[dpdk-dev] Flow Director vs. 5-tuple filters on a 10GbE Intel 82599 ES NIC

[Georgios Katsikas <katsikas.gp@gmail.com>]

Dear all,

I am performing rule installation/deletion benchmarks on a dual port 10 GbE
Intel 82599 ES NIC using DPDK 18.11.
The benchmark installs increasing number of rules (5 to 8000), measures the
rule installation rate and latency and then deletes the rules (measuring
again the rule deletion rate/latency).
The rule sets comprise of rules with exact matches (no masks involved) as
follows:

*Simple rule*
flow create 0 ingress pattern eth / ipv4 dst is 129.72.224.94 / end actions
queue index 0 / end

*More complicated rule*
flow create 0 ingress pattern eth / ipv4 dst is 46.54.254.68 src is
49.75.141.195 proto is 17 / udp dst is 26561 src is 7242 / end actions
queue index 0 / end

No matter how simple or complicated the rules are, I am not able to install
more than 128 rules on this NIC.

*Here comes my question*

According to the specification
<https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/embedded/products/networking/82599-10-gbe-controller-datasheet.html>,
this NIC can accommodate up to 128 5-tuple filters, which very well agrees
with my observation above.
However, the same document states that this NIC can also accommodate up to
8000 Flow Director filters.
What is the practical difference between a 5-tuple and a Flow Director rule
in this case? How can I exploit these 8k filters using DPDK 18.11?

Thanks in advance,
Georgios