DPDK
DPDK is an open source Linux Foundation framework providing user-space packet processing that bypasses the Linux kernel network stack, delivering 10x-40x performance gains for hyperscale cloud providers, telecom operators, financial trading platforms, and scientific research institutions.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2010
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What DPDK does
DPDK (Data Plane Development Kit) is an open source framework for high-performance packet processing maintained under the Linux Foundation. It runs packet processing in user space via Poll Mode Drivers (PMDs), bypassing the Linux kernel network stack to deliver 10x to 40x throughput improvements over kernel-based networking. Originated at Intel in 2010, open-sourced to dpdk.org in 2014, and transferred to the Linux Foundation in 2017, the project supports x86, ARM, and RISC-V architectures with drivers from Intel, NVIDIA/Mellanox, Marvell, NXP, Cisco, Realtek, ZTE, and others. The framework includes the rte_flow API for packet classification and steering, a comprehensive cryptographic framework (IPsec, TLS 1.2/1.3, MACsec, PDCP), the Eventdev framework, and the rte_graph architecture that powers sub-projects such as Grout.
The project has no direct revenue model. Funding flows to LF Projects, LLC through corporate memberships (Gold at $50,000/year, Silver at $10,000/year) from contributing companies. DPDK serves hyperscale cloud providers (Microsoft Azure Accelerated Networking, Google Cloud fintech), telecom operators deploying 4G/5G and NFV infrastructure, financial services firms requiring microsecond-latency trading, network equipment vendors (Netgate TNSR, Aviz Networks), and research institutions (CERN, CHIME radio telescope, ASTRON). Distribution is via tarball downloads from fast.dpdk.org, GitHub, and Linux distribution packages; cross-vendor interoperability testing is mandatory through the UNH-IOL lab.
The ecosystem extends beyond the core framework to include hosted projects Grout (graph-based router), Libtpa (ByteDance user-space TCP/IP stack), and Kotekan (CHIME GPU correlator), plus integrations with Open vSwitch-DPDK, Kubernetes-native routing, eBPF-based packet capture, Microsoft Azure MANA, and the UACCE accelerator framework. Marketing is community-led through the DPDK website, the quarterly DPDK Dispatch newsletter, the [email protected] mailing list, Slack, regional summits, and YouTube session recordings. Governance is split between an 11-member Technical Board meeting bi-weekly and a 12-member Governing Board representing corporate members, with leadership earned through merit-based technical contribution rather than corporate mandate.
DPDK firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- DPDK
- Legal name
- DPDK Project
- Website
- https://dpdk.org
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2010
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- DPDK is an open source Linux Foundation framework providing user-space packet processing that bypasses the Linux kernel network stack, delivering 10x-40x performance gains for hyperscale cloud providers, telecom operators, financial trading platforms, and scientific research institutions.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
DPDK industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Network Infrastructure Software
- NAICS
- Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (51821), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Private Cloud Networking & SDN/NFV Management (HDABABAK)
Keywords
Where DPDK is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
DPDK business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D
Revenue model
- Open Source Framework (No Direct Revenue): DPDK is an open source project under the Linux Foundation. There is no direct revenue model. The project is funded through corporate memberships (Gold: $50,000/year, Silver: $10,000/year) from companies including Intel, Marvell, NVIDIA, Red Hat, NXP, and others who use DPDK in their products and services. The Linux Foundation provides governance, hosting, and administrative support.
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels10 records
DPDK product offering
Product offeringCore offering
DPDK (Data Plane Development Kit) is an open source framework that enables fast packet processing in user space, bypassing the Linux kernel network stack to deliver 10x to 40x performance improvements. It provides poll mode drivers (PMDs), memory management, buffer handling, queue management, and cryptographic operations specifically tuned for line-rate packet processing workloads on commodity hardware. The framework is released under a permissive BSD license and is built and maintained by a multi-vendor community under the Linux Foundation.
Product overview
DPDK is an open source framework for fast packet processing on standard hardware, consisting of the core DPDK Framework libraries that enable user-space packet processing to bypass the Linux kernel network stack. The ecosystem builds on this foundation with specialized projects including Grout (graph-based router using rte_graph), Libtpa (ByteDance's user-space TCP/IP stack), and Kotekan (GPU correlator for radio telescopes). The framework supports ecosystem tools like Open vSwitch-DPDK for virtual switch acceleration, NDK Platform for FPGA-based 400G processing, and IPFIXPROBE for traffic flow analysis. Testing infrastructure includes the DPDK Test Suite (DTS) for automated validation. The project provides Poll Mode Drivers (PMDs) for diverse hardware from Intel, NVIDIA/Mellanox, Marvell, NXP, AMD, ARM, and others, enabling cryptographic offload (IPsec, TLS, MACsec, PDCP) and integration with cloud platforms including Microsoft Azure MANA and Google Cloud.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- DPDK Framework Core open source data plane development kit providing libraries for fast packet processing on standard hardware. Enables user-space packet processing that bypasses the Linux kernel network stack for 10x to 40x performance improvement, used by cloud providers, telecoms, financial trading firms, and research institutions.
