DPDK

Purpose

Guide agents through DPDK (Data Plane Development Kit): EAL initialization, poll-mode driver (PMD) concepts, rte_eth_rx_burst/tx_burst, mbuf mempools, rte_ring queues, huge page setup, RSS configuration, testpmd validation, QEMU virtio testing, and pipeline vs run-to-completion models.

When to Use

• Building a userspace packet forwarder bypassing the kernel network stack
• Achieving line-rate on 10/25/100 GbE NICs
• Prototyping NFV/vSwitch data plane components
• Testing NIC configuration with testpmd before custom code
• Comparing DPDK throughput with kernel networking or AF_XDP
• Running DPDK in VMs with virtio for development

Workflow

1. Huge pages setup