Introduction to P4-DPDK

Description Network packet processing faces significant performance challenges due to kernel overheads. These issues have become more pronounced with the rapid growth of network traffic. To address these challenges, the Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK) was developed. DPDK bypasses the kernel and operates directly in user space, offering significant improvements in performance and latency for packet processing tasks. However, DPDK's steep learning curve presents a barrier to entry for developers and network administrators. In recent years, P4 has emerged as a language specifically designed for expressing packet processing data paths. Building on this development, P4-DPDK has been introduced as a new technology that bridges P4 and DPDK. It allows developers to create P4 code which is then translated into a DPDK pipeline, combining the expressiveness of P4 with the performance benefits of DPDK. This lab series offers a hands-on experience on the basics of P4-DPDK.