apt-get update
apt-get updradeupgrade
apt-get install dpdk dpdk-dev --no-install-recommends

ip addr flush enp0s3

#!/bin/bash
echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv6/conf/all/disable_ipv6
echo 64 > /proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages
modprobe uio_pci_generic
dpdk-devbind.py -b uio_pci_generic 00:03.0
ip link add veth0a type veth peer name veth0b
ip link set veth0a up
ip link set veth0b up

dpdk-devbind.py --status

Network devices using DPDK-compatible driver
============================================
0000:00:03.0 '82540EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller 100e' drv=uio_pci_generic unused=e1000,vfio-pci

Network devices using kernel driver
===================================
0000:00:08.0 '82540EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller 100e' if=enp0s8 drv=e1000 unused=vfio-pci,uio_pci_generic *Active*

No 'Baseband' devices detected
==============================

No 'Crypto' devices detected
============================

No 'Eventdev' devices detected
==============================

No 'Mempool' devices detected
=============================

No 'Compress' devices detected
==============================

No 'Misc (rawdev)' devices detected
===================================

mkdir -p ~/freeRouter/bin ~/freeRouter/lib ~/freeRouter/etc ~/freeRouter/log
cd ~/freeRouter/lib
wget http://freerouter.nop.hu/rtr.jar

tree freeRouter
freeRouter
├── bin   # binary files      
├── etc   # configuration files      
├── lib   # library files      
└── log   # log files      

wget freerouter.nop.hu/rtrhttp://www.freertr.net/rtr-`uname -m`.tar -O rtr.tar

tar xvf rtr.tar -C ~/freeRouter/bin/

For those you would like to rebuild these binaries you can find the compilation shell script in freeRouter cloned git repository in: ~/freeRouter/src/native/c.sh

hwid hp
! cpu_port
int eth0 eth - 127.0.0.1 20001 127.0.0.1 20002
! freerouter control port for message
tcp2vrf 9080 v1 9080
! freerouter cli
tcp2vrf 2323 v1 23
! launch a process called "veth0" that actually link to veth0b
! cmd: ip link add veth0a type veth peer name veth0b
proc veth0 /root/freertr/bin/pcapInt.bin veth0a 20002 127.0.0.1 20001 127.0.0.1
proc p4emu /root/freertr/bin/p4dpdk.bin --vdev=net_af_packet0,iface=veth0b 127.0.0.1 9080 1

Let's spend some times on this hardware configuration file, as you might have notice there are additional interesting lines worth to mention:

• proc <process-name>

It is possible within freeRouter startup to launch processes. We use here this feature to start control plane / dataplane communication via veth pair: veth0a and veth0b and also P4Emu/dpdk, p4dpdk.bin packet processing backend.

• proc p4emu /root/freertr/bin/p4dpdk.bin --vdev=net_af_packet0,iface=veth0b 127.0.0.1 9080 1

In dpdk, by default dpdk interfaces have port_ids that are sequentially allocated and in the order of appearance in dpdk-devbind --status output usually sorted by pci_id. In the previous output interface enp0s3 has port_id #0 and in dpdk veth0b (CPU_PORT has alwasy the last port_id beside dpdk data port_id, so here it is 1. If for exaplem we dedicate enp0s3, enp0s8, enp0s9, enp0s10 in virtualbox the command would have been:

proc p4emu /root/freertr/bin/p4dpdk.bin --vdev=net_af_packet0,iface=veth0b 127.0.0.1 9080 4

enp0s3 would be: #0 with pci_id: 00:03.0

enp0s8 would be: #1 with pci_id: 00:08.0

enp0s9 would be: #2 with pci_id: 00:09.0

enp0s10 would be: #3 with pci_id: 00:0a.0

hostname dpdk-freerouter
buggy
!
!
vrf definition v1
 rd 1:1
 exit
!
interface ethernet0
 description freerouter@P4_CPU_PORT[veth0a]
 no shutdown
 no log-link-change
 exit
!
interface sdn1
 description freerouter@P4_CPU_PORT[enp0s3]
 mtu 1500
 vrf forwarding v1
 ipv4 address 192.168.0.131 255.255.255.0
 ipv6 address 2a01:e0a:159:2850::666 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff::
 ipv6 enable
 no shutdown
 no log-link-change
 exit
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
server telnet telnet
 security protocol telnet
 no exec authorization
 no login authentication
 vrf v1
 exit
!
server p4lang p4
 export-vrf v1 1
 export-port sdn1 0 0
 interconnect ethernet0
 vrf v1
 exit
!
!
end

In subsequent article we will see how this setup behaves with a DELL 640 server powered by Intel(R) Xeon(R) Gold 6138 CPU x 2  and equipped with a  Mellanox ConnectX-5 EX Dual Port 100GbE QSFP28 PCIe Adapter Low Profile card. We will also see how to connect this server to a P4 switch, BF2556X-1T. So stay tuned !