[dpdk-dev] [RFC 17.08] Flow classification library

Morten Brørup mb at smartsharesystems.com
Sat May 6 16:04:03 CEST 2017


Carthago delenda est: Again with the callbacks... why not just let the application call the library's processing functions where appropriate. The hook+callback design pattern tends to impose a specific framework (or order of execution) on the DPDK user, rather than just being a stand-alone library offering some functions. DPDK is not a stack; and one of the reasons we are moving our firmware away from Linux is to avoid being enforced a specific order of processing the packets (through a whole bunch of hooks everywhere in the stack).

Maybe I missed the point of this library, so bear with me if my example is stupid:

Consider a NAT router application. Does this library support processing ingress packets in the outside->inside direction after they have been processed by the NAT engine? Or how about IP fragments after passing the reassembly engine?


Generally, a generic flow processing library would be great; but such a library would need to support flow processing applications, not just byte counting. Four key functions would be required: 1. Identify which flow a packet belongs to (or "not found"), 2. Create a flow, 3. Destroy a flow, and 4. Iterate through flows (e.g. for aging or listing purposes).


Med venlig hilsen / kind regards
- Morten Brørup


> -----Original Message-----
> From: dev [mailto:dev-bounces at dpdk.org] On Behalf Of Mcnamara, John
> Sent: Wednesday, May 3, 2017 11:16 AM
> To: dev at dpdk.org
> Cc: Tahhan, Maryam; Gaëtan Rivet; Yigit, Ferruh
> Subject: Re: [dpdk-dev] [RFC 17.08] Flow classification library
> 
> 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Gaëtan Rivet [mailto:gaetan.rivet at 6wind.com]
> > Sent: Friday, April 21, 2017 11:38 AM
> > To: Yigit, Ferruh <ferruh.yigit at intel.com>
> > Cc: dev at dpdk.org; Mcnamara, John <john.mcnamara at intel.com>; Tahhan,
> > Maryam <maryam.tahhan at intel.com>
> > Subject: Re: [dpdk-dev] [RFC 17.08] Flow classification library
> >
> 
> 
> Any other opinions on this proposal?
> 
> (Original email: http://dpdk.org/ml/archives/dev/2017-April/064443.html)
> 
> John



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