IP Packet Forwarding Performance Comparison of the FD.io VPP and the Linux Kernel

Kosák, Melinda and Lencse, Gábor (2025) IP Packet Forwarding Performance Comparison of the FD.io VPP and the Linux Kernel. INFOCOMMUNICATIONS JOURNAL, 17 (2). pp. 35-44. ISSN 2061-2079

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Abstract

There are numerous free software solutions for IPv4 or IPv6 packet forwarding. The Fast Data Project / Vector Packet Processing (FD.io VPP) is a novel and prominent solution. This paper investigates its performance and scalability compared to that of the Linux kernel. The investigation was conducted in accordance with the requirements outlined in the relevant Request for Comments (RFC) documents (RFC 2544, RFC 4814, and RFC 5180) using the siitperf measurement software. Two different test environments were used to eliminate the potential hardwarespecific side effects and to gain insight into the performance and scalability of the IPv4 and IPv6 packet forwarding capability of the two investigated solutions. It was found that FD.io VPP outperformed the Linux kernel by approximately an order of magnitude. The configuration of FD.io VPP, along with the details of the measurements, are provided, and the results are presented and analyzed in the paper.

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