What it is

"The OpenFlow eXtensible DataPath daemon (xDPd) is a multi-platform, multi OF version, open-source datapath built focusing on performance and extensibility."

xDPd can also be considered a framework for building OpenFlow datapath elements, as it is designed to be easily extended with the support of new forwarding devices.

Supported platforms (drivers)

Shipped with all xDPd instances:

• GNU/Linux amd64/x86 user-space with MMAP suppport (gnu-linux). open-source
• GNU/Linux Intel's DPDK accelerated driver (gnu-linux-dpdk). open-source
• NetFGPA-10G (netfpga10g). open-source.

Also available:

• Broadcom Triumph2 (bcm).
• Octeon network processors (octeon).
• Other: refer to the wiki page for more details

You may want to have a look to the particular README pages of each platform by inspecting:

src/xdpd/drivers/{platform_name}/README

Requirements

• A modern GNU build-system (autoconf, automake, libtool, ...)
• GNU/Linux and libc development headers (linux-libc-dev and libc6-dev package in Debian/Ubuntu systems)
• pkg-config
• libconfig C++ lib (libconfig++-dev in Debian/Ubuntu systems)
• ROFL libraries installed [1]
• [optional] if you want to run automatic tests (make check), libcunit and libcppunit are required (in libcunit1-dev and libcppunit-dev packages in Debian-like systems).
• [optional] Doxygen to generate the documentation.

[1] http://www.roflibs.org/, https://github.com/bisdn/rofl-core

How to build

Install the dependencies and run:

sh# ./autogen.sh  
sh# cd build  
sh# ../configure  
sh# make  
sh# make install

Optionally you can make check for consistency checks. For other platforms different than gnu-linux, please make sure --with-hw-support=platform-name is specified, and that the appropriate README is read (e.g. src/xdpd/drivers/example/README).

How to run it

Copy the example.cfg:

sh# cd build/src/xdpd  
sh# cp ../../../src/xdpd/management/plugins/config/example.cfg .  

Now edit the configuration. Make sure ports attached to the Logical Switch Instance (LSI) exist in the system.

sh# vi example.cfg  

Run xdpd:

sh# ./xdpd -c example.cfg

Optional ../configure parameters

--with-hw-support=platform-name: Compiles support for the platform-name (platform driver). Default is gnu-linux.   
--with-plugins="plugin1...pluginN": Compile with plugin1..pluginN enabled. Default is --with-plugins="config" plugin.  
--enable-debug: Compile with debug symbols (-g) and debug output (warning, it may affect performance).  
--disable-silent-rules: Enable verbose compilation mode (AM_SILENT_RULES disabled)   

Doxygen documentation

You can have a look on:

http://www.xdpd.org/doc/

Documentation can be compiled via make doc. Documentation is generated in build/doc/ folder

RYU certification for gnu-linux/gnu-linux-dpdk: check doc/gnu-linux-ryu.cert

Known issues

• Certain GCC 4.8.X family versions are buggy and don't properly compile xDPd with -O3 optimizations. Please use GCC 4.8.3 or higher, or another version family.

More information, documentation and support

http://www.xdpd.org https://github.com/bisdn/xdpd

For getting support or participate in the discussions, join the mailing list [email protected] at https://lists.xdpd.org/mailman

Authorship

(c) Copyright BISDN GmbH 2013

Marc Sune<marc.sune (at) bisdn.de>
Andreas Koepsel<andreas.koepsel (at) bisdn.de>
Victor Alvarez<victor.alvarez (at) bisdn.de>
Tobias Jungel<tobias.jungel (at) bisdn.de>

And others