- Grout Graph-based router built on DPDK's rte_graph library, designed to simulate network functions and physical routers to replicate closed-source VNF and CNF behavior using open source tools. Integrates with FRRouting for production routing deployments.
- Libtpa User-space TCP/IP stack developed from scratch by ByteDance, allowing coexistence with kernel stack, supporting multiple user-space instances, zero-copy optimization, with over 200 unit tests and debugging tools for production environments.
- Kotekan GPU correlator pipeline used by CHIME radio telescope for processing incoming signals, utilizing DPDK poll-mode drivers and Intel DDIO for high-throughput data acquisition at over 6.4 Tb/s.
- Open vSwitch with DPDK (OVS-DPDK) Open vSwitch virtual switch with native DPDK support enabling accelerated packet processing in virtualized environments and containers, widely used in telecom and finance deployments.
- NDK Platform
Quantifiable outcome
- 10x to 40x throughput improvement over kernel network stack through user-space polling model
- +4 more outcomes
Companies that use DPDK
Customer profileNamed customers8 records
Segments6 records
Ideal customer profiles6 records
DPDK technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration8 records
Feature9 records
DPDK partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
13 partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and historical.
- Linux FoundationcoreDPDK is a Linux Foundation project providing governance, hosting, and administrative support. The Linux Foundation offers neutral ground for competing vendors to collaborate on open source development. Provides infrastructure including servers (hosted by Gandi.net), CDN (Fastly), event coordination, and financial oversight through the Governing Board.
- University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL)coreUNH-IOL provides mandatory automated testing for all DPDK patches and releases through their lab. Testing spans multiple silicon vendors ensuring cross-platform compatibility. Lab publishes monthly code coverage reports and community dashboard. Also conducts OVS compilation testing with each DPDK patch and is planning performance testing expansion.
- Red HatcoreRed Hat provides significant engineering contributions including maintenance branch support, testing lab operations, and core engineers like Kevin Traynor, David Marchand, and Maxime Coquelin. Led by Rashid Khan who served as Governing Board Chair. Committed to continued financial and technical support for foreseeable future. DPDK is in critical path of Red Hat products for virtual environment packet processing.
- IntelcoreIntel originated DPDK in 2010 as an internal project and continues as primary contributing member. Jim St. Leger helped shepherd the transition to open source. Bruce Richardson and others earned leadership roles through technical contributions. Provides engineering resources, development summits, and funding for community infrastructure.
- MarvellcoreMarvell (including acquired Cavium) contributes ARM64 architecture support, OCTEON processor drivers, and maintains team of ~50 contributors. Jerin Jacob serves as key maintainer. Prasun Kapoor (AVP Core Software) advocates for open source engagement. Achieved 105 million packets per second per core performance on OCTEON hardware.
- NVIDIA (including Mellanox)coreNVIDIA acquired Mellanox (key DPDK contributor) and continues deep engagement. Thomas Monjalon is maintainer at NVIDIA. Provides ConnectX NIC drivers, BlueField DPU support, and GPU integration including GPU Direct RDMA. Qian Xu serves as Software Validation Manager leading DPDK testing frameworks.
- NXP SemiconductorsmajorNXP contributes driver support for Layerscape processors and baseband processing. Engineers including Sachin Saxena, Apeksha Gupta, Vipin Varghese, and Sivaprasad Tummala work on Eventdev integration, QoS, power management, and QDMA NIC adaptation for FEC offloading.
- ARMmajorARM contributes ARM64 architecture support and optimization work. Honnappa Nagarahalli serves on DPDK Tech Board. Kamalakshitha from ARM's Open Source Software team contributed cache awareness optimization work and multi-packet receive queue improvements for Arm systems.
- MicrosoftcoreMicrosoft integrates DPDK with Azure MANA (Microsoft Azure Network Adapter) for Accelerated Networking. Provides documentation, testpmd guides, and forward-compatible drivers for Azure hardware. Kumara Parameshwaran Rathinavel contributed GRO library enhancements. Brian Denton serves as Senior Program Manager for Azure networking.
- GooglemajorGoogle leverages DPDK on Google Cloud Platform for fintech applications enabling high-frequency trading. Rushil Gupta serves as Senior Software Engineer highlighting DPDK use cases. Contributes to performance optimization and testing. CME Group, Talos, Clowd9, Freetrade, and TDSAT use GCP with DPDK.
- HuaweimajorHuawei contributes fast-path forwarding optimizations for smaller rule sets and UACCE (Unified Accelerator Framework) bus integration in DPDK. Feng Chengwen presented on accelerator integration enabling direct memory access without system involvement.
