1 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5 This file documents the mmap() facility available with the PACKET
6 socket interface on 2.4/2.6/3.x kernels. This type of sockets is used for
7 i) capture network traffic with utilities like tcpdump, ii) transmit network
8 traffic, or any other that needs raw access to network interface.
10 Howto can be found at:
11 https://sites.google.com/site/packetmmap/
13 Please send your comments to
14 Ulisses Alonso CamarĂ³ <uaca@i.hate.spam.alumni.uv.es>
17 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
19 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21 In Linux 2.4/2.6/3.x if PACKET_MMAP is not enabled, the capture process is very
22 inefficient. It uses very limited buffers and requires one system call to
23 capture each packet, it requires two if you want to get packet's timestamp
24 (like libpcap always does).
26 In the other hand PACKET_MMAP is very efficient. PACKET_MMAP provides a size
27 configurable circular buffer mapped in user space that can be used to either
28 send or receive packets. This way reading packets just needs to wait for them,
29 most of the time there is no need to issue a single system call. Concerning
30 transmission, multiple packets can be sent through one system call to get the
31 highest bandwidth. By using a shared buffer between the kernel and the user
32 also has the benefit of minimizing packet copies.
34 It's fine to use PACKET_MMAP to improve the performance of the capture and
35 transmission process, but it isn't everything. At least, if you are capturing
36 at high speeds (this is relative to the cpu speed), you should check if the
37 device driver of your network interface card supports some sort of interrupt
38 load mitigation or (even better) if it supports NAPI, also make sure it is
39 enabled. For transmission, check the MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) used and
40 supported by devices of your network. CPU IRQ pinning of your network interface
41 card can also be an advantage.
43 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
44 + How to use mmap() to improve capture process
45 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
47 From the user standpoint, you should use the higher level libpcap library, which
48 is a de facto standard, portable across nearly all operating systems
51 Packet MMAP support was integrated into libpcap around the time of version 1.3.0;
52 TPACKET_V3 support was added in version 1.5.0
54 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
55 + How to use mmap() directly to improve capture process
56 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
58 From the system calls stand point, the use of PACKET_MMAP involves
59 the following process:
62 [setup] socket() -------> creation of the capture socket
63 setsockopt() ---> allocation of the circular buffer (ring)
64 option: PACKET_RX_RING
65 mmap() ---------> mapping of the allocated buffer to the
68 [capture] poll() ---------> to wait for incoming packets
70 [shutdown] close() --------> destruction of the capture socket and
71 deallocation of all associated
75 socket creation and destruction is straight forward, and is done
76 the same way with or without PACKET_MMAP:
78 int fd = socket(PF_PACKET, mode, htons(ETH_P_ALL));
80 where mode is SOCK_RAW for the raw interface were link level
81 information can be captured or SOCK_DGRAM for the cooked
82 interface where link level information capture is not
83 supported and a link level pseudo-header is provided
86 The destruction of the socket and all associated resources
87 is done by a simple call to close(fd).
89 Similarly as without PACKET_MMAP, it is possible to use one socket
90 for capture and transmission. This can be done by mapping the
91 allocated RX and TX buffer ring with a single mmap() call.
92 See "Mapping and use of the circular buffer (ring)".
94 Next I will describe PACKET_MMAP settings and its constraints,
95 also the mapping of the circular buffer in the user process and
96 the use of this buffer.
98 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
99 + How to use mmap() directly to improve transmission process
100 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
101 Transmission process is similar to capture as shown below.
103 [setup] socket() -------> creation of the transmission socket
104 setsockopt() ---> allocation of the circular buffer (ring)
105 option: PACKET_TX_RING
106 bind() ---------> bind transmission socket with a network interface
107 mmap() ---------> mapping of the allocated buffer to the
110 [transmission] poll() ---------> wait for free packets (optional)
111 send() ---------> send all packets that are set as ready in
113 The flag MSG_DONTWAIT can be used to return
114 before end of transfer.
116 [shutdown] close() --------> destruction of the transmission socket and
117 deallocation of all associated resources.
119 Socket creation and destruction is also straight forward, and is done
120 the same way as in capturing described in the previous paragraph:
122 int fd = socket(PF_PACKET, mode, 0);
124 The protocol can optionally be 0 in case we only want to transmit
125 via this socket, which avoids an expensive call to packet_rcv().
