I have a quick check, VEB/VEPA/VSI is not i40e's specific, they are IEEE EVB terms. See below.
IEEE EVB tutorial: http://www.ieee802.org/802_tutorials/2009-11/evb-tutorial-draft-20091116_v09.pdf Virtual Ethernet Bridge (VEB) - This is an IEEE EVB term. A VEB is a VLAN Bridge internal to Fortville that bridges the traffic of multiple VSIs over an internal virtual network. Virtual Ethernet Port Aggregator (VEPA) - This is an IEEE EVB term. A VEPA multiplexes the traffic of one or more VSIs onto a single Fortville Ethernet port. The biggest difference between a VEB and a VEPA is that a VEB can switch packets internally between VSIs, whereas a VEPA cannot. Virtual Station Interface (VSI) - This is an IEEE EVB term that defines the properties of a virtual machine's (or a physical machine's) connection to the network. Each downstream v-port on a Fortville VEB or VEPA defines a VSI. A standards-based definition of VSI properties enables network management tools to perform virtual machine migration and associated network re-configuration in a vendor-neutral manner. Thanks Qian -----Original Message----- From: dev [mailto:dev-boun...@dpdk.org] On Behalf Of Thomas Monjalon Sent: Friday, January 22, 2016 6:16 PM To: Tao, Zhe; Mcnamara, John Cc: dev at dpdk.org Subject: Re: [dpdk-dev] [PATCH] i40e: add VEB switching support for i40e 2016-01-21 14:49, Zhe Tao: > VEB switching feature for i40e is used to enable the switching between > the VSIs connect to the virtual bridge. The old implementation is > setting the virtual bridge mode as VEPA which is port aggregation. > Enable the switching ability by setting the loop back mode for the > specific VSIs which connect to PF or VFs. > > Signed-off-by: Zhe Tao <zhe.tao at intel.com> Is VEB something specific to i40e? Please explain the acronyms VEB, VSI and VEPA in the commit log or in a doc dedicated to i40e. Having some design explanations in a doc would help to understand the changes and to contribute. Thanks