Can we use DPDK in Cumulus Linux?

Cumulus Linux doesn’t support DPDK because Cumulus Linux has to use the per-ASIC driver in order to rx/tx kernel traffic via the front panel ports.

The whole idea of DPDK is to bypass the interface drivers, which would mean DPDK would have to have the proprietary knowledge of how to interact with the ASIC.

Also it’s our understanding that DPDK requires a proprietary NIC.

Cumulus Linux already gets hardware acceleration though switchd and DPDK would bypass this to do forwarding in software, which would actually slow things down.