126 In this case, you also need to bind(2) the TX_RING with sll_protocol = 0
127 set. Otherwise, htons(ETH_P_ALL) or any other protocol, for example.
129 Binding the socket to your network interface is mandatory (with zero copy) to
130 know the header size of frames used in the circular buffer.
132 As capture, each frame contains two parts:
135 | struct tpacket_hdr | Header. It contains the status of
137 |--------------------|
139 . . Data that will be sent over the network interface.
143 bind() associates the socket to your network interface thanks to
144 sll_ifindex parameter of struct sockaddr_ll.
146 Initialization example:
148 struct sockaddr_ll my_addr;
152 strncpy (s_ifr.ifr_name, "eth0", sizeof(s_ifr.ifr_name));
154 /* get interface index of eth0 */
155 ioctl(this->socket, SIOCGIFINDEX, &s_ifr);
157 /* fill sockaddr_ll struct to prepare binding */
158 my_addr.sll_family = AF_PACKET;
159 my_addr.sll_protocol = htons(ETH_P_ALL);
160 my_addr.sll_ifindex = s_ifr.ifr_ifindex;
162 /* bind socket to eth0 */
163 bind(this->socket, (struct sockaddr *)&my_addr, sizeof(struct sockaddr_ll));
165 A complete tutorial is available at: https://sites.google.com/site/packetmmap/
167 By default, the user should put data at :
168 frame base + TPACKET_HDRLEN - sizeof(struct sockaddr_ll)
170 So, whatever you choose for the socket mode (SOCK_DGRAM or SOCK_RAW),
171 the beginning of the user data will be at :
172 frame base + TPACKET_ALIGN(sizeof(struct tpacket_hdr))
174 If you wish to put user data at a custom offset from the beginning of
175 the frame (for payload alignment with SOCK_RAW mode for instance) you
176 can set tp_net (with SOCK_DGRAM) or tp_mac (with SOCK_RAW). In order
177 to make this work it must be enabled previously with setsockopt()
178 and the PACKET_TX_HAS_OFF option.
180 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
181 + PACKET_MMAP settings
182 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
184 To setup PACKET_MMAP from user level code is done with a call like
187 setsockopt(fd, SOL_PACKET, PACKET_RX_RING, (void *) &req, sizeof(req))
188 - Transmission process
189 setsockopt(fd, SOL_PACKET, PACKET_TX_RING, (void *) &req, sizeof(req))
191 The most significant argument in the previous call is the req parameter,
192 this parameter must to have the following structure:
196 unsigned int tp_block_size; /* Minimal size of contiguous block */
197 unsigned int tp_block_nr; /* Number of blocks */
198 unsigned int tp_frame_size; /* Size of frame */
199 unsigned int tp_frame_nr; /* Total number of frames */
202 This structure is defined in /usr/include/linux/if_packet.h and establishes a
203 circular buffer (ring) of unswappable memory.
204 Being mapped in the capture process allows reading the captured frames and
205 related meta-information like timestamps without requiring a system call.
207 Frames are grouped in blocks. Each block is a physically contiguous
208 region of memory and holds tp_block_size/tp_frame_size frames. The total number
209 of blocks is tp_block_nr. Note that tp_frame_nr is a redundant parameter because
211 frames_per_block = tp_block_size/tp_frame_size
213 indeed, packet_set_ring checks that the following condition is true
215 frames_per_block * tp_block_nr == tp_frame_nr
217 Lets see an example, with the following values:
224 we will get the following buffer structure:
227 +---------+---------+ +---------+---------+
228 | frame 1 | frame 2 | | frame 3 | frame 4 |
229 +---------+---------+ +---------+---------+
232 +---------+---------+ +---------+---------+
233 | frame 5 | frame 6 | | frame 7 | frame 8 |
234 +---------+---------+ +---------+---------+
236 A frame can be of any size with the only condition it can fit in a block. A block
237 can only hold an integer number of frames, or in other words, a frame cannot
238 be spawned across two blocks, so there are some details you have to take into
239 account when choosing the frame_size. See "Mapping and use of the circular
242 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
243 + PACKET_MMAP setting constraints
244 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
246 In kernel versions prior to 2.4.26 (for the 2.4 branch) and 2.6.5 (2.6 branch),
247 the PACKET_MMAP buffer could hold only 32768 frames in a 32 bit architecture or
248 16384 in a 64 bit architecture. For information on these kernel versions
249 see http://pusa.uv.es/~ulisses/packet_mmap/packet_mmap.pre-2.4.26_2.6.5.txt
254 As stated earlier, each block is a contiguous physical region of memory. These
255 memory regions are allocated with calls to the __get_free_pages() function. As
256 the name indicates, this function allocates pages of memory, and the second
257 argument is "order" or a power of two number of pages, that is
258 (for PAGE_SIZE == 4096) order=0 ==> 4096 bytes, order=1 ==> 8192 bytes,
259 order=2 ==> 16384 bytes, etc. The maximum size of a
260 region allocated by __get_free_pages is determined by the MAX_ORDER macro. More
261 precisely the limit can be calculated as:
263 PAGE_SIZE << MAX_ORDER
265 In a i386 architecture PAGE_SIZE is 4096 bytes
266 In a 2.4/i386 kernel MAX_ORDER is 10
267 In a 2.6/i386 kernel MAX_ORDER is 11
269 So get_free_pages can allocate as much as 4MB or 8MB in a 2.4/2.6 kernel
270 respectively, with an i386 architecture.
