Data Plane Development Kit

<h2 id="overview">Overview</h2>
The DPDK framework creates a set of libraries for specific hardware/software environments through the creation of an Environment Abstraction Layer (EAL).<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6">6</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7">7</a> The EAL hides the environment specifics and provides a standard programming interface to libraries, available hardware accelerators and other hardware and operating system (Linux, FreeBSD) elements. Once the EAL is created for a specific environment, developers link to the library to create their applications. For instance, EAL provides the frameworks to support <a href="/facts/Linux/9FvCKSTq">Linux</a>, <a href="/facts/FreeBSD/RKsFTm7F">FreeBSD</a>, Intel IA-<a href="/facts/X86/Kypq5fgu">32</a> or <a href="/facts/X86-64/cyWvUFlP">64-bit</a>, IBM <a href="/facts/POWER9/1xMKJHsX">POWER9</a> and <a href="/facts/ARM_architecture/SALsYA79">ARM</a> 32- or 64-bit.
The EAL also provides additional services including time references, generic <a href="/facts/Bus_(computing)/R45TKwS7">bus</a> access, trace and debug functions and alarm operations.
Using DPDK libraries one can implement a low overhead <a href="/facts/Run-to-completion/WPSGTLRt">run-to-completion</a>, pipeline or staged, event driven, or hybrid model completely in userspace eliminating kernel and kernel to user copy. Hardware assists from NIC/Regex/Accelerators, libraries enhanced to make use of Intelligence Storage Acceleration (ISA)<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8">8</a> for bulk performance and accessing devices via <a href="/facts/Polling_(computer_science)/WVa88JIg">polling</a> helps to eliminate the performance overhead of <a href="/facts/Interrupt/Mm6C4rpc">interrupt</a> too. Hugepages are used for large memory pool allocation, to decrease the amount of lookups and page management.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9">9</a>
The DPDK also includes software examples that highlight best practices for software architecture, tips for data structure design and storage, application profiling and performance tuning utilities and tips that address common network performance deficits.

<h2 id="libraries">Libraries</h2>
The DPDK includes data plane libraries and optimized <a href="/facts/Network_interface_controller/wyf5FR29">network interface controller</a> (NIC) drivers for the following:<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10">10</a>

<ul><li>A queue manager implements lockless queues</li>
<li>A buffer manager pre-allocates fixed size buffers</li>
<li>A memory manager allocates pools of objects in memory and uses a ring to store free objects; ensures that objects are spread equally on all <a href="/facts/Dynamic_random-access_memory/koI9FGo5">DRAM</a> channels</li>
<li>Poll mode drivers (PMD) are designed to work without asynchronous notifications, reducing overhead</li>
<li>A packet framework – a set of libraries that are helpers to develop packet processing</li></ul>
All libraries are stored in the dpdk/lib/librte_* directories

<h3>Plugins</h3>
The DPDK includes drivers for many hardware types.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:11" href="#fn:11">11</a> There have been some additional out-of-tree plugin drivers in the past, which are now considered deprecated.

<ul><li>librte_pmd_vmxnet3.so – provides PMD <a href="/facts/Ethernet/nMfhU8tU">Ethernet</a> layer supporting Vmxnet3 paravirtualized NIC; superseded by full VMXNET3 support in native DPDK.</li>
<li>librte_pmd_memnic_copy.so – provides a Virtual PMD Ethernet layer through shared memory based on 2 memory copies of packets</li></ul>
<h2 id="environment">Environment</h2>
The DPDK was originally designed to run using a <a href="/facts/Bare_machine/Dw9WCYhk">bare-metal</a> mode which is currently deprecated. DPDK's EAL provides support for Linux or FreeBSD <a href="/facts/User_space/0yIzMY8t">userland application</a>.
EAL can be extended in order to support any processors.