- ByteDancemajorByteDance contributes Libtpa, a user-space TCP/IP stack developed from scratch. Yuanhan Liu presented Libtpa architecture supporting high throughput and low latency with over 200 unit tests. Contributes to performance optimization research including BURST soft-RDMA stack for 400G transport.
- 6WINDhistorical6WIND was early contractor for Intel DPDK development and hosted initial community at dpdk.org in 2013. Transferred domain to community in 2014. Thomas Monjalon joined from 6WIND in 2012 and became key community builder and maintainer.
Scale indicators7 records
Recent moves8 records
Expansion highlights6 records
DPDK competitors and assessment
Company assessmentEmerging players
- P4 (P4.org / P4Lang): P4 is a domain-specific language and runtime for programming network data planes (switches, NICs, SmartNICs); it overlaps with DPDK on programmable packet processing but targets hardware/P4 targets as well as software, including a DPDK P4 target.
- Netmap: Netmap is a long-standing open-source kernel-bypass framework for high-performance packet I/O, conceptually and functionally adjacent to DPDK and often cited as the academic/research alternative for user-space networking.
- eBPF / XDP (Linux Kernel): eBPF and especially XDP provide in-kernel programmable packet processing that competes with DPDK for many fast-path workloads (observability, load balancing, security) without DPDK's user-space operational overhead.
- ONF Stratum / ONOS: Open Networking Foundation projects (Stratum, ONOS, P4Runtime) provide an open-source SDN control and data-plane stack overlapping with DPDK's service-provider and cloud-native networking focus, especially in disaggregated Telco use cases.
Broad incumbents
- Red Hat (OpenShift Networking / OVN): Red Hat is a top DPDK contributor and a member of its Governing Board, while also shipping competing/sibling open-source networking stacks (OVN, OpenShift SDN) that overlap with DPDK's cloud-native routing and container networking use cases.
- NVIDIA (DOCA / BlueField DPU): NVIDIA (via Mellanox) is a core DPDK maintainer organization and also offers the DOCA SDK on BlueField DPUs, where DPDK is integrated but competes with DOCA's higher-level hardware-offload abstractions for the same packet-processing workloads.
- Cisco (VPP / Nexus / Silicon One ecosystem): Cisco is a major contributor to FD.io/VPP, the chief sponsor of P4, and a leading provider of proprietary networking hardware/software that competes with DPDK-powered alternatives in telco, enterprise, and hyperscaler routing.
- Intel (IPDK / IPDK networking stack): Intel originated DPDK and remains its largest contributor while also building adjacent infrastructure initiatives (IPDK, Infrastructure Processing Units). Its broader networking portfolio represents an incumbent ecosystem against which DPDK's open governance must continue to compete.
Direct peers
- FD.io (VPP - Vector Packet Processing): Also a Linux Foundation project, FD.io/VPP is the closest open-source analogue to DPDK, providing user-space vector-based packet processing. VPP and DPDK target overlapping telecom and cloud NFV use cases and are frequently compared or co-deployed.
- Open vSwitch (OVS): Open vSwitch has native DPDK integration (OVS-DPDK) but is also a standalone virtual switch and the canonical open-source datapath for virtual/cloud networking, directly overlapping with DPDK's NFV and virtual router workloads.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks4 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
DPDK social profiles
Digital presenceDPDK financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
DPDK leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles9 records
DPDK funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
DPDK M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about DPDK
What does DPDK do?
DPDK (Data Plane Development Kit) is an open source framework that enables fast packet processing in user space, bypassing the Linux kernel network stack to deliver 10x to 40x performance improvements. It provides poll mode drivers (PMDs), memory management, buffer handling, queue management, and cryptographic operations specifically tuned for line-rate packet processing workloads on commodity hardware. The framework is released under a permissive BSD license and is built and maintained by a multi-vendor community under the Linux Foundation.
Is DPDK a public or private company?
DPDK is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was DPDK founded?
DPDK was founded in 2010. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is DPDK based?
DPDK is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does DPDK make money?
One revenue line is on record: open Source Framework (No Direct Revenue).
Who are DPDK's main competitors?
Emerging players on record are P4 (P4.org / P4Lang), Netmap, eBPF / XDP (Linux Kernel) and ONF Stratum / ONOS. Broad incumbents are Red Hat (OpenShift Networking / OVN), NVIDIA (DOCA / BlueField DPU), Cisco (VPP / Nexus / Silicon One ecosystem) and Intel (IPDK / IPDK networking stack). Direct peers are FD.io (VPP - Vector Packet Processing) and Open vSwitch (OVS).
Does DPDK have an API?
No public API is recorded for DPDK.
What industry is DPDK in?
DPDK's product category is Network Infrastructure Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDABABAK, Private Cloud Networking & SDN/NFV Management. Its NAICS code is 5182 and its SIC code is 7372.