[dpdk-dev] [RFC] Generic flow director/filtering/classification API

[John Daley (johndale)]

Hi, this is an old thread, but I'll reply to this instead of the RFC v2 since there is more context here.
Thanks for pushing the new api forward Adrien.
-john daley

> > >>> - Match range of Physical Functions (PFs) on the NIC in a single rule
> > >>>   via masks. For ex: match all traffic coming on several PFs.
> > >>
> > >> The PF and VF pattern items assume there is a single PF associated
> > >> with a DPDK port. VFs are identified with an ID. I basically took
> > >> the same definitions as the existing filter types, perhaps this is
> > >> not enough for Chelsio adapters.
> > >>
> > >> Do you expose more than one PF for a DPDK port?

The Cisco VIC can support multiple PFs per Ethernet port.  These are called virtual-nics (VNICs). It would be nice to be able to redirect matched Rx packets to another queue on another VNIC.

> > >>
> > >> Anyway, I'd suggest the same approach as above, automatic
> > >> aggregation of rules for performance reasons, otherwise new or
> > >> updated PF/VF pattern items, in which case it would be great if you
> > >> could provide ideal structure definitions for this use case.
> > >>
> > >
> > > In Chelsio hardware, all the ports of a device are exposed via
> > > single PF4. There could be many VFs attached to a PF.  Physical NIC
> > > functions are operational on PF4, while VFs can be attached to PFs 0-3.
> > > So, Chelsio hardware doesn't remain tied on a PF-to-Port, one-to-one
> > > mapping assumption.
> > >
> > > There already seems to be a PF meta-item, but it doesn't seem to
> > > accept any "spec" and "mask" field.  Similarly, the VF meta-item
> > > doesn't seem to accept a "mask" field.  We could probably enable
> > > these fields in the PF and VF meta-items to allow configuration.
> >
I would like to see an ID property added to the PF action meta-item, where perhaps a BDF can be specified. This would potentially allow matched Rx packets to be redirected to another VNIC and could be paired with the QUEUE action meta-item to redirect to a specific queue on a VNIC. The PF ID property set to 0 would have the current specified behavior or redirecting to the current PF. Is something like this possible?