev 'ipn3ke_cfg0,afu=0|b3:00.0,fpga_acc={tm|flow}'
  

• I40e PF name list

  Users need to bind FPGA LineSidePort to FVL PF. So I40e PF name list should be involved in startup command. For example:

  --vdev 'ipn3ke_cfg0,afu=0|b3:00.0,fpga_acc={tm|flow},i40e_pf={0000:b1:00.0|0000:b1:00.1|0000:b1:00.2|0000:b1:00.3|0000:b5:00.0|0000:b5:00.1|0000:b5:00.2|0000:b5:00.3}'
  

25.3. Driver compilation and testing

Refer to the document compiling and testing a PMD for a NIC for details.

25.4. Sample Application Notes

25.4.1. Packet TX/RX with FPGA Pass-through image

FPGA Pass-through bitstream is original FPGA Image.

To start testpmd, and add I40e PF to FPGA network port:

./app/testpmd -l 0-15 -n 4 --vdev 'ifpga_rawdev_cfg0,ifpga=b3:00.0,port=0' --vdev 'ipn3ke_cfg0,afu=0|b3:00.0,i40e_pf={0000:b1:00.0|0000:b1:00.1|0000:b1:00.2|0000:b1:00.3|0000:b5:00.0|0000:b5:00.1|0000:b5:00.2|0000:b5:00.3}' -- -i --no-numa --port-topology=loop

25.4.2. HQoS and flow acceleration

HQoS and flow acceleration bitstream is used to offloading HQoS and flow classifier.

To start testpmd, and add I40e PF to FPGA network port, enable FPGA HQoS and Flow Acceleration:

./app/testpmd -l 0-15 -n 4 --vdev 'ifpga_rawdev_cfg0,ifpga=b3:00.0,port=0' --vdev 'ipn3ke_cfg0,afu=0|b3:00.0,fpga_acc={tm|flow},i40e_pf={0000:b1:00.0|0000:b1:00.1|0000:b1:00.2|0000:b1:00.3|0000:b5:00.0|0000:b5:00.1|0000:b5:00.2|0000:b5:00.3}' -- -i --no-numa --forward-mode=macswap

25.5. Limitations or Known issues

25.5.1. 19.05 limitation

Ipn3ke code released in 19.05 is for evaluation only.