1 .. SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
2 Copyright(c) 2010-2014 Intel Corporation.
4 IPv4 Multicast Sample Application
5 =================================
7 The IPv4 Multicast application is a simple example of packet processing
8 using the Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK).
9 The application performs L3 multicasting.
14 The application demonstrates the use of zero-copy buffers for packet forwarding.
15 The initialization and run-time paths are very similar to those of the :doc:`l2_forward_real_virtual`.
16 This guide highlights the differences between the two applications.
17 There are two key differences from the L2 Forwarding sample application:
19 * The IPv4 Multicast sample application makes use of indirect buffers.
21 * The forwarding decision is taken based on information read from the input packet's IPv4 header.
23 The lookup method is the Four-byte Key (FBK) hash-based method.
24 The lookup table is composed of pairs of destination IPv4 address (the FBK)
25 and a port mask associated with that IPv4 address.
29 The max port mask supported in the given hash table is 0xf, so only first
30 four ports can be supported.
31 If using non-consecutive ports, use the destination IPv4 address accordingly.
33 For convenience and simplicity, this sample application does not take IANA-assigned multicast addresses into account,
34 but instead equates the last four bytes of the multicast group (that is, the last four bytes of the destination IP address)
35 with the mask of ports to multicast packets to.
36 Also, the application does not consider the Ethernet addresses;
37 it looks only at the IPv4 destination address for any given packet.
39 Compiling the Application
40 -------------------------
42 To compile the sample application see :doc:`compiling`.
44 The application is located in the ``ipv4_multicast`` sub-directory.
46 Running the Application
47 -----------------------
49 The application has a number of command line options:
51 .. code-block:: console
53 ./build/ipv4_multicast [EAL options] -- -p PORTMASK [-q NQ]
57 * -p PORTMASK: Hexadecimal bitmask of ports to configure
59 * -q NQ: determines the number of queues per lcore
63 Unlike the basic L2/L3 Forwarding sample applications,
64 NUMA support is not provided in the IPv4 Multicast sample application.
66 Typically, to run the IPv4 Multicast sample application, issue the following command (as root):
68 .. code-block:: console
70 ./build/ipv4_multicast -l 0-3 -n 3 -- -p 0x3 -q 1
74 * The -l option enables cores 0, 1, 2 and 3
76 * The -n option specifies 3 memory channels
78 * The -p option enables ports 0 and 1
80 * The -q option assigns 1 queue to each lcore
82 Refer to the *DPDK Getting Started Guide* for general information on running applications
83 and the Environment Abstraction Layer (EAL) options.
88 The following sections provide some explanation of the code.
89 As mentioned in the overview section,
90 the initialization and run-time paths are very similar to those of the :doc:`l2_forward_real_virtual`.
91 The following sections describe aspects that are specific to the IPv4 Multicast sample application.
93 Memory Pool Initialization
94 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
96 The IPv4 Multicast sample application uses three memory pools.
97 Two of the pools are for indirect buffers used for packet duplication purposes.
98 Memory pools for indirect buffers are initialized differently from the memory pool for direct buffers:
102 packet_pool = rte_pktmbuf_pool_create("packet_pool", NB_PKT_MBUF, 32,
103 0, PKT_MBUF_DATA_SIZE, rte_socket_id());
104 header_pool = rte_pktmbuf_pool_create("header_pool", NB_HDR_MBUF, 32,
105 0, HDR_MBUF_DATA_SIZE, rte_socket_id());
106 clone_pool = rte_pktmbuf_pool_create("clone_pool", NB_CLONE_MBUF, 32,
107 0, 0, rte_socket_id());
109 The reason for this is because indirect buffers are not supposed to hold any packet data and
110 therefore can be initialized with lower amount of reserved memory for each buffer.
115 The hash object is created and loaded with the pre-configured entries read from a global array:
121 init_mcast_hash(void)
124 mcast_hash_params.socket_id = rte_socket_id();
126 mcast_hash = rte_fbk_hash_create(&mcast_hash_params);
127 if (mcast_hash == NULL){
131 for (i = 0; i < N_MCAST_GROUPS; i ++){
132 if (rte_fbk_hash_add_key(mcast_hash, mcast_group_table[i].ip, mcast_group_table[i].port_mask) < 0) {
142 All forwarding is done inside the mcast_forward() function.
143 Firstly, the Ethernet* header is removed from the packet and the IPv4 address is extracted from the IPv4 header:
147 /* Remove the Ethernet header from the input packet */
149 iphdr = (struct rte_ipv4_hdr *)rte_pktmbuf_adj(m, sizeof(struct rte_ether_hdr));
150 RTE_ASSERT(iphdr != NULL);
151 dest_addr = rte_be_to_cpu_32(iphdr->dst_addr);
153 Then, the packet is checked to see if it has a multicast destination address and
154 if the routing table has any ports assigned to the destination address:
158 if (!RTE_IS_IPV4_MCAST(dest_addr) ||
159 (hash = rte_fbk_hash_lookup(mcast_hash, dest_addr)) <= 0 ||
160 (port_mask = hash & enabled_port_mask) == 0) {
165 Then, the number of ports in the destination portmask is calculated with the help of the bitcnt() function:
169 /* Get number of bits set. */
171 static inline uint32_t bitcnt(uint32_t v)
175 for (n = 0; v != 0; v &= v - 1, n++)
180 This is done to determine which forwarding algorithm to use.
181 This is explained in more detail in the next section.
183 Thereafter, a destination Ethernet address is constructed:
187 /* construct destination Ethernet address */
189 dst_eth_addr = ETHER_ADDR_FOR_IPV4_MCAST(dest_addr);
191 Since Ethernet addresses are also part of the multicast process, each outgoing packet carries the same destination Ethernet address.
