xref: /dpdk/doc/guides/prog_guide/glossary.rst (revision bc925f8378c1e67a61752d87dadf325642edbe78)

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Glossary
========


ACL
   Access Control List

API
   Application Programming Interface

ASLR
   Linux* kernel Address-Space Layout Randomization

BSD
   Berkeley Software Distribution

Clr
   Clear

CIDR
   Classless Inter-Domain Routing

Control Plane
   The control plane is concerned with the routing of packets and with
   providing a start or end point.

Core
   A core may include several lcores or threads if the processor supports
   hyperthreading.

Core Components
   A set of libraries provided by the DPDK, including eal, ring, mempool,
   mbuf, timers, and so on.

CPU
   Central Processing Unit

CRC
   Cyclic Redundancy Check

ctrlmbuf
   An *mbuf* carrying control data.

Data Plane
   In contrast to the control plane, the data plane in a network architecture
   are the layers involved when forwarding packets.  These layers must be
   highly optimized to achieve good performance.

DIMM
   Dual In-line Memory Module

Doxygen
   A documentation generator used in the DPDK to generate the API reference.

DPDK
   Data Plane Development Kit

DRAM
   Dynamic Random Access Memory

EAL
   The Environment Abstraction Layer (EAL) provides a generic interface that
   hides the environment specifics from the applications and libraries.  The
   services expected from the EAL are: development kit loading and launching,
   core affinity/ assignment procedures, system memory allocation/description,
   PCI bus access, inter-partition communication.

FIFO
   First In First Out

FPGA
   Field Programmable Gate Array

GbE
   Gigabit Ethernet

HW
   Hardware

HPET
   High Precision Event Timer; a hardware timer that provides a precise time
   reference on x86 platforms.

ID
   Identifier

IOCTL
   Input/Output Control

I/O
   Input/Output

IP
   Internet Protocol

IPv4
   Internet Protocol version 4

IPv6
   Internet Protocol version 6

lcore
   A logical execution unit of the processor, sometimes called a *hardware
   thread*.

KNI
   Kernel Network Interface

L1
   Layer 1

L2
   Layer 2

L3
   Layer 3

L4
   Layer 4

LAN
   Local Area Network

LPM
   Longest Prefix Match

master lcore
   The execution unit that executes the main() function and that launches
   other lcores.

mbuf
   An mbuf is a data structure used internally to carry messages (mainly
   network packets).  The name is derived from BSD stacks.  To understand the
   concepts of packet buffers or mbuf, refer to *TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 2:
   The Implementation*.

MESI
   Modified Exclusive Shared Invalid (CPU cache coherency protocol)

MTU
   Maximum Transfer Unit

NIC
   Network Interface Card

OOO
   Out Of Order (execution of instructions within the CPU pipeline)

NUMA
   Non-uniform Memory Access

PCI
   Peripheral Connect Interface

PHY
   An abbreviation for the physical layer of the OSI model.

pktmbuf
   An *mbuf* carrying a network packet.

PMD
   Poll Mode Driver

QoS
   Quality of Service

RCU
   Read-Copy-Update algorithm, an alternative to simple rwlocks.

Rd
   Read

RED
   Random Early Detection

RSS
   Receive Side Scaling

RTE
   Run Time Environment. Provides a fast and simple framework for fast packet
   processing, in a lightweight environment as a Linux* application and using
   Poll Mode Drivers (PMDs) to increase speed.

Rx
   Reception

Slave lcore
   Any *lcore* that is not the *master lcore*.

Socket
   A physical CPU, that includes several *cores*.

SLA
   Service Level Agreement

srTCM
   Single Rate Three Color Marking

SRTD
   Scheduler Round Trip Delay

SW
   Software

Target
   In the DPDK, the target is a combination of architecture, machine,
   executive environment and toolchain.  For example:
   i686-native-linuxapp-gcc.

TCP
   Transmission Control Protocol

TC
   Traffic Class

TLB
   Translation Lookaside Buffer

TLS
   Thread Local Storage

trTCM
   Two Rate Three Color Marking

TSC
   Time Stamp Counter

Tx
   Transmission

TUN/TAP
   TUN and TAP are virtual network kernel devices.

VLAN
   Virtual Local Area Network

Wr
   Write

WRED
   Weighted Random Early Detection

WRR
   Weighted Round Robin