DPDK Framework Introduction

Introduction

The DPDK (Data Plane Development Kit) is an open-source project under Linux Foundation for fast packet processing. The motivation for DPDK is that the Linux kernel somehow became the bottleneck in the network packet processing pipeline, following the steps described below:

1. Packet arrives at the network card.
2. The network card sends an interrupt signal to the kernel.
3. The kernel copies the packet into a kernel buffer.
4. The kernel copies the kernel buffer into a userspace buffer.
5. The userspace application receives the buffer and processes it.

As a main downside, there are multiple copies (packet -> kernel -> userspace) and context switches due to the interruption mode. DPDK bypasses the kernel and passes the buffer from the card to the userspace.

The key characteristics of DPDK are:

1. Uses polling mode to check the packet reception instead of interruption mode.
2. Skips the kernel involvement.

DPDK is maintained by the Linux Foundation, with Intel as its main contributor.

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