<h2 id="ecosystem">Ecosystem</h2>
DPDK is now an open-source project under the <a href="/facts/Linux_Foundation/5wbe2Vp0">Linux Foundation</a>, supported by many companies. DPDK is governed by a Governing Board. The technical activities are overseen by a Technical Board.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:12" href="#fn:12">12</a> Beside <a href="/facts/Intel/SMF0gJJX">Intel</a>, which is a contributor to the DPDK, several other vendors also support the DPDK within their products and some offer additional training, support and professional services. The list of vendors who have announced DPDK support includes: <a href="/facts/6WIND/xvj1m8NC">6WIND</a>,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:13" href="#fn:13">13</a> <a href="/facts/ALTEN/vXR6uGxU">ALTEN</a> Calsoft Labs,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:14" href="#fn:14">14</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:15" href="#fn:15">15</a> Advantech,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:16" href="#fn:16">16</a> Brocade,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:17" href="#fn:17">17</a> Big Switch Networks, <a href="/facts/Mellanox_Technologies/FcpB6kPy">Mellanox Technologies</a>,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:18" href="#fn:18">18</a> <a href="/facts/Radisys/55fXA93b">Radisys</a>,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:19" href="#fn:19">19</a> Tieto,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:20" href="#fn:20">20</a> <a href="/facts/Wind_River_Systems/7unqIjwq">Wind River</a>,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:21" href="#fn:21">21</a> <a href="/facts/Lanner_Inc./bH6IES2a">Lanner Inc.</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:22" href="#fn:22">22</a> and <a href="/facts/NXP/naAqdtWq">NXP</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:23" href="#fn:23">23</a>

<h2 id="projects">Projects</h2>
The <a href="/facts/PfSense/mNDfgUbA">pfSense</a> project published a road map on 25 February 2015, in which developer Jim Thompson announced the rewriting of the pfSense core—including <a href="/facts/PF_(firewall)/pc1fgj4Y">pf</a>, <a href="/facts/Network_packet/xCYf8SJu">network packet</a> forwarding and shaping, <a href="/facts/Link_bonding/3BE3qHDT">link bonding</a>, <a href="/facts/IPsec/01MwcET1">IPsec</a>—using DPDK: "We have a goal of being able to forward, with packet filtering at rates of at least 14.88 Mpps. This is 'line rate' on a 10 Gbps interface. There is simply no way to use today's FreeBSD (or Linux) in-kernel stacks for this type of load."<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:24" href="#fn:24">24</a>
<a href="/facts/Open_vSwitch/Fn96opbv">Open vSwitch</a> (OVS) has a limited set of features running userland that can be leveraged to bypass the Linux kernel OVS processing. This use case of OVS with DPDK userland is usually named OVS-DPDK. It is mostly deployed with <a href="/facts/OpenStack/bAfb8KVQ">OpenStack</a> Neutron but it assumes that many features and <a href="/facts/Software-defined_networking/MJGFxyoj">software-defined networking</a> (SDN) capabilities of Openstack are disabled. For instance, when OVS-DPDK is used, Neutron provides a lower level of security than when OVS kernel is used (no stateful firewalling, less security group).
The <a href="/facts/Linux_Foundation/5wbe2Vp0">FD.IO</a> VPP platform is an extensible framework that provides out-of-the-box production quality switch/router functionality. It is the open source version of Cisco's <a href="/facts/Vector_Packet_Processing/23rTXjXC">Vector Packet Processing</a> (VPP) technology: a high performance, packet-processing stack that can run on commodity CPUs, and can leverage the Poll Mode Drivers for both NICs and cryptographic acceleration hardware and libraries.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:25" href="#fn:25">25</a> VPP supports and uses the DPDK library.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:26" href="#fn:26">26</a>
TRex is an open source traffic generator using DPDK. It generates L4–7 traffic based on pre-processing and smart replay of real traffic templates. TRex amplifies both client and server side traffic and can scale to 200 Gbit/s with one UCS using Intel XL710. TRex also supports multiple streams, ability to change any packet field and provides per stream statistics, latency and jitter.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:27" href="#fn:27">27</a>
DTS (DPDK Test Suite) is a Python-based framework for functional tests and benchmarks. It is an open-source project, started in 2014, and is hosted on dpdk.org. It supports both software traffic generators like Scapy and dpdk-pktgen, and a hardware traffic generator like <a href="/facts/Ixia_(company)/W32H3rnX">Ixia</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:28" href="#fn:28">28</a>
DPDK has support for several <a href="/facts/Single-root_input/output_virtualization/uwJ8MSmA">SRIOV</a> network drivers, enabling creating a PF (Physical Function) and VFs, and also to launch VMs (like <a href="/facts/QEMU/s6utqULJ">QEMU</a> VMs) and assign VFs to them using PCI Passthrough <a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:29" href="#fn:29">29</a>
DDP (Dynamic Device Personalization) is one of the new advanced features implemented with DPDK. It allows you to load 
firmware for a device dynamically, without resetting the host.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:30" href="#fn:30">30</a>

