Roadmap

Version 22.03 (2022 March)

• Arm CRC32 in generic API
• Tx QoS marking API
• VLAN-based input color metering
• IP reassembly offload
• AVF software back-end driver with device emulation libraries
• bonding Tx prepare
• mlx5 inline IPsec ESP crypto
• octeontx2 mirroring
• qede initial support for next generation hardware
• qede flow API support
• vhost async dequeue for split ring and enable in vhost sample app
• event vector support in SW Rx eventdev adapter
• control adapter and RX adapter enhancements in DLB driver

Nice to have - Future

• lock-free l3fwd algorithms
• multi-process rework
• automatic UIO/VFIO binding
• infiniband driver class (ibdev)
• default configuration from files
• generic allow/blocklisting
• libedit integration
• UBSan in build
• regex driver based on libpcre
• IF proxy
• performance test for IP reassembly
• IPv6 in lookaside IPsec example
• anti-replay in inline IPsec example

Cycle model

A typical release should be done after 3 months.

It is designed to allow DPDK to keep evolving at a rapid pace while giving enough opportunity to review, discuss and improve the contributions.

The merge window will open once the previous release is complete. First version of a new feature must be submitted before the proposal deadline. Features that miss this first period will be deferred until the next release.

Updated versions of patches (v2, v3, etc.) will be submitted to address comments. The new features must be properly reviewed, tested and accepted before the integration deadline. Otherwise, they will be postponed to the next releases.

At the end of the merge window, the first release candidate is out.

The last period is 1 month long and is dedicated to bug fixing.

Scheduling

22.03

• Proposal deadline (RFC/v1 patches): 24 December 2021
• API freeze (-rc1): 2 February 2022
• PMD features freeze (-rc2): 23 February 2022
• Builtin applications features freeze (-rc3): 2 March 2022
• Release: early March 2022

Stable Releases

There is a documentation page describing the guidelines of the stable releases.

Stable point releases follow mainline releases.

After each -rc tag and after the final version, relevant bug fixes get backported by the stable maintainers into the respective branches in “bursts”.

Developers can provide stable-specific patches by sending them to stable@dpdk.org only (avoiding dev@dpdk.org).

After all the relevant bugfixes have been backported, regression tests are run, and if clear, the stable release is announced.

Typically a new stable release version follows a mainline release by 1-2 weeks, depending on the test results.