19. L2 Forwarding MACsec Sample Application

The L2 forwarding MACsec application is a simple example of packet processing using the Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK) which encrypt/decrypt packets based on rte_security MACsec sessions.

19.1. Overview

The L2 forwarding MACsec application performs L2 forwarding for each packet that is received on an Rx port after encrypting/decrypting the packets based on rte_security sessions using inline protocol mode.

The destination port is the adjacent port from the enabled portmask, that is, if the first four ports are enabled (portmask 0xf), ports 1 and 2 forward into each other, and ports 3 and 4 forward into each other.

This application can be used to benchmark performance using a traffic-generator.

19.2. Compiling the Application

To compile the sample application see Compiling the Sample Applications.

The application is located in the l2fwd-macsec sub-directory.

19.3. Running the Application

The application requires a number of command line options:

./<build_dir>/examples/dpdk-l2fwd-macsec [EAL options] -- -p PORTMASK
    [-q NQ]
    --mcs-tx-portmask OUTBOUND_PORTMASK
    --mcs-rx-portmask INBOUND_PORTMASK
    --mcs-port-config '(port,src_mac,dst_mac)[,(port,src_mac,dst_mac)]'
    [--portmap="(port, port)[,(port, port)]"]
    [-T STAT_INTERVAL]

where,

p PORTMASK: Hexadecimal bitmask of the ports to configure.
q NQ: Number of queues (=ports) per lcore (default is 1).
T STAT_INTERVAL: Time interval in seconds for refreshing the stats (default is 1 sec). Value 0 disables stats display.
--mcs-tx-portmask OUTBOUND_PORTMASK: Hexadecimal bitmask of the ports to configure encryption flows.
--mcs-rx-portmask INBOUND_PORTMASK: Hexadecimal bitmask of the ports to configure decryption flows.
--mcs-port-config '(port,src_mac,dst_mac)[,(port,src_mac,dst_mac)]': Source and destination MAC addresses of incoming packets on a port for which MACsec processing is to be done.
--portmap="(port,port)[,(port,port)]": Forwarding ports mapping.

To run the application in Linux environment with 4 lcores, 4 ports with 2 ports for outbound and 2 ports for outbound, issue the command:

$ ./<build_dir>/examples/dpdk-l2fwd-macsec -a 0002:04:00.0 -a 0002:05:00.0 \
    -a 0002:06:00.0 -a 0002:07:00.0 -c 0x1E -- -p 0xf                      \
    --mcs-tx-portmask 0x5 --mcs-rx-portmask 0xA                            \
    --mcs-port-config '(0,02:03:04:05:06:07,01:02:03:04:05:06),            \
    (1,02:03:04:05:06:17,01:02:03:04:05:16),                               \
    (2,02:03:04:05:06:27,01:02:03:04:05:26),                               \
    (3,02:03:04:05:06:37,01:02:03:04:05:36)' -T 10

To run the application in Linux environment with 4 lcores, 4 ports, to forward Rx traffic of ports 0 & 1 on ports 2 & 3 respectively and vice versa, issue the command:

$ ./<build_dir>/examples/dpdk-l2fwd-macsec -a 0002:04:00.0 -a 0002:05:00.0 \
    -a 0002:06:00.0 -a 0002:07:00.0 -c 0x1E -- -p 0xf                      \
    --mcs-tx-portmask 0x5 --mcs-rx-portmask 0xA                            \
    --mcs-port-config="(0,02:03:04:05:06:07,01:02:03:04:05:06),            \
    (1,02:03:04:05:06:17,01:02:03:04:05:16),                               \
    (2,02:03:04:05:06:27,01:02:03:04:05:26),                               \
    (3,02:03:04:05:06:37,01:02:03:04:05:36)" -T 10                         \
    --portmap="(0,2)(1,3)"

Refer to the DPDK Getting Started Guide for general information on running applications and the Environment Abstraction Layer (EAL) options.