Roadmap

Version 21.02 (2021 February)

• Arm CRC32 in generic API
• Arm Scalable Vector Extensions (SVE) used in LPM4 library
• Arm meson build rework to support native compilation
• Aarch32 cross-compilation support
• x86 power management enhancements using UMWAIT and TPAUSE instructions
• Tx QoS marking API
• flow data field copy action
• matching on Geneve extended options
• device identifier syntax for SF representor
• AVF software back-end driver with device emulation libraries
• bnxt support for BCM58818/Stingray2 device
• bnxt end of support for BCM573xx and BCM5740x device families
• hns3 TM (Traffic Management) and PTP (Precise Time Protocol)
• hns3 link and descriptors status
• i40e on Windows
• iavf eCPRI flow offloading
• ice DCF double VLAN offloading
• mlx5 on Windows
• mlx5 flow data field copy
• mlx5 handling of GTP and Geneve extension headers
• mlx5 SF (Scalable Function) representor
• mvpp2 enhancement
• octeon PCIe endpoint driver for smartNIC
• octeontx2 mirroring
• qede initial support for next generation hardware
• qede flow API support
• vhost async data path performance optimizations
• vhost memory tables handler refactoring
• virtio PMD refactoring
• virtio packed ring path using Arm NEON
• C11 atomic builtins instead of rte_smp_xx barrier in vhost/virtio/eventdev
• IF proxy
• performance test for IP reassembly
• runtime config for burst stats and CPU cycle stats in testpmd
• multi-threaded rule insertion in flow-perf application
• IPv6 in lookaside IPsec example
• anti-replay in inline IPsec example
• crypto enqueue and dequeue callbacks
• octeontx2 crypto enhancement
• mlx5 compressdev
• regex driver based on libpcre
• dynamic load balancer event driver common code consolidation
• 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

21.02

• Proposal deadline (RFC/v1 patches): December 20, 2020
• API freeze (-rc1): January 19, 2021
• PMD features freeze (-rc2): January 29, 2021
• Release: February 5, 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.