192 The destination Ethernet address is constructed from the lower 23 bits of the multicast group OR-ed
193 with the Ethernet address 01:00:5e:00:00:00, as per RFC 1112:
197 #define ETHER_ADDR_FOR_IPV4_MCAST(x) \
198 (rte_cpu_to_be_64(0x01005e000000ULL | ((x) & 0x7fffff)) >> 16)
200 Then, packets are dispatched to the destination ports according to the portmask associated with a multicast group:
204 for (port = 0; use_clone != port_mask; port_mask >>= 1, port++) {
205 /* Prepare output packet and send it out. */
207 if ((port_mask & 1) != 0) {
208 if (likely ((mc = mcast_out_pkt(m, use_clone)) != NULL))
209 mcast_send_pkt(mc, &dst_eth_addr.as_addr, qconf, port);
210 else if (use_clone == 0)
215 The actual packet transmission is done in the mcast_send_pkt() function:
219 static inline void mcast_send_pkt(struct rte_mbuf *pkt, struct rte_ether_addr *dest_addr, struct lcore_queue_conf *qconf, uint16_t port)
221 struct rte_ether_hdr *ethdr;
224 /* Construct Ethernet header. */
226 ethdr = (struct rte_ether_hdr *)rte_pktmbuf_prepend(pkt, (uint16_t) sizeof(*ethdr));
228 RTE_ASSERT(ethdr != NULL);
230 rte_ether_addr_copy(dest_addr, ðdr->d_addr);
231 rte_ether_addr_copy(&ports_eth_addr[port], ðdr->s_addr);
232 ethdr->ether_type = rte_be_to_cpu_16(RTE_ETHER_TYPE_IPV4);
234 /* Put new packet into the output queue */
236 len = qconf->tx_mbufs[port].len;
237 qconf->tx_mbufs[port].m_table[len] = pkt;
238 qconf->tx_mbufs[port].len = ++len;
240 /* Transmit packets */
242 if (unlikely(MAX_PKT_BURST == len))
243 send_burst(qconf, port);
249 This is the most important part of the application since it demonstrates the use of zero- copy buffer cloning.
250 There are two approaches for creating the outgoing packet and although both are based on the data zero-copy idea,
251 there are some differences in the detail.
253 The first approach creates a clone of the input packet, for example,
254 walk though all segments of the input packet and for each of segment,
255 create a new buffer and attach that new buffer to the segment
256 (refer to rte_pktmbuf_clone() in the rte_mbuf library for more details).
257 A new buffer is then allocated for the packet header and is prepended to the cloned buffer.
259 The second approach does not make a clone, it just increments the reference counter for all input packet segment,
260 allocates a new buffer for the packet header and prepends it to the input packet.
262 Basically, the first approach reuses only the input packet's data, but creates its own copy of packet's metadata.
263 The second approach reuses both input packet's data and metadata.
265 The advantage of first approach is that each outgoing packet has its own copy of the metadata,
266 so we can safely modify the data pointer of the input packet.
267 That allows us to skip creation if the output packet is for the last destination port
268 and instead modify input packet's header in place.
269 For example, for N destination ports, we need to invoke mcast_out_pkt() (N-1) times.
271 The advantage of the second approach is that there is less work to be done for each outgoing packet,
272 that is, the "clone" operation is skipped completely.
273 However, there is a price to pay.
274 The input packet's metadata must remain intact, so for N destination ports,
275 we need to invoke mcast_out_pkt() (N) times.
277 Therefore, for a small number of outgoing ports (and segments in the input packet),
278 first approach is faster.
279 As the number of outgoing ports (and/or input segments) grows, the second approach becomes more preferable.
281 Depending on the number of segments or the number of ports in the outgoing portmask,
282 either the first (with cloning) or the second (without cloning) approach is taken:
286 use_clone = (port_num <= MCAST_CLONE_PORTS && m->pkt.nb_segs <= MCAST_CLONE_SEGS);
288 It is the mcast_out_pkt() function that performs the packet duplication (either with or without actually cloning the buffers):
292 static inline struct rte_mbuf *mcast_out_pkt(struct rte_mbuf *pkt, int use_clone)
294 struct rte_mbuf *hdr;
296 /* Create new mbuf for the header. */
298 if (unlikely ((hdr = rte_pktmbuf_alloc(header_pool)) == NULL))
301 /* If requested, then make a new clone packet. */
303 if (use_clone != 0 && unlikely ((pkt = rte_pktmbuf_clone(pkt, clone_pool)) == NULL)) {
304 rte_pktmbuf_free(hdr);
308 /* prepend new header */
312 /* update header's fields */
314 hdr->pkt.pkt_len = (uint16_t)(hdr->pkt.data_len + pkt->pkt.pkt_len);
315 hdr->pkt.nb_segs = pkt->pkt.nb_segs + 1;
317 /* copy metadata from source packet */
319 hdr->pkt.in_port = pkt->pkt.in_port;
320 hdr->pkt.vlan_macip = pkt->pkt.vlan_macip;
321 hdr->pkt.hash = pkt->pkt.hash;
322 rte_mbuf_sanity_check(hdr, RTE_MBUF_PKT, 1);