FPP VPP image source repository

FPP (Fast Path Provider) VPP image source repository contains code with FD.io VPP patches and tools to create a container image that runs a modified version of VPP.

User Plane Gateway (UPG VPP) CNF uses FPP VPP and its patched VPP version to implement the required Mobile Core User Plane Function (UPF) features:

• User Plane Function (UPF) in 5G networks
• Packet Data Network Gateway User plane (PGW-U)
• Traffic Detection Function User plane (TDF-U)

Usage

FPP VPP provides a Dockerfile that creates an Ubuntu image with the installed patched VPP version. FPP VPP is currently based on VPP version stable/2402.

Build images are stored in the Travelping's quay repository.

Build versioning

For the most stable FPP VPP version, use the release images tagged with the v24.02.1_release naming schema. Image tagging uses the following convention: v<vpp-release>.<internal-build>. For example, v24.02.1 means that the VPP base version is 24.02, and .1 is the internal build number.

Run the built image

Warning

It may be required to enable HugePages on local machine to run VPP. To do so, run on sysctl vm.nr_hugepages=2000, this allocates 2000 hugepages of size 2M

Use this command to run the FPP VPP container image on a local machine using Docker:

$ docker run -it --rm --privileged --entrypoint /usr/bin/vpp quay.io/travelping/fpp-vpp:v24.02.1_release unix { nodaemon interactive } api-segment { prefix vpp1 } cpu { workers 0 } heapsize 2G

This command gives you access to VPP CLI (vppctl). To see the list of available commands, read the VPP CLI documentation. For more information on how to use VPP, see the VPP tutorial.

Development

Run this script to download FD.io VPP source code to the vpp directory and apply downstream patches stored in the vpp-patches folder:

hack/update-vpp.sh

Contribution

You can add a new functionality or fix an encountered issue in the VPP code base. To do so, provide the required code changes, create a patch, and commit it to the FPP VPP repository.

To add a patch to FPP VPP, follow these steps:

1. Run the hack/update-app.sh script to download sources and downstream patches stored in the vpp-patches folder.
2. Provide changes to the code in the vpp directory and commit the output to git.
3. Create a patch using this command:

   git format-patch -N -1 HEAD
   

4. Add the patch to the vpp-patches folder.
5. Commit the patch to the FPP VPP repository.
6. To test the patch, build an FPP VPP image and run a modified VPP in a container.

Build the base image

Warning

You must prepare VPP source code before building an FPP VPP image. Make sure that vpp folder is present by running hack/update-vpp.sh first.

Dockerfile provided in this repository creates four types of build images:

• release - optimized build with proper performance but without debug tools like gdb
• debug - does not provide optimal performance but allows for easier analyzes with gdb and also provides more debug log information
• dev_release - development image that includes tools to build a VPP plugin, used for building a release image with this plugin
• dev_debug - development image that includes tools to build a VPP plugin, used for building a debug image with this plugin

The type of image build is defined with BUILD_TYPE argument passed to docker build. The possible options are debug or release. This parameter is required during the container build.

To build a release FPP VPP image with a patched VPP version installed inside, run:

$ DOCKER_BUILDKIT=1 docker build --build-arg BUILD_TYPE=release -f Dockerfile -t fpp-vpp:latest_release .

You can set BUILD_TYPE to debug in the above command to get debug image. latest_release tag was applied above to distinguish release or debug builds.

Build dev images

To support building VPP plugins using FPP VPP base image, the Dockerfile includes a build target called dev-stage. This target includes source headers needed to build the VPP plugin.

To build release FPP VPP image with development tools included, run:

$ DOCKER_BUILDKIT=1 docker build --build-arg BUILD_TYPE=release -f Dockerfile -t fpp-vpp:latest_dev_release . --target dev-stage

latest_dev_release image tag was applied to distinguish between the release image that runs modified VPP and the development image used to build VPP plugins. dev_release image is required to build the VPP plugin with the resulting release type of image.