libpcap Interface Configuration

Installation and Use of Napatech Link-Capture™ Software for Intel® PAC with Intel® Arria® 10 GX FPGA

Platform
Content Type
Quick Guide
Capture Software Version
Link™ Capture Software 12.10

Use the Interface configuration method page to set up the mapping between SmartNIC Rx ports and libpcap interfaces.

The Interface Configuration page

The upper area displays the available SmartNICs and the port numbering. See SmartNICs and Port Speeds.

In the middle area, you select one of four interface configuration methods:
  • One interface per port

  • One interface merge all ports

  • Load distributed - all ports -> N interfaces

  • Load distributed - set of x,y..z ports -> N interfaces

In the lower area, you can edit interface names and, for Load distributed - set of x,y..z ports -> N interfaces, edit which Rx ports map to which libpcap interface.

One interface per port

The default configuration is one interface per port. Use this configuration if traffic from each port should be handled by a separate libpcap interface.

Interface configuration method screen, showing entry for One interface per port option

One interface merges all ports

All ports use one interface. Use this configuration to make traffic from all ports available on one libpcap interface, for example, to allow a single process to handle all traffic. You can edit which Rx ports maps to the interface.

Interface configuration method screen, showing entry for One interface merge all ports option

Load distributed - all ports -> N interfaces

All ports map to N interfaces to enable load balancing. Use this configuration, for example, to distribute processing of traffic to a number of processes to take advantage of multi-CPU systems.

Interface configuration method screen, showing entry for Load distributed - all ports → N interfaces option

Choose how many libpcap interfaces to create. The default is 8, the range is 2 to 32.

The traffic from all ports is distributed between the defined libpcap interfaces. The way the traffic is distributed depends on the selected hash mode. The hash mode is selected on the Packet Processing page.

You can edit which Rx ports map to each libpcap interface.

Load distributed - set of x,y..z ports-> N interfaces

Specific ports map to N interfaces to enable load balancing. Use this configuration to set up any combination of merging and load distribution.

Interface configuration method screen, showing entry for Load distributed - set of x,y..z ports → N interfaces option. Interface name selected.

Choose how many libpcap interfaces to create. The default is 8, the range is 2 to 32.

The traffic from the ports is distributed between the defined libpcap interfaces. The way the traffic is distributed depends on the selected hash mode. The hash mode is selected on the Packet Processing page.

You can edit which Rx ports map to each libpcap interface.

Editing the mapping of ports to interfaces

For Load distributed - all ports -> N interfaces and Load distributed - set of x,y..z ports -> N interfaces, you can edit which Rx ports map to which libpcap interface.

Interface configuration method screen, showing entry for Load distributed - set of x,y..z ports → N interfaces option. Rx port selected

Editing libpcap interface names

When you have selected an interface configuration method, you can edit the libpcap interface names.

Interface configuration method screen, showing entry for One interface per port option