Introduction to Intel DPDK - Data Plane Development Kit

1. 1|Coevolve Pty Limited | © Copyright 2017/in/vinaypandey04 thisisvinayp #3
DPDK – Data Plane Development Kit
NIC NIC
Kernel Space Kernel Space
Stack Stack
Network
Driver
Network
Driver
Virtual
Machine
Virtual Machine
DPDK Libraries
DPDK PMD
User SpaceUser Space
Standard Way DPDK Way
Created by Intel in 2010
Made available under a permissive open source license
Without DPDK, packet processing is through the kernel network
stack which is interrupt-driven.
Each time NIC receives incoming packets, there is a kernel interrupt
to process the packets and a context switch from kernel space to
user space.
This creates delay.
With the DPDK, there is no need for interrupts, as the processing
happens in user space using Poll mode drivers.
These poll mode drivers can poll data directly from NIC, thus provide
fast switching by completely bypassing kernel space.
This improves the throughput rate of data.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Without DPDK
With DPDK
Performance can increase by 4-5x

2. 2|Coevolve Pty Limited | © Copyright 2017/in/vinaypandey04 thisisvinayp #3
DPDK Use Cases
Router
Next Generation Firewalls
Traffic Generator
DPDK with IPSEC
In Telecom Industry – For faster packet processing in 4G/5G network
And Many more..

3. 3|Coevolve Pty Limited | © Copyright 2017/in/vinaypandey04 thisisvinayp #3
Legacy IPSEC Flow
Crypto Cores CPU Cores NIC Card
Kernel Stack
UDP Netlink
IKE
Configuration and
management plane
IP IPSEC

4. 4|Coevolve Pty Limited | © Copyright 2017/in/vinaypandey04 thisisvinayp #3
IPSEC Flow with DPDK
Crypto Cores CPU Cores NIC Card
DPDK
UDP Netlink
IKE
Configuration and
management plane
IP IPSEC