272 User space programs can include /usr/include/sys/user.h and
273 /usr/include/linux/mmzone.h to get PAGE_SIZE MAX_ORDER declarations.
275 The pagesize can also be determined dynamically with the getpagesize (2)
281 To understand the constraints of PACKET_MMAP, we have to see the structure
282 used to hold the pointers to each block.
284 Currently, this structure is a dynamically allocated vector with kmalloc
285 called pg_vec, its size limits the number of blocks that can be allocated.
297 kmalloc allocates any number of bytes of physically contiguous memory from
298 a pool of pre-determined sizes. This pool of memory is maintained by the slab
299 allocator which is at the end the responsible for doing the allocation and
300 hence which imposes the maximum memory that kmalloc can allocate.
302 In a 2.4/2.6 kernel and the i386 architecture, the limit is 131072 bytes. The
303 predetermined sizes that kmalloc uses can be checked in the "size-<bytes>"
304 entries of /proc/slabinfo
306 In a 32 bit architecture, pointers are 4 bytes long, so the total number of
307 pointers to blocks is
309 131072/4 = 32768 blocks
311 PACKET_MMAP buffer size calculator
312 ------------------------------------
316 <size-max> : is the maximum size of allocable with kmalloc (see /proc/slabinfo)
317 <pointer size>: depends on the architecture -- sizeof(void *)
318 <page size> : depends on the architecture -- PAGE_SIZE or getpagesize (2)
319 <max-order> : is the value defined with MAX_ORDER
320 <frame size> : it's an upper bound of frame's capture size (more on this later)
322 from these definitions we will derive
324 <block number> = <size-max>/<pointer size>
325 <block size> = <pagesize> << <max-order>
327 so, the max buffer size is
329 <block number> * <block size>
331 and, the number of frames be
333 <block number> * <block size> / <frame size>
335 Suppose the following parameters, which apply for 2.6 kernel and an
338 <size-max> = 131072 bytes
339 <pointer size> = 4 bytes
340 <pagesize> = 4096 bytes
343 and a value for <frame size> of 2048 bytes. These parameters will yield
345 <block number> = 131072/4 = 32768 blocks
346 <block size> = 4096 << 11 = 8 MiB.
348 and hence the buffer will have a 262144 MiB size. So it can hold
349 262144 MiB / 2048 bytes = 134217728 frames
351 Actually, this buffer size is not possible with an i386 architecture.
352 Remember that the memory is allocated in kernel space, in the case of
353 an i386 kernel's memory size is limited to 1GiB.
355 All memory allocations are not freed until the socket is closed. The memory
356 allocations are done with GFP_KERNEL priority, this basically means that
357 the allocation can wait and swap other process' memory in order to allocate
358 the necessary memory, so normally limits can be reached.
363 If you check the source code you will see that what I draw here as a frame
364 is not only the link level frame. At the beginning of each frame there is a
365 header called struct tpacket_hdr used in PACKET_MMAP to hold link level's frame
366 meta information like timestamp. So what we draw here a frame it's really
367 the following (from include/linux/if_packet.h):
372 - Start. Frame must be aligned to TPACKET_ALIGNMENT=16
374 - pad to TPACKET_ALIGNMENT=16
376 - Gap, chosen so that packet data (Start+tp_net) aligns to
378 - Start+tp_mac: [ Optional MAC header ]
379 - Start+tp_net: Packet data, aligned to TPACKET_ALIGNMENT=16.
