xref: /dpdk/doc/guides/nics/overview.rst (revision ceb1ccd5d50c1a89ba8bdd97cc199e7f07422b98)
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29
30Overview of Networking Drivers
31==============================
32
33The networking drivers may be classified in two categories:
34
35- physical for real devices
36- virtual for emulated devices
37
38Some physical devices may be shaped through a virtual layer as for
39SR-IOV.
40The interface seen in the virtual environment is a VF (Virtual Function).
41
42The ethdev layer exposes an API to use the networking functions
43of these devices.
44The bottom half part of ethdev is implemented by the drivers.
45Thus some features may not be implemented.
46
47There are more differences between drivers regarding some internal properties,
48portability or even documentation availability.
49Most of these differences are summarized below.
50
51.. _table_net_pmd_features:
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74
75.. table:: Features availability in networking drivers
76
77   ==================== = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
78   Feature              a b b b c e e e i i i i i i i i i i f f m m m n n p r s v v v v x
79                        f n n o x 1 n n 4 4 4 4 g g x x x x m m l l p f u c i z h i i m e
80                        p x x n g 0 a i 0 0 0 0 b b g g g g 1 1 x x i p l a n e o r r x n
81                        a 2 2 d b 0   c e e e e   v b b b b 0 0 4 5 p   l p g d s t t n v
82                        c x x i e 0       . v v   f e e e e k k     e         a t i i e i
83                        k   v n           . f f       . v v   .               t   o o t r
84                        e   f g           .   .       . f f   .               a     . 3 t
85                        t                 v   v       v   v   v               2     v
86                                          e   e       e   e   e                     e
87                                          c   c       c   c   c                     c
88   ==================== = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
89   link status                  X       X X                                   X X
90   link status event                    X X                                     X
91   queue status event                                                           X
92   Rx interrupt                         X X X X
93   queue start/stop             X   X   X X X X                               X
94   MTU update                   X   X
95   jumbo frame                  X   X   X X X X
96   scattered Rx                 X   X   X X X X                               X
97   LRO
98   TSO                          X   X   X X X X
99   promiscuous mode             X       X X X X                               X
100   allmulticast mode            X       X X X X                               X
101   unicast MAC filter                   X X X X
102   multicast MAC filter                 X X X X
103   RSS hash                     X   X   X X X X
104   RSS key update                   X   X X X X
105   RSS reta update                  X   X X X X
106   VMDq                                 X X
107   SR-IOV                           X   X X
108   DCB                                  X X
109   VLAN filter                          X X X X
110   ethertype filter                     X X
111   n-tuple filter
112   SYN filter
113   tunnel filter                        X X
114   flexible filter
115   hash filter                          X X X X
116   flow director                        X X
117   flow control                 X       X X
118   rate limitation
119   traffic mirroring                    X X
120   CRC offload                  X   X   X   X
121   VLAN offload                 X   X   X   X
122   QinQ offload                         X   X
123   L3 checksum offload          X   X   X   X
124   L4 checksum offload          X   X   X   X
125   inner L3 checksum                X   X   X
126   inner L4 checksum                X   X   X
127   packet type parsing          X       X   X
128   timesync                             X X
129   basic stats                  X   X   X X X X                               X X
130   extended stats                   X   X X X X
131   stats per queue              X                                             X
132   EEPROM dump
133   registers dump
134   multiprocess aware                   X X X X
135   BSD nic_uio                  X       X X X X
136   Linux UIO                    X   X   X X X X
137   Linux VFIO                   X       X X X X
138   other kdrv                                                                 X
139   ARMv7
140   ARMv8
141   Power8
142   TILE-Gx
143   x86-32                       X   X   X X X X                                 X
144   x86-64                       X   X   X X X X                               X X
145   usage doc                    X                                             X
146   design doc
147   perf doc
148   ==================== = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
149