Netmap and in-kernel IPFW interactions!

[h bagade]

On Sat, Oct 19, 2013 at 8:13 PM, Luigi Rizzo <rizzo at iet.unipi.it> wrote:

>
> On Sat, Oct 19, 2013 at 9:32 AM, h bagade <bagadeh at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Sat, Oct 19, 2013 at 6:58 PM, Raimundo Santos <raitech at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> > On 19 October 2013 06:00, h bagade <bagadeh at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>>
>>
>> I've changed em and igb drivers too. In this situation, I think that they
>> are using netmap and grow-up performance is a sign of the change.  I've
>> used pkt-gen for performance checking.
>>
>
> you use netmap only when you use a netmap-aware tool,
> such as pkt-gen.
>
> The normal stack still uses the regular drivers.
>
> cheers
> luigi
>

I am somehow confused how it is possible that netmap-aware tools use netmap
datapath and others still use the regular driver! Isn't that the changed
NIC driver either send the packets to userspace(in case of netmap) or to
the kernel(as usual)?

Netmap is really interesting and I am eager to know the architecture and
how packets flow using netmap or not.