380 - Pad to align to TPACKET_ALIGNMENT=16
383 The following are conditions that are checked in packet_set_ring
385 tp_block_size must be a multiple of PAGE_SIZE (1)
386 tp_frame_size must be greater than TPACKET_HDRLEN (obvious)
387 tp_frame_size must be a multiple of TPACKET_ALIGNMENT
388 tp_frame_nr must be exactly frames_per_block*tp_block_nr
390 Note that tp_block_size should be chosen to be a power of two or there will
391 be a waste of memory.
393 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
394 + Mapping and use of the circular buffer (ring)
395 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
397 The mapping of the buffer in the user process is done with the conventional
398 mmap function. Even the circular buffer is compound of several physically
399 discontiguous blocks of memory, they are contiguous to the user space, hence
400 just one call to mmap is needed:
402 mmap(0, size, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED, fd, 0);
404 If tp_frame_size is a divisor of tp_block_size frames will be
405 contiguously spaced by tp_frame_size bytes. If not, each
406 tp_block_size/tp_frame_size frames there will be a gap between
407 the frames. This is because a frame cannot be spawn across two
410 To use one socket for capture and transmission, the mapping of both the
411 RX and TX buffer ring has to be done with one call to mmap:
414 setsockopt(fd, SOL_PACKET, PACKET_RX_RING, &foo, sizeof(foo));
415 setsockopt(fd, SOL_PACKET, PACKET_TX_RING, &bar, sizeof(bar));
417 rx_ring = mmap(0, size * 2, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED, fd, 0);
418 tx_ring = rx_ring + size;
420 RX must be the first as the kernel maps the TX ring memory right
423 At the beginning of each frame there is an status field (see
424 struct tpacket_hdr). If this field is 0 means that the frame is ready
425 to be used for the kernel, If not, there is a frame the user can read
426 and the following flags apply:
429 from include/linux/if_packet.h
431 #define TP_STATUS_COPY (1 << 1)
432 #define TP_STATUS_LOSING (1 << 2)
433 #define TP_STATUS_CSUMNOTREADY (1 << 3)
434 #define TP_STATUS_CSUM_VALID (1 << 7)
436 TP_STATUS_COPY : This flag indicates that the frame (and associated
437 meta information) has been truncated because it's
438 larger than tp_frame_size. This packet can be
439 read entirely with recvfrom().
441 In order to make this work it must to be
442 enabled previously with setsockopt() and
443 the PACKET_COPY_THRESH option.
445 The number of frames that can be buffered to
446 be read with recvfrom is limited like a normal socket.
447 See the SO_RCVBUF option in the socket (7) man page.
449 TP_STATUS_LOSING : indicates there were packet drops from last time
450 statistics where checked with getsockopt() and
451 the PACKET_STATISTICS option.
453 TP_STATUS_CSUMNOTREADY: currently it's used for outgoing IP packets which
454 its checksum will be done in hardware. So while
455 reading the packet we should not try to check the
458 TP_STATUS_CSUM_VALID : This flag indicates that at least the transport
459 header checksum of the packet has been already
460 validated on the kernel side. If the flag is not set
461 then we are free to check the checksum by ourselves
462 provided that TP_STATUS_CSUMNOTREADY is also not set.
464 for convenience there are also the following defines:
466 #define TP_STATUS_KERNEL 0
467 #define TP_STATUS_USER 1
469 The kernel initializes all frames to TP_STATUS_KERNEL, when the kernel
470 receives a packet it puts in the buffer and updates the status with
471 at least the TP_STATUS_USER flag. Then the user can read the packet,
472 once the packet is read the user must zero the status field, so the kernel
473 can use again that frame buffer.
475 The user can use poll (any other variant should apply too) to check if new
476 packets are in the ring:
482 pfd.events = POLLIN|POLLRDNORM|POLLERR;
484 if (status == TP_STATUS_KERNEL)
485 retval = poll(&pfd, 1, timeout);
487 It doesn't incur in a race condition to first check the status value and
488 then poll for frames.
490 ++ Transmission process
491 Those defines are also used for transmission:
493 #define TP_STATUS_AVAILABLE 0 // Frame is available
494 #define TP_STATUS_SEND_REQUEST 1 // Frame will be sent on next send()
495 #define TP_STATUS_SENDING 2 // Frame is currently in transmission
496 #define TP_STATUS_WRONG_FORMAT 4 // Frame format is not correct
498 First, the kernel initializes all frames to TP_STATUS_AVAILABLE. To send a
499 packet, the user fills a data buffer of an available frame, sets tp_len to
500 current data buffer size and sets its status field to TP_STATUS_SEND_REQUEST.
