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EAL, Mempools, and Mbufs

DPDK apps follow a common skeleton:

  1. Initialize EAL (Environment Abstraction Layer)
  2. Create an mbuf mempool
  3. Configure Ethernet ports and queues
  4. Enter the main RX/TX loop(s)

EAL​

EAL initialization parses DPDK-specific CLI flags (core mask, memory, file prefix, etc.) and sets up hugepage-backed memory.

Mempools and mbufs​

Packets are represented by rte_mbuf. To allocate mbufs quickly, you create a mempool:

  • many mbufs pre-allocated
  • per-core caches reduce lock contention
  • mbuf buffers hold packet data, metadata holds lengths, offloads, etc.

You’ll see this pattern in most examples.

Next: RX/TX Basics