Roadmap

Version 20.11 (2020 November)

• x86 direct-store (write-combined) memory write (movdiri)
• Arm CRC32 in generic API
• scatter-gather API for ring library
• integrate RCU deferred resource reclamation API with hash library
• performance improvements to stack library
• use C11 atomic builtins in bbdev, eal, ethdev and power libraries
• FIB vector lookup
• RSS encapsulation level
• Tx QoS marking API
• flow action object API
• flow sampling and mirroring API
• flow matching on IPv4/v6 frag/non-frag packets
• tunnel offload API
• hairpin between different ports
• Rx buffer split to multiple destinations
• bnxt SR-IOV PF, mirroring, VXLAN decap and RSS encapsulation level
• bnxt vSwitch acceleration and vector modes performance improvements
• performance optimizations in mlx drivers for Arm platforms
• mlx5 Rx buffer split
• mlx5 flow sampling/mirroring and extended matching
• mlx5 thread-safe flow rules management and improved performance
• octeontx2 packet mirroring and VLAN insertion/strip
• octeontx2 rte_tm enhancement
• qede SR-IOV PF and flow API support
• vhost DMA operations with CBDMA ioat driver
• virtio-user GET/SET_PROTOCOL_FEATURES, REPLY_ACK, SET_STATUS
• IF proxy
• performance test for IP reassembly
• runtime config for burst stats and CPU cycle stats in testpmd
• IPv6 in lookaside IPsec example
• anti-replay in inline IPsec example
• Stingray crypto
• nitrox AES-GCM and cipher only offload
• octeontx2 eventdev crypto adapter
• mlx5 compressdev
• regex driver based on libpcre
• regex Marvell driver
• Dynamic Load Balancer event driver
• UBSan in build

Nice to have - Future

• lock-free l3fwd algorithms
• multi-process rework
• automatic UIO/VFIO binding
• infiniband driver class (ibdev)
• default configuration from files
• generic white/blacklisting
• libedit integration

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

20.11

• Proposal deadline (RFC/v1 patches): September 11, 2020
• API freeze (-rc1): October 16, 2020
• PMD features freeze (-rc2): October 30, 2020
• Release: November 25, 2020

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.