501 This can be done on multiple frames. Once the user is ready to transmit, it
502 calls send(). Then all buffers with status equal to TP_STATUS_SEND_REQUEST are
503 forwarded to the network device. The kernel updates each status of sent
504 frames with TP_STATUS_SENDING until the end of transfer.
505 At the end of each transfer, buffer status returns to TP_STATUS_AVAILABLE.
507 header->tp_len = in_i_size;
508 header->tp_status = TP_STATUS_SEND_REQUEST;
509 retval = send(this->socket, NULL, 0, 0);
511 The user can also use poll() to check if a buffer is available:
512 (status == TP_STATUS_SENDING)
517 pfd.events = POLLOUT;
518 retval = poll(&pfd, 1, timeout);
520 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
521 + What TPACKET versions are available and when to use them?
522 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
524 int val = tpacket_version;
525 setsockopt(fd, SOL_PACKET, PACKET_VERSION, &val, sizeof(val));
526 getsockopt(fd, SOL_PACKET, PACKET_VERSION, &val, sizeof(val));
528 where 'tpacket_version' can be TPACKET_V1 (default), TPACKET_V2, TPACKET_V3.
531 - Default if not otherwise specified by setsockopt(2)
532 - RX_RING, TX_RING available
534 TPACKET_V1 --> TPACKET_V2:
535 - Made 64 bit clean due to unsigned long usage in TPACKET_V1
536 structures, thus this also works on 64 bit kernel with 32 bit
537 userspace and the like
538 - Timestamp resolution in nanoseconds instead of microseconds
539 - RX_RING, TX_RING available
540 - VLAN metadata information available for packets
541 (TP_STATUS_VLAN_VALID, TP_STATUS_VLAN_TPID_VALID),
542 in the tpacket2_hdr structure:
543 - TP_STATUS_VLAN_VALID bit being set into the tp_status field indicates
544 that the tp_vlan_tci field has valid VLAN TCI value
545 - TP_STATUS_VLAN_TPID_VALID bit being set into the tp_status field
546 indicates that the tp_vlan_tpid field has valid VLAN TPID value
547 - How to switch to TPACKET_V2:
548 1. Replace struct tpacket_hdr by struct tpacket2_hdr
549 2. Query header len and save
550 3. Set protocol version to 2, set up ring as usual
551 4. For getting the sockaddr_ll,
552 use (void *)hdr + TPACKET_ALIGN(hdrlen) instead of
553 (void *)hdr + TPACKET_ALIGN(sizeof(struct tpacket_hdr))
555 TPACKET_V2 --> TPACKET_V3:
556 - Flexible buffer implementation for RX_RING:
557 1. Blocks can be configured with non-static frame-size
558 2. Read/poll is at a block-level (as opposed to packet-level)
559 3. Added poll timeout to avoid indefinite user-space wait
561 4. Added user-configurable knobs:
563 4.2 tpkt_hdr::sk_rxhash
564 - RX Hash data available in user space
565 - TX_RING semantics are conceptually similar to TPACKET_V2;
566 use tpacket3_hdr instead of tpacket2_hdr, and TPACKET3_HDRLEN
567 instead of TPACKET2_HDRLEN. In the current implementation,
568 the tp_next_offset field in the tpacket3_hdr MUST be set to
569 zero, indicating that the ring does not hold variable sized frames.
570 Packets with non-zero values of tp_next_offset will be dropped.
572 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
573 + AF_PACKET fanout mode
574 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
576 In the AF_PACKET fanout mode, packet reception can be load balanced among
577 processes. This also works in combination with mmap(2) on packet sockets.
