Hi Stephen, When I replace rte_eth_tx_burst() with mbuf free bulk I do not see the tx ring fill up. I think this is valuable information. Also, perf analysis of the tx thread shows common_ring_mp_enqueue and rte_atomic32_cmpset, where I did not expect to see if I created all the Tx rings as SP and SC (and the workers and ack rings as well, essentially all the 16 rings).
Perf report snippet: + 57.25% DPDK_TX_1 test [.] common_ring_mp_enqueue + 25.51% DPDK_TX_1 test [.] rte_atomic32_cmpset + 9.13% DPDK_TX_1 test [.] i40e_xmit_pkts + 6.50% DPDK_TX_1 test [.] rte_pause 0.21% DPDK_TX_1 test [.] rte_mempool_ops_enqueue_bulk.isra.0 0.20% DPDK_TX_1 test [.] dpdk_tx_thread The traffic load is constant 10 Gbps 84 bytes packets with no idles. The burst size of 512 is a desired burst of mbufs, however the tx thread will transmit what ever it can get from the Tx ring. I think if resolving why the perf analysis shows ring is MP when it has been created as SP / SC should resolve this issue. Thanks, ed -----Original Message----- From: Stephen Hemminger <step...@networkplumber.org> Sent: Tuesday, July 8, 2025 9:47 AM To: Lombardo, Ed <ed.lomba...@netscout.com> Cc: Ivan Malov <ivan.ma...@arknetworks.am>; users <users@dpdk.org> Subject: Re: dpdk Tx falling short External Email: This message originated outside of NETSCOUT. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. On Tue, 8 Jul 2025 04:10:05 +0000 "Lombardo, Ed" <ed.lomba...@netscout.com> wrote: > Hi Stephen, > I ensured that in every pipeline stage that enqueue or dequeues mbufs it uses > the burst version, perf showed the repercussions of doing one mbuf dequeue > and enqueue. > For the receive stage rte_eth_rx_burst() is used and Tx stage we use > rte_eth_tx_burst(). The burst size used in tx_thread for dequeue burst is > 512 Mbufs. You might try buffering like rte_eth_tx_buffer does. Need to add an additional mechanism to ensure that buffer gets flushed when you detect idle period.