Re: [dpdk-dev] [PATCH] net/dpdkoin: add new driver

[Stephen Hemminger <stephen@networkplumber.org>]

On Wed, 1 Apr 2020 21:51:53 +0100
Kevin Traynor <ktraynor@redhat.com> wrote:

> On 01/04/2020 14:10, Matteo Croce wrote:
> > DPDK polls the packet in a busy loop. This means that CPU constantly spins
> > looking for packets, regardless of the network traffic.
> > DPDK does this to reduce latency and avoid using interrupts, at expense of
> > efficiency: this might consume more processing power and generate more heat
> > than needed, potentially increasing the TCO of a DPDK appliance.
> > 
> > Here comes DPDKoin. DPDKoin is a DPDK PMD, which instead of moving
> > packets, mines cryptocurrencies.
> > DPDKoin just does a few calculations to every poll cycle, this means that
> > when the network is loaded, DPDKoin consumes just a few cycles, but when
> > there is no traffic, DPDKoin mines currencies in a busy loop.
> > The coins are mined with no extra consumption, as the CPU would spin
> > anyway.
> > 
> > This is a system running with two 10G cards running with DPDK:
> > 
> >   PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU  %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND
> >  8223 root      10 -10  260.6g 597516  19100 S 199.8   0.5   0:17.89 testpmd
> > 
> > And this is the same system with a DPDKoin port added:
> > 
> >   PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU  %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND
> >  9438 root      10 -10  260.6g 598892  19800 S 199.8   0.5   0:19.43 testpmd
> > 
> > As you can see, we don't observe any change in the CPU usage, and besides,
> > the earned coins lowers the appliance TCO.
> > 
> > Just for reference, a test run log follows:
> > 
> > $ sudo testpmd --no-huge -m 1024 --no-pci --vdev eth_dpdkoin0 --vdev eth_dpdkoin1
> > EAL: Detected 8 lcore(s)
> > EAL: Detected 1 NUMA nodes
> > EAL: Multi-process socket /var/run/dpdk/rte/mp_socket
> > EAL: Selected IOVA mode 'VA'
> > EAL: Probing VFIO support...
> > testpmd: create a new mbuf pool <mbuf_pool_socket_0>: n=203456, size=2176, socket=0
> > testpmd: preferred mempool ops selected: ring_mp_mc
> > Configuring Port 0 (socket 0)
> > Port 0: 4A:50:3C:33:55:21
> > Configuring Port 1 (socket 0)
> > Port 1: BA:BB:0A:BB:0C:CA
> > Checking link statuses...
> > Done
> > No commandline core given, start packet forwarding
> > io packet forwarding - ports=2 - cores=1 - streams=2 - NUMA support enabled, MP allocation mode: native
> > Logical Core 1 (socket 0) forwards packets on 2 streams:
> >   RX P=0/Q=0 (socket 0) -> TX P=1/Q=0 (socket 0) peer=02:00:00:00:00:01
> >   RX P=1/Q=0 (socket 0) -> TX P=0/Q=0 (socket 0) peer=02:00:00:00:00:00
> > 
> >   io packet forwarding packets/burst=32
> >   nb forwarding cores=1 - nb forwarding ports=2
> >   port 0: RX queue number: 1 Tx queue number: 1
> >     Rx offloads=0x0 Tx offloads=0x0
> >     RX queue: 0
> >       RX desc=0 - RX free threshold=0
> >       RX threshold registers: pthresh=0 hthresh=0  wthresh=0
> >       RX Offloads=0x0
> >     TX queue: 0
> >       TX desc=0 - TX free threshold=0
> >       TX threshold registers: pthresh=0 hthresh=0  wthresh=0
> >       TX offloads=0x0 - TX RS bit threshold=0
> >   port 1: RX queue number: 1 Tx queue number: 1
> >     Rx offloads=0x0 Tx offloads=0x0
> >     RX queue: 0
> >       RX desc=0 - RX free threshold=0
> >       RX threshold registers: pthresh=0 hthresh=0  wthresh=0
> >       RX Offloads=0x0
> >     TX queue: 0
> >       TX desc=0 - TX free threshold=0
> >       TX threshold registers: pthresh=0 hthresh=0  wthresh=0
> >       TX offloads=0x0 - TX RS bit threshold=0
> > libbitcoin 0.1: mining on CPU2
> > libbitcoin 0.1: mining on CPU4
> > ---
> >  config/common_base                            |   5 +
> >  drivers/net/Makefile                          |   1 +
> >  drivers/net/dpdkoin/Makefile                  |  23 +
> >  drivers/net/dpdkoin/meson.build               |   3 +
> >  drivers/net/dpdkoin/rte_eth_dpdkoin.c         | 696 ++++++++++++++++++
> >  .../net/dpdkoin/rte_pmd_dpdkoin_version.map   |   3 +
> >  mk/rte.app.mk                                 |   1 +
> >  7 files changed, 732 insertions(+)
> >  create mode 100644 drivers/net/dpdkoin/Makefile
> >  create mode 100644 drivers/net/dpdkoin/meson.build
> >  create mode 100644 drivers/net/dpdkoin/rte_eth_dpdkoin.c
> >  create mode 100644 drivers/net/dpdkoin/rte_pmd_dpdkoin_version.map  
> 
> I see you are requesting this for backport to stable branches. While
> this is not fixing a specific commit per se, it is clearly fixing a gap
> whereby it would be unfair for stable users to miss out on any potential
> bonanza.
> 
> Unfortunately there is a blocker due to validation. Normally, we might
> be concerned by lack of it, but in this case the concern is that it
> might encourage too much validation and many lengthy stress tests that
> could impact release dates.
> 

Could we fund the CI lab with this?