<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>
<ul><li><a href="/facts/Express_Data_Path/gFwn8Qjy">Express Data Path</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1">Simon Stanley,All Change for Packet Processing Archived 21 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Heavy Reading, 2013 <a href="http://www.heavyreading.com/commchip/document.asp?doc_id=228565" target="_blank">http://www.heavyreading.com/commchip/document.asp?doc_id=228565</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:2">Shamus McGillicudy, DPDK, switch and server ref designs push SDN ecosystem forward Archived 18 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine, SearchSDN, April 2013 <a href="http://searchsdn.techtarget.com/news/2240182264/Intel-DPDK-switch-and-server-ref-designs-push-SDN-ecosystem-forward" target="_blank">http://searchsdn.techtarget.com/news/2240182264/Intel-DPDK-switch-and-server-ref-designs-push-SDN-ecosystem-forward</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:3">"DPDK: Data Plane Development Kit – What it is". dpdk.org. Retrieved 29 March 2016. <a href="http://dpdk.org/" target="_blank">http://dpdk.org/</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:4">Simon Stanley,DPDK Goes Open-Source, Intel Embedded Community, May 2013 <a href="http://embedded.communities.intel.com/community/en/software/blog/2013/05/16/roving-reporter-dpdk-goes-open-source" target="_blank">http://embedded.communities.intel.com/community/en/software/blog/2013/05/16/roving-reporter-dpdk-goes-open-source</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:5">"In Loving Memory: Venky Venkatesan, "The Father of DPDK"". DPDK. Retrieved 12 May 2022. <a href="https://www.dpdk.org/about/venky/" target="_blank">https://www.dpdk.org/about/venky/</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:6">DPDK Docs, Data Plane Development Kit: Programmers Guide, September 2017 <a href="http://dpdk.org/doc/guides/prog_guide/" target="_blank">http://dpdk.org/doc/guides/prog_guide/</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:7">"How can DPDK access devices from user space?". CodiLime. 22 August 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019. <a href="https://codilime.com/how-can-dpdk-access-devices-from-user-space/" target="_blank">https://codilime.com/how-can-dpdk-access-devices-from-user-space/</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:8">"How DPDK can Deflate your Data! | SNIA". www.snia.org. Retrieved 21 June 2021. <a href="https://www.snia.org/educational-library/how-dpdk-can-deflate-your-data-2018" target="_blank">https://www.snia.org/educational-library/how-dpdk-can-deflate-your-data-2018</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:9">PANTHEON.tech (9 January 2020). "VPP 105: Memory Management & DPDK APIs". PANTHEON.tech. Retrieved 21 June 2021. <a href="https://pantheon.tech/vector-packet-dpdk-apis/" target="_blank">https://pantheon.tech/vector-packet-dpdk-apis/</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:10">Intel Communications Infrastructure Division, Data Plane Development Kit Overview, December 2012 <a href="http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/presentation/dpdk-packet-processing-ia-overview-presentation.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/presentation/dpdk-packet-processing-ia-overview-presentation.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:11">"Supported NICS" <a href="http://dpdk.org/doc/nics" target="_blank">http://dpdk.org/doc/nics</a> <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:12">DPDK Technical Board <a href="http://dpdk.org/about/techboard" target="_blank">http://dpdk.org/about/techboard</a> <a href="#fnref:12" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:13">PRWeb, 6WIND Extends Portable Packet Processing Software to Support Data Plane Development Kit Archived 26 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, September 2011 <a href="http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/9/prweb8785683.htm" target="_blank">http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/9/prweb8785683.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:13" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:14">Calsoft Labs to offer professional services and support for Data Plane Development Kit, ALTEN Calsoft Labs, 18 February 2014, archived from the original on 4 March 2016, retrieved 28 October 2014 <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160304201111/http://www.calsoftlabs.com/mediaroom/news.asp?NewsId=133" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20160304201111/http://www.calsoftlabs.com/mediaroom/news.asp?NewsId=133</a> <a href="#fnref:14" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:15">https://builders.intel.com/docs/ALTEN-Calsoft-Labs-and-Intel-Improving-Network-Agility-with-Virtual-CPE.pdf [bare URL PDF] <a href="https://builders.intel.com/docs/ALTEN-Calsoft-Labs-and-Intel-Improving-Network-Agility-with-Virtual-CPE.pdf" target="_blank">https://builders.intel.com/docs/ALTEN-Calsoft-Labs-and-Intel-Improving-Network-Agility-with-Virtual-CPE.