xref: /dpdk/doc/guides/sample_app_ug/l3_forward.rst (revision 25d11a86c56d50947af33d0b79ede622809bd8b9)
1..  SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
2    Copyright(c) 2010-2014 Intel Corporation.
3
4L3 Forwarding Sample Application
5================================
6
7The L3 Forwarding application is a simple example of packet processing using the DPDK.
8The application performs L3 forwarding.
9
10Overview
11--------
12
13The application demonstrates the use of the hash and LPM libraries in the DPDK to implement packet forwarding.
14The initialization and run-time paths are very similar to those of the :doc:`l2_forward_real_virtual`.
15The main difference from the L2 Forwarding sample application is that the forwarding decision
16is made based on information read from the input packet.
17
18The lookup method is either hash-based or LPM-based and is selected at run time. When the selected lookup method is hash-based,
19a hash object is used to emulate the flow classification stage.
20The hash object is used in correlation with a flow table to map each input packet to its flow at runtime.
21
22The hash lookup key is represented by a DiffServ 5-tuple composed of the following fields read from the input packet:
23Source IP Address, Destination IP Address, Protocol, Source Port and Destination Port.
24The ID of the output interface for the input packet is read from the identified flow table entry.
25The set of flows used by the application is statically configured and loaded into the hash at initialization time.
26When the selected lookup method is LPM based, an LPM object is used to emulate the forwarding stage for IPv4 packets.
27The LPM object is used as the routing table to identify the next hop for each input packet at runtime.
28
29The LPM lookup key is represented by the Destination IP Address field read from the input packet.
30The ID of the output interface for the input packet is the next hop returned by the LPM lookup.
31The set of LPM rules used by the application is statically configured and loaded into the LPM object at initialization time.
32
33In the sample application, hash-based forwarding supports IPv4 and IPv6. LPM-based forwarding supports IPv4 only.
34
35Compiling the Application
36-------------------------
37
38To compile the sample application see :doc:`compiling`.
39
40The application is located in the ``l3fwd`` sub-directory.
41
42Running the Application
43-----------------------
44
45The application has a number of command line options::
46
47    ./l3fwd [EAL options] -- -p PORTMASK
48                             [-P]
49                             [-E]
50                             [-L]
51                             --config(port,queue,lcore)[,(port,queue,lcore)]
52                             [--eth-dest=X,MM:MM:MM:MM:MM:MM]
53                             [--enable-jumbo [--max-pkt-len PKTLEN]]
54                             [--no-numa]
55                             [--hash-entry-num]
56                             [--ipv6]
57                             [--parse-ptype]
58
59Where,
60
61* ``-p PORTMASK:`` Hexadecimal bitmask of ports to configure
62
63* ``-P:`` Optional, sets all ports to promiscuous mode so that packets are accepted regardless of the packet's Ethernet MAC destination address.
64  Without this option, only packets with the Ethernet MAC destination address set to the Ethernet address of the port are accepted.
65
66* ``-E:`` Optional, enable exact match.
67
68* ``-L:`` Optional, enable longest prefix match.
69
70* ``--config (port,queue,lcore)[,(port,queue,lcore)]:`` Determines which queues from which ports are mapped to which cores.
71
72* ``--eth-dest=X,MM:MM:MM:MM:MM:MM:`` Optional, ethernet destination for port X.
73
74* ``--enable-jumbo:`` Optional, enables jumbo frames.
75
76* ``--max-pkt-len:`` Optional, under the premise of enabling jumbo, maximum packet length in decimal (64-9600).
77
78* ``--no-numa:`` Optional, disables numa awareness.
79
80* ``--hash-entry-num:`` Optional, specifies the hash entry number in hexadecimal to be setup.
81
82* ``--ipv6:`` Optional, set if running ipv6 packets.
83
84* ``--parse-ptype:`` Optional, set to use software to analyze packet type. Without this option, hardware will check the packet type.
85
86For example, consider a dual processor socket platform with 8 physical cores, where cores 0-7 and 16-23 appear on socket 0,
87while cores 8-15 and 24-31 appear on socket 1.
88
89To enable L3 forwarding between two ports, assuming that both ports are in the same socket, using two cores, cores 1 and 2,
90(which are in the same socket too), use the following command:
91
92.. code-block:: console
93
94    ./build/l3fwd -l 1,2 -n 4 -- -p 0x3 --config="(0,0,1),(1,0,2)"
95
96In this command:
97
98*   The -l option enables cores 1, 2
99
100*   The -p option enables ports 0 and 1
101
102*   The --config option enables one queue on each port and maps each (port,queue) pair to a specific core.