579 Currently implemented fanout policies are:
581 - PACKET_FANOUT_HASH: schedule to socket by skb's packet hash
582 - PACKET_FANOUT_LB: schedule to socket by round-robin
583 - PACKET_FANOUT_CPU: schedule to socket by CPU packet arrives on
584 - PACKET_FANOUT_RND: schedule to socket by random selection
585 - PACKET_FANOUT_ROLLOVER: if one socket is full, rollover to another
586 - PACKET_FANOUT_QM: schedule to socket by skbs recorded queue_mapping
588 Minimal example code by David S. Miller (try things like "./test eth0 hash",
589 "./test eth0 lb", etc.):
596 #include <sys/types.h>
597 #include <sys/wait.h>
598 #include <sys/socket.h>
599 #include <sys/ioctl.h>
603 #include <linux/if_ether.h>
604 #include <linux/if_packet.h>
608 static const char *device_name;
609 static int fanout_type;
610 static int fanout_id;
612 #ifndef PACKET_FANOUT
613 # define PACKET_FANOUT 18
614 # define PACKET_FANOUT_HASH 0
615 # define PACKET_FANOUT_LB 1
618 static int setup_socket(void)
620 int err, fd = socket(AF_PACKET, SOCK_RAW, htons(ETH_P_IP));
621 struct sockaddr_ll ll;
630 memset(&ifr, 0, sizeof(ifr));
631 strcpy(ifr.ifr_name, device_name);
632 err = ioctl(fd, SIOCGIFINDEX, &ifr);
634 perror("SIOCGIFINDEX");
638 memset(&ll, 0, sizeof(ll));
639 ll.sll_family = AF_PACKET;
640 ll.sll_ifindex = ifr.ifr_ifindex;
641 err = bind(fd, (struct sockaddr *) &ll, sizeof(ll));
647 fanout_arg = (fanout_id | (fanout_type << 16));
648 err = setsockopt(fd, SOL_PACKET, PACKET_FANOUT,
649 &fanout_arg, sizeof(fanout_arg));
651 perror("setsockopt");
658 static void fanout_thread(void)
660 int fd = setup_socket();
666 while (limit-- > 0) {
670 err = read(fd, buf, sizeof(buf));
675 if ((limit % 10) == 0)
676 fprintf(stdout, "(%d) \n", getpid());
679 fprintf(stdout, "%d: Received 10000 packets\n", getpid());
685 int main(int argc, char **argp)
691 fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s INTERFACE {hash|lb}\n", argp[0]);
695 if (!strcmp(argp[2], "hash"))
696 fanout_type = PACKET_FANOUT_HASH;
697 else if (!strcmp(argp[2], "lb"))
698 fanout_type = PACKET_FANOUT_LB;
700 fprintf(stderr, "Unknown fanout type [%s]\n", argp[2]);
704 device_name = argp[1];
705 fanout_id = getpid() & 0xffff;
707 for (i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
720 for (i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
729 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
730 + AF_PACKET TPACKET_V3 example
731 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
733 AF_PACKET's TPACKET_V3 ring buffer can be configured to use non-static frame
734 sizes by doing it's own memory management. It is based on blocks where polling
735 works on a per block basis instead of per ring as in TPACKET_V2 and predecessor.
737 It is said that TPACKET_V3 brings the following benefits:
738 *) ~15 - 20% reduction in CPU-usage
739 *) ~20% increase in packet capture rate
740 *) ~2x increase in packet density
741 *) Port aggregation analysis
742 *) Non static frame size to capture entire packet payload
744 So it seems to be a good candidate to be used with packet fanout.
746 Minimal example code by Daniel Borkmann based on Chetan Loke's lolpcap (compile
747 it with gcc -Wall -O2 blob.c, and try things like "./a.out eth0", etc.):
749 /* Written from scratch, but kernel-to-user space API usage
750 * dissected from lolpcap:
751 * Copyright 2011, Chetan Loke <loke.chetan@gmail.com>
752 * License: GPL, version 2.0
761 #include <arpa/inet.h>
766 #include <inttypes.h>
767 #include <sys/socket.h>
768 #include <sys/mman.h>
769 #include <linux/if_packet.h>
770 #include <linux/if_ether.h>
771 #include <linux/ip.h>
774 # define likely(x) __builtin_expect(!!(x), 1)
777 # define unlikely(x) __builtin_expect(!!(x), 0)
782 uint32_t offset_to_priv;
783 struct tpacket_hdr_v1 h1;
789 struct tpacket_req3 req;
792 static unsigned long packets_total = 0, bytes_total = 0;
