--- /dev/null
+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
+ Copyright(c) 2018 Intel Corporation.
+
+DPDK Telemetry API User Guide
+==============================
+
+This document describes how the Data Plane Development Kit(DPDK) Telemetry API
+is used for querying port statistics from incoming traffic.
+
+Introduction
+------------
+
+The ``librte_telemetry`` provides the functionality so that users may query
+metrics from incoming port traffic. The application which initializes packet
+forwarding will act as the server, sending metrics to the requesting application
+which acts as the client.
+
+In DPDK, applications are used to initialize the ``telemetry``. To view incoming
+traffic on featured ports, the application should be run first (ie. after ports
+are configured). Once the application is running, the service assurance agent
+(for example the collectd plugin) should be run to begin querying the API.
+
+A client connects their Service Assurance application to the DPDK application
+via a UNIX socket. Once a connection is established, a client can send JSON
+messages to the DPDK application requesting metrics via another UNIX client.
+This request is then handled and parsed if valid. The response is then
+formatted in JSON and sent back to the requesting client.
+
+Pre-requisites
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+* Python ≥ 2.5
+
+* Jansson library for JSON serialization
+
+Test Environment
+----------------
+
+``telemetry`` offers a range of selftests that a client can run within
+the DPDK application.
+
+Selftests are disabled by default. They can be enabled by setting the 'selftest'
+variable to 1 in rte_telemetry_initial_accept().
+
+Note: this 'hardcoded' value is temporary.
+
+Configuration
+-------------
+
+Enable the telemetry API by modifying the following config option before
+building DPDK::
+
+ CONFIG_RTE_LIBRTE_TELEMETRY=y
+
+Note: Meson will pick this up automatically if ``libjansson`` is available.
+
+Running the Application
+-----------------------
+
+The following steps demonstrate how to run the ``telemetry`` API to query all
+statistics on all active ports, using the ``telemetry_client`` python script
+to query.
+Note: This guide assumes packet generation is applicable and the user is
+testing with testpmd as a DPDK primary application to forward packets, although
+any DPDK application is applicable.
+
+#. Launch testpmd as the primary application with ``telemetry``.::
+
+ ./app/testpmd --telemetry
+
+#. Launch the ``telemetry`` python script with a client filepath.::
+
+ python usertools/telemetry_client.py /var/run/some_client
+
+ The client filepath is going to be used to setup our UNIX connection with the
+ DPDK primary application, in this case ``testpmd``
+ This will initialize a menu where a client can proceed to recursively query
+ statistics, request statistics once or unregister the file_path, thus exiting
+ the menu.
+
+#. Send traffic to any or all available ports from a traffic generator.
+ Select a query option(recursive or singular polling).
+ The metrics will then be displayed on the client terminal in JSON format.
+
+#. Once finished, unregister the client using the menu command.