103    The following table shows the mapping in this example:
104
105+----------+-----------+-----------+-------------------------------------+
106| **Port** | **Queue** | **lcore** | **Description**                     |
107|          |           |           |                                     |
108+----------+-----------+-----------+-------------------------------------+
109| 0        | 0         | 1         | Map queue 0 from port 0 to lcore 1. |
110|          |           |           |                                     |
111+----------+-----------+-----------+-------------------------------------+
112| 1        | 0         | 2         | Map queue 0 from port 1 to lcore 2. |
113|          |           |           |                                     |
114+----------+-----------+-----------+-------------------------------------+
115
116Refer to the *DPDK Getting Started Guide* for general information on running applications and
117the Environment Abstraction Layer (EAL) options.
118
119.. _l3_fwd_explanation:
120
121Explanation
122-----------
123
124The following sections provide some explanation of the sample application code. As mentioned in the overview section,
125the initialization and run-time paths are very similar to those of the :doc:`l2_forward_real_virtual`.
126The following sections describe aspects that are specific to the L3 Forwarding sample application.
127
128Hash Initialization
129~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
130
131The hash object is created and loaded with the pre-configured entries read from a global array,
132and then generate the expected 5-tuple as key to keep consistence with those of real flow
133for the convenience to execute hash performance test on 4M/8M/16M flows.
134
135.. note::
136
137    The Hash initialization will setup both ipv4 and ipv6 hash table,
138    and populate the either table depending on the value of variable ipv6.
139    To support the hash performance test with up to 8M single direction flows/16M bi-direction flows,
140    populate_ipv4_many_flow_into_table() function will populate the hash table with specified hash table entry number(default 4M).
141
142.. note::
143
144    Value of global variable ipv6 can be specified with --ipv6 in the command line.
145    Value of global variable hash_entry_number,
146    which is used to specify the total hash entry number for all used ports in hash performance test,
147    can be specified with --hash-entry-num VALUE in command line, being its default value 4.
148
149.. code-block:: c
150
151    #if (APP_LOOKUP_METHOD == APP_LOOKUP_EXACT_MATCH)
152
153        static void
154        setup_hash(int socketid)
155        {
156            // ...
157
158            if (hash_entry_number != HASH_ENTRY_NUMBER_DEFAULT) {
159                if (ipv6 == 0) {
160                    /* populate the ipv4 hash */
161                    populate_ipv4_many_flow_into_table(ipv4_l3fwd_lookup_struct[socketid], hash_entry_number);
162                } else {
163                    /* populate the ipv6 hash */
164                    populate_ipv6_many_flow_into_table( ipv6_l3fwd_lookup_struct[socketid], hash_entry_number);
165                }
166            } else
167                if (ipv6 == 0) {
168                    /* populate the ipv4 hash */
169                    populate_ipv4_few_flow_into_table(ipv4_l3fwd_lookup_struct[socketid]);
170                } else {
171                    /* populate the ipv6 hash */
172                    populate_ipv6_few_flow_into_table(ipv6_l3fwd_lookup_struct[socketid]);
173                }
174            }
175        }
176    #endif
177
178LPM Initialization
179~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
180
181The LPM object is created and loaded with the pre-configured entries read from a global array.
182
183.. code-block:: c
184
185    #if (APP_LOOKUP_METHOD == APP_LOOKUP_LPM)
186
187    static void
188    setup_lpm(int socketid)
189    {
190        unsigned i;
191        int ret;
192        char s[64];
193
194        /* create the LPM table */
195
196        snprintf(s, sizeof(s), "IPV4_L3FWD_LPM_%d", socketid);
197
198        ipv4_l3fwd_lookup_struct[socketid] = rte_lpm_create(s, socketid, IPV4_L3FWD_LPM_MAX_RULES, 0);
199
200        if (ipv4_l3fwd_lookup_struct[socketid] == NULL)
201            rte_exit(EXIT_FAILURE, "Unable to create the l3fwd LPM table"
202                " on socket %d\n", socketid);
203
204        /* populate the LPM table */
205
206        for (i = 0; i < IPV4_L3FWD_NUM_ROUTES; i++) {
207            /* skip unused ports */
208
209            if ((1 << ipv4_l3fwd_route_array[i].if_out & enabled_port_mask) == 0)
210                continue;
211
212            ret = rte_lpm_add(ipv4_l3fwd_lookup_struct[socketid], ipv4_l3fwd_route_array[i].ip,
213           	                    ipv4_l3fwd_route_array[i].depth, ipv4_l3fwd_route_array[i].if_out);
214
215            if (ret < 0) {
216                rte_exit(EXIT_FAILURE, "Unable to add entry %u to the "
217                        "l3fwd LPM table on socket %d\n", i, socketid);
218            }
219
220            printf("LPM: Adding route 0x%08x / %d (%d)\n",
221                (unsigned)ipv4_l3fwd_route_array[i].ip, ipv4_l3fwd_route_array[i].depth, ipv4_l3fwd_route_array[i].if_out);
222        }
223    }
224    #endif
225
226Packet Forwarding for Hash-based Lookups
227~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
228
229For each input packet, the packet forwarding operation is done by the l3fwd_simple_forward()
230or simple_ipv4_fwd_4pkts() function for IPv4 packets or the simple_ipv6_fwd_4pkts() function for IPv6 packets.