793 static sig_atomic_t sigint = 0;
795 static void sighandler(int num)
800 static int setup_socket(struct ring *ring, char *netdev)
802 int err, i, fd, v = TPACKET_V3;
803 struct sockaddr_ll ll;
804 unsigned int blocksiz = 1 << 22, framesiz = 1 << 11;
805 unsigned int blocknum = 64;
807 fd = socket(AF_PACKET, SOCK_RAW, htons(ETH_P_ALL));
813 err = setsockopt(fd, SOL_PACKET, PACKET_VERSION, &v, sizeof(v));
815 perror("setsockopt");
819 memset(&ring->req, 0, sizeof(ring->req));
820 ring->req.tp_block_size = blocksiz;
821 ring->req.tp_frame_size = framesiz;
822 ring->req.tp_block_nr = blocknum;
823 ring->req.tp_frame_nr = (blocksiz * blocknum) / framesiz;
824 ring->req.tp_retire_blk_tov = 60;
825 ring->req.tp_feature_req_word = TP_FT_REQ_FILL_RXHASH;
827 err = setsockopt(fd, SOL_PACKET, PACKET_RX_RING, &ring->req,
830 perror("setsockopt");
834 ring->map = mmap(NULL, ring->req.tp_block_size * ring->req.tp_block_nr,
835 PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED | MAP_LOCKED, fd, 0);
836 if (ring->map == MAP_FAILED) {
841 ring->rd = malloc(ring->req.tp_block_nr * sizeof(*ring->rd));
843 for (i = 0; i < ring->req.tp_block_nr; ++i) {
844 ring->rd[i].iov_base = ring->map + (i * ring->req.tp_block_size);
845 ring->rd[i].iov_len = ring->req.tp_block_size;
848 memset(&ll, 0, sizeof(ll));
849 ll.sll_family = PF_PACKET;
850 ll.sll_protocol = htons(ETH_P_ALL);
851 ll.sll_ifindex = if_nametoindex(netdev);
856 err = bind(fd, (struct sockaddr *) &ll, sizeof(ll));
865 static void display(struct tpacket3_hdr *ppd)
867 struct ethhdr *eth = (struct ethhdr *) ((uint8_t *) ppd + ppd->tp_mac);
868 struct iphdr *ip = (struct iphdr *) ((uint8_t *) eth + ETH_HLEN);
870 if (eth->h_proto == htons(ETH_P_IP)) {
871 struct sockaddr_in ss, sd;
872 char sbuff[NI_MAXHOST], dbuff[NI_MAXHOST];
874 memset(&ss, 0, sizeof(ss));
875 ss.sin_family = PF_INET;
876 ss.sin_addr.s_addr = ip->saddr;
877 getnameinfo((struct sockaddr *) &ss, sizeof(ss),
878 sbuff, sizeof(sbuff), NULL, 0, NI_NUMERICHOST);
880 memset(&sd, 0, sizeof(sd));
881 sd.sin_family = PF_INET;
882 sd.sin_addr.s_addr = ip->daddr;
883 getnameinfo((struct sockaddr *) &sd, sizeof(sd),
884 dbuff, sizeof(dbuff), NULL, 0, NI_NUMERICHOST);
886 printf("%s -> %s, ", sbuff, dbuff);
889 printf("rxhash: 0x%x\n", ppd->hv1.tp_rxhash);
892 static void walk_block(struct block_desc *pbd, const int block_num)
894 int num_pkts = pbd->h1.num_pkts, i;
895 unsigned long bytes = 0;
896 struct tpacket3_hdr *ppd;
898 ppd = (struct tpacket3_hdr *) ((uint8_t *) pbd +
899 pbd->h1.offset_to_first_pkt);
900 for (i = 0; i < num_pkts; ++i) {
901 bytes += ppd->tp_snaplen;
904 ppd = (struct tpacket3_hdr *) ((uint8_t *) ppd +
905 ppd->tp_next_offset);
908 packets_total += num_pkts;
909 bytes_total += bytes;
912 static void flush_block(struct block_desc *pbd)
914 pbd->h1.block_status = TP_STATUS_KERNEL;
917 static void teardown_socket(struct ring *ring, int fd)
919 munmap(ring->map, ring->req.tp_block_size * ring->req.tp_block_nr);
924 int main(int argc, char **argp)
930 unsigned int block_num = 0, blocks = 64;
931 struct block_desc *pbd;
932 struct tpacket_stats_v3 stats;
935 fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s INTERFACE\n", argp[0]);
939 signal(SIGINT, sighandler);
941 memset(&ring, 0, sizeof(ring));
942 fd = setup_socket(&ring, argp[argc - 1]);
945 memset(&pfd, 0, sizeof(pfd));
947 pfd.events = POLLIN | POLLERR;
950 while (likely(!sigint)) {
951 pbd = (struct block_desc *) ring.rd[block_num].iov_base;
953 if ((pbd->h1.block_status & TP_STATUS_USER) == 0) {
958 walk_block(pbd, block_num);
960 block_num = (block_num + 1) % blocks;
964 err = getsockopt(fd, SOL_PACKET, PACKET_STATISTICS, &stats, &len);
966 perror("getsockopt");
971 printf("\nReceived %u packets, %lu bytes, %u dropped, freeze_q_cnt: %u\n",
972 stats.tp_packets, bytes_total, stats.tp_drops,
973 stats.tp_freeze_q_cnt);
975 teardown_socket(&ring, fd);