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:15" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:16">COTS Journal, ATCA Blade Serves Up Xeon E5-2600 Processor Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, June 2012 <a href="http://www.cotsjournalonline.com/articles/view/102520" target="_blank">http://www.cotsjournalonline.com/articles/view/102520</a> <a href="#fnref:16" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:17">Brocade vRouter <a href="http://www.brocade.com/en/products-services/software-networking/network-functions-virtualization/5600-vrouter.html" target="_blank">http://www.brocade.com/en/products-services/software-networking/network-functions-virtualization/5600-vrouter.html</a> <a href="#fnref:17" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:18">Technologies, Mellanox. "Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK) | Poll Mode Driver (PMD)". Mellanox. Retrieved 10 February 2021. <a href="https://www.mellanox.com/products/products/software/accelerator-software/pmd-for-dpdk" target="_blank">https://www.mellanox.com/products/products/software/accelerator-software/pmd-for-dpdk</a> <a href="#fnref:18" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:19">MarketWatch, Radisys Delivers Industry's First 40G Solution for Data Plane Development Kit, September 2012 <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/radisys-delivers-industrys-first-40g-solution-for-intelr-data-plane-development-kit-2012-09-10" target="_blank">http://www.marketwatch.com/story/radisys-delivers-industrys-first-40g-solution-for-intelr-data-plane-development-kit-2012-09-10</a> <a href="#fnref:19" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:20">Tieto, Tieto provides professional software services and support for the Data Plane Development Kit, February 2012 <a href="https://www.dpdk.org/media-coverage/2012/02/27/tieto-announces-dpdk-support/" target="_blank">https://www.dpdk.org/media-coverage/2012/02/27/tieto-announces-dpdk-support/</a> <a href="#fnref:20" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:21">Reuters, Wind River Delivers Support and Services for Data Plane Development Kit for High-Performance Packet Processing, May 2012 <a href="https://archive.today/20130620032122/http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/22/idUS129768+22-May-2012+BW20120522" target="_blank">https://archive.today/20130620032122/http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/22/idUS129768+22-May-2012+BW20120522</a> <a href="#fnref:21" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:22">Get Flying with the Data Plane Development Kit, Lanner Electronics Inc., 20 February 2013, archived from the original on 6 December 2015, retrieved 11 July 2013 <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20151206215944/http://www.lannerinc.com/news-and-events/latest-news/get-flying-with-intel-data-plane-development-kit" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20151206215944/http://www.lannerinc.com/news-and-events/latest-news/get-flying-with-intel-data-plane-development-kit</a> <a href="#fnref:22" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:23">NXP Platform support in Data Plane Development Kit <a href="http://core.dpdk.org/training/" target="_blank">http://core.dpdk.org/training/</a> <a href="#fnref:23" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:24">Thompson, Jim (25 February 2015). "Further (a roadmap for pfSense)". blog.pfsense.org. Electric Sheep Fencing LLC. Retrieved 21 April 2015. <a href="https://blog.pfsense.org/?p=1588" target="_blank">https://blog.pfsense.org/?p=1588</a> <a href="#fnref:24" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:25">"VPP fd.io". wiki.fd.io. Linux Foundation. Retrieved 29 December 2016. <a href="https://wiki.fd.io/view/VPP/What_is_VPP%3F" target="_blank">https://wiki.fd.io/view/VPP/What_is_VPP%3F</a> <a href="#fnref:25" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:26">PANTHEON.tech (9 January 2020). "VPP 105: Memory Management & DPDK APIs". PANTHEON.tech. Retrieved 21 June 2021. <a href="https://pantheon.tech/vector-packet-dpdk-apis/" target="_blank">https://pantheon.tech/vector-packet-dpdk-apis/</a> <a href="#fnref:26" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:27">"TRex". Cisco Systems. Retrieved 29 December 2016. <a href="https://trex-tgn.cisco.com" target="_blank">https://trex-tgn.cisco.com</a> <a href="#fnref:27" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:28">Rami Rosen, Network acceleration with DPDK, lwn.net, July 2017 <a href="https://lwn.net/Articles/725254" target="_blank">https://lwn.net/Articles/725254</a> <a href="#fnref:28" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:29">Rami Rosen, Userspace Networking with DPDK, Linux Journal, April 2018. <a href="https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/userspace-networking-dpdk" target="_blank">https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/userspace-networking-dpdk</a> <a href="#fnref:29" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:30">Rami Rosen, DPDK in depth, Kernel TLV, August 2018 <a href="http://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/295986_90bce51e5ed3422dae12c999a8dac9ad.pdf" target="_blank">http://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/295986_90bce51e5ed3422dae12c999a8dac9ad.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:30" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
</ol>

Data Plane Development Kit open-in-new

Data Plane Development Kit