231The l3fwd_simple_forward() function provides the basic functionality for both IPv4 and IPv6 packet forwarding
232for any number of burst packets received,
233and the packet forwarding decision (that is, the identification of the output interface for the packet)
234for hash-based lookups is done by the  get_ipv4_dst_port() or get_ipv6_dst_port() function.
235The get_ipv4_dst_port() function is shown below:
236
237.. code-block:: c
238
239    static inline uint8_t
240    get_ipv4_dst_port(void *ipv4_hdr, uint16_t portid, lookup_struct_t *ipv4_l3fwd_lookup_struct)
241    {
242        int ret = 0;
243        union ipv4_5tuple_host key;
244
245        ipv4_hdr = (uint8_t *)ipv4_hdr + offsetof(struct ipv4_hdr, time_to_live);
246
247        m128i data = _mm_loadu_si128(( m128i*)(ipv4_hdr));
248
249        /* Get 5 tuple: dst port, src port, dst IP address, src IP address and protocol */
250
251        key.xmm = _mm_and_si128(data, mask0);
252
253        /* Find destination port */
254
255        ret = rte_hash_lookup(ipv4_l3fwd_lookup_struct, (const void *)&key);
256
257        return (uint8_t)((ret < 0)? portid : ipv4_l3fwd_out_if[ret]);
258    }
259
260The get_ipv6_dst_port() function is similar to the get_ipv4_dst_port() function.
261
262The simple_ipv4_fwd_4pkts() and simple_ipv6_fwd_4pkts() function are optimized for continuous 4 valid ipv4 and ipv6 packets,
263they leverage the multiple buffer optimization to boost the performance of forwarding packets with the exact match on hash table.
264The key code snippet of simple_ipv4_fwd_4pkts() is shown below:
265
266.. code-block:: c
267
268    static inline void
269    simple_ipv4_fwd_4pkts(struct rte_mbuf* m[4], uint16_t portid, struct lcore_conf *qconf)
270    {
271        // ...
272
273        data[0] = _mm_loadu_si128(( m128i*)(rte_pktmbuf_mtod(m[0], unsigned char *) + sizeof(struct ether_hdr) + offsetof(struct ipv4_hdr, time_to_live)));
274        data[1] = _mm_loadu_si128(( m128i*)(rte_pktmbuf_mtod(m[1], unsigned char *) + sizeof(struct ether_hdr) + offsetof(struct ipv4_hdr, time_to_live)));
275        data[2] = _mm_loadu_si128(( m128i*)(rte_pktmbuf_mtod(m[2], unsigned char *) + sizeof(struct ether_hdr) + offsetof(struct ipv4_hdr, time_to_live)));
276        data[3] = _mm_loadu_si128(( m128i*)(rte_pktmbuf_mtod(m[3], unsigned char *) + sizeof(struct ether_hdr) + offsetof(struct ipv4_hdr, time_to_live)));
277
278        key[0].xmm = _mm_and_si128(data[0], mask0);
279        key[1].xmm = _mm_and_si128(data[1], mask0);
280        key[2].xmm = _mm_and_si128(data[2], mask0);
281        key[3].xmm = _mm_and_si128(data[3], mask0);
282
283        const void *key_array[4] = {&key[0], &key[1], &key[2],&key[3]};
284
285        rte_hash_lookup_bulk(qconf->ipv4_lookup_struct, &key_array[0], 4, ret);
286
287        dst_port[0] = (ret[0] < 0)? portid:ipv4_l3fwd_out_if[ret[0]];
288        dst_port[1] = (ret[1] < 0)? portid:ipv4_l3fwd_out_if[ret[1]];
289        dst_port[2] = (ret[2] < 0)? portid:ipv4_l3fwd_out_if[ret[2]];
290        dst_port[3] = (ret[3] < 0)? portid:ipv4_l3fwd_out_if[ret[3]];
291
292        // ...
293    }
294
295The simple_ipv6_fwd_4pkts() function is similar to the simple_ipv4_fwd_4pkts() function.
296
297Known issue: IP packets with extensions or IP packets which are not TCP/UDP cannot work well at this mode.
298
299Packet Forwarding for LPM-based Lookups
300~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
301
302For each input packet, the packet forwarding operation is done by the l3fwd_simple_forward() function,
303but the packet forwarding decision (that is, the identification of the output interface for the packet)
304for LPM-based lookups is done by the get_ipv4_dst_port() function below:
305
306.. code-block:: c
307
308    static inline uint16_t
309    get_ipv4_dst_port(struct ipv4_hdr *ipv4_hdr, uint16_t portid, lookup_struct_t *ipv4_l3fwd_lookup_struct)
310    {
311        uint8_t next_hop;
312
313        return ((rte_lpm_lookup(ipv4_l3fwd_lookup_struct, rte_be_to_cpu_32(ipv4_hdr->dst_addr), &next_hop) == 0)? next_hop : portid);
314    }
315