979 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
980 + PACKET_QDISC_BYPASS
981 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
983 If there is a requirement to load the network with many packets in a similar
984 fashion as pktgen does, you might set the following option after socket
988 setsockopt(fd, SOL_PACKET, PACKET_QDISC_BYPASS, &one, sizeof(one));
990 This has the side-effect, that packets sent through PF_PACKET will bypass the
991 kernel's qdisc layer and are forcedly pushed to the driver directly. Meaning,
992 packet are not buffered, tc disciplines are ignored, increased loss can occur
993 and such packets are also not visible to other PF_PACKET sockets anymore. So,
994 you have been warned; generally, this can be useful for stress testing various
995 components of a system.
997 On default, PACKET_QDISC_BYPASS is disabled and needs to be explicitly enabled
998 on PF_PACKET sockets.
1000 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1002 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1004 The PACKET_TIMESTAMP setting determines the source of the timestamp in
1005 the packet meta information for mmap(2)ed RX_RING and TX_RINGs. If your
1006 NIC is capable of timestamping packets in hardware, you can request those
1007 hardware timestamps to be used. Note: you may need to enable the generation
1008 of hardware timestamps with SIOCSHWTSTAMP (see related information from
1009 Documentation/networking/timestamping.txt).
1011 PACKET_TIMESTAMP accepts the same integer bit field as SO_TIMESTAMPING:
1013 int req = SOF_TIMESTAMPING_RAW_HARDWARE;
1014 setsockopt(fd, SOL_PACKET, PACKET_TIMESTAMP, (void *) &req, sizeof(req))
1016 For the mmap(2)ed ring buffers, such timestamps are stored in the
1017 tpacket{,2,3}_hdr structure's tp_sec and tp_{n,u}sec members. To determine
1018 what kind of timestamp has been reported, the tp_status field is binary |'ed
1019 with the following possible bits ...
1021 TP_STATUS_TS_RAW_HARDWARE
1022 TP_STATUS_TS_SOFTWARE
1024 ... that are equivalent to its SOF_TIMESTAMPING_* counterparts. For the
1025 RX_RING, if neither is set (i.e. PACKET_TIMESTAMP is not set), then a
1026 software fallback was invoked *within* PF_PACKET's processing code (less
1029 Getting timestamps for the TX_RING works as follows: i) fill the ring frames,
1030 ii) call sendto() e.g. in blocking mode, iii) wait for status of relevant
1031 frames to be updated resp. the frame handed over to the application, iv) walk
1032 through the frames to pick up the individual hw/sw timestamps.
1034 Only (!) if transmit timestamping is enabled, then these bits are combined
1035 with binary | with TP_STATUS_AVAILABLE, so you must check for that in your
1036 application (e.g. !(tp_status & (TP_STATUS_SEND_REQUEST | TP_STATUS_SENDING))
1037 in a first step to see if the frame belongs to the application, and then
1038 one can extract the type of timestamp in a second step from tp_status)!
1040 If you don't care about them, thus having it disabled, checking for
1041 TP_STATUS_AVAILABLE resp. TP_STATUS_WRONG_FORMAT is sufficient. If in the
1042 TX_RING part only TP_STATUS_AVAILABLE is set, then the tp_sec and tp_{n,u}sec
1043 members do not contain a valid value. For TX_RINGs, by default no timestamp
1046 See include/linux/net_tstamp.h and Documentation/networking/timestamping.txt
1047 for more information on hardware timestamps.
1049 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1050 + Miscellaneous bits
1051 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1053 - Packet sockets work well together with Linux socket filters, thus you also
1054 might want to have a look at Documentation/networking/filter.txt
1056 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1058 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1060 Jesse Brandeburg, for fixing my grammathical/spelling errors