SwitchDev Driver Development for a Switch Silicon Vendor

customer profile

A leading, US-based semiconductor company, pursuing a new market share of white box clients.

BUSINESS NEED

SwitchDev driver’s availability from the ASIC vendor enables end users to deploy their choice of a supporting Linux-based OS on their networking platform. As a result, they can eliminate the vendor lock-in of proprietary systems. This change enables cost-efficiency throughout the supply chain while making the product applicable and affordable for a wide range of industries–ranging from ROBO, SMB, and SOHO, up to enterprise data centers.

Being a hardware product business, the Client needed to scale their software development capabilities by engaging a service partner with expertise in networking, Linux kernel, drivers and applications. The SwitchDev driver for the Client’s ASIC was to be contributed to Linux Kernel, so experience with open source was crucial for the vendor.

The Client aspired to grow their business in the white-box market. To strengthen the Client’s position, their switch silicon product needed to be complemented with specific open-source software.

The implemented SwitchDev driver for the Client’s switch silicon family supports Dent OS, targeted at Enterprise Edge use cases, on white-box platforms.

Expertise in Linux kernel and networking is scarce on the market. PLVision is a well-positioned company capable of providing the necessary software development services. The company also embodies solid experience in working with and contributing to open-source communities.

Technical Highlights

Enabling Linux-Based NOS Deployments with SwitchDev
SwitchDev, the Ethernet switch device driver model, is an in-kernel driver model for switch devices which offloads the forwarding data plane from the kernel to hardware. With the SwitchDev driver being available from the ASIC vendor, end users can deploy their choice of an unmodified Linux distribution as a NOS on their networking hardware, as well as use native Linux tools.

Complete Lifecycle Implementation of the SwitchDev Driver
The project included software design and development of the SwitchDev driver, implementation of the SwitchDev interface, and testing with further upstreaming of the driver.

Supporting Multi-Silicon SwitchDev Integration for Enterprise Edge Solutions
The SwitchDev driver was enabled for the Client’s chip family, covering several switch silicons for Enterprise Edge.

Strategic Upstreaming of Networking Features into the Linux Ecosystem
The developed functionality was upstreamed, according to the standard community procedure, with further inclusion into the Linux kernel product. This required alignment with the Netdev community and processing the related feedback.

Driving Innovation in Linux Networking Through Targeted Kernel Extensions
As a certain required functionality was lacking within Linux, the additional configuration was enabled. PLVison’s team extended the generic kernel infrastructure, allowing to offload more of the kernel network functionality. PLVision’s team has been working with the Linux community to efficiently close the gaps.

Ongoing Feature Development and Linux Infrastructure Alignment
The ongoing stage of the project includes the development of additional features and adjustment to the changing Linux infrastructure.

business result

• As deliverables, the Client obtained an additional open-source interface and software package for their switch silicons. This allowed their partners to avoid the vendor-lock of proprietary NOSes, increasing the Client’s white box market.
• PLVision delivered a successful project by leveraging its strong, low-level networking and embedded software development background, which was powered by previous experience with 6 top switch silicons. The company’s past collaboration with open-source communities was also a benefit in securing the success of the upstreaming process.