Roadmap

Version 21.11 (2021 November)

• wait API extended
• Arm features based on compiler availability
• Arm CRC32 in generic API
• oops handler
• mempool registration improvement
• optimized Toeplitz hash function
• flexible protocol parser
• shared queue
• Tx QoS marking API
• VLAN-based input color metering
• IP reassembly offload
• AVF software back-end driver with device emulation libraries
• bnxt RSS flow action
• bnxt full offload for Thor
• bonding Tx prepare
• cnxk inline IPsec, traffic manager, policing and metering
• hns3 refactoring and performance optimization
• i40evf PMD removal
• iavf support for Windows
• ice DCF reset API
• ice PF flow feature extension and add IEEE1588 and 1PPS
• ice PF protocol agnostics flow offloading (experimental)
• mlx5 inline IPsec ESP crypto
• mlx5 shared queue and flexible parser
• octeontx2 mirroring
• qede initial support for next generation hardware
• qede flow API support
• rte_power_monitor in virtio/vhost
• IOMMU for Intel® Data Streaming Accelerator in async vhost
• vhost async dequeue for split ring and enable in vhost sample app
• vhost async API for thread unsafe checking and thread safe clearing of in-flight packets
• testpmd multi-process
• cryptodev telemetry
• multi-process improvements for software crypto PMDs
• accommodation of different QAT driver versions
• cnxk crypto adapter and more protocols
• IPsec SA lifetime configuration
• IPsec unit tests
• event vector support in SW Rx eventdev adapter
• event vector in examples
• control adapter and RX adapter enhancements in DLB driver
• GPU device API
• DMA device API
• DMA driver for Kunpeng 920
• DMA driver for Intel® Data Streaming Accelerator
• DMA driver for Intel® QuickData Technology DMA Engine
• DMA driver for Marvell cnxk
• test suite for new dmadev class library

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

21.11

• Proposal deadline (RFC/v1 patches): 10 September 2021
• API freeze (-rc1): 15 October 2021
• PMD features freeze (-rc2): 29 October 2021
• Release: 19 November 2021

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.