A Rust toy/demo project leveraging eBPF XDP for high-performance packet routing at the Linux kernel level, specifically at the earliest possible point in the network stack.

The project comprises three main components:

• router_xdp: The core program implementing UDP packet routing with eBPF XDP
• router: A server application that loads the eBPF XDP program into the kernel, manages XDP routing maps, and listens for TCP commands
• routerctl: A client for remotely managing the server over TCP (no TLS currently)

Server (192.168.171.10):

sudo router --iface eth1 --bind 0.0.0.0:6707

Client (192.168.171.1):

routerctl 192.168.171.10:6707 set policy drop
routerctl 192.168.171.10:6707 add mirror 12345
nc -u 192.168.171.10 12345

Server (192.168.171.10):

sudo router --iface eth1 --bind 0.0.0.0:6707

Client-1 (192.168.171.1:1111):

routerctl 192.168.171.10:6707 set policy drop
routerctl 192.168.171.10:6707 add route  192.168.171.1 1111 12345  192.168.171.1 2222 12345
nc -u -p 1111 192.168.171.10 12345

Client-2 (192.168.171.1:2222):

nc -u -p 2222 192.168.171.10 12345

• Install:

  • nix: nix-shell
  • nix+direnv: direnv allow .
  • Debian / Ubuntu:
    • install rustup: ./asset/install_rustup.sh
    • prepare rustup: ./asset/prepare_rustup.sh
  • other:
    • install rustup: https://www.rust-lang.org/tools/install
      curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
    • prepare rustup: ./asset/prepare_rustup.sh

• Build:

  ./build_debug.sh

• Run server, load XDP:

  ./run_router_local.sh

• Run client:

  ./run_routerctl_local_demo.sh

• Start Debian 12 "Bookworm" VMs:

  vagrant up

• Build, run server, load XDP (on VM):

  vagrant ssh server --command "/vagrant/build_debug.sh"
  vagrant ssh server --command "/vagrant/run_router_vagrant.sh"

• Run client (optionaly on VM):

  vagrant ssh client --command "/vagrant/run_routerctl_vagrant_demo.sh"
  # or just: ./run_routerctl_vagrant_demo.sh

Check if XDP was loaded:

vagrant ssh server
sudo xdp-loader status | grep router_xdp
sudo bpftool prog show | grep router_xdp

Test mirroring/pong with debug port:

# XDP loaded locally
nc -u 127.0.0.1 65500

# XDP loaded on vagrant
nc -u 192.168.171.10 65500