caden-gate

Repository: guenterfischer-public/networking/caden-gate

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Summary

CADEN-gate is a configurable high-performance network gateway, including firewall and data distribution capabilities.

It uses the Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK) to provide a high-performance data path between a physical network interface and multiple virtual interfaces. The architecture is based on a multi-core pipeline where each stage of the packet processing is assigned to a dedicated logical core (lcore). This allows for parallel processing and maximizes throughput by avoiding contention.

Installation

Pre-built versions of the tool can be downloaded from the GitLab Repository.

cd /tmp
curl -O https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/80356659/packages/generic/releases/0.1.0/caden-gate_0.1.0_amd64.deb
sudo apt install /tmp/caden-gate_0.1.0_amd64.deb

The application and all its associated resources are installed in the directory /opt/caden/caden-gate.

Control via REST API

CADEN-gate provides a REST API for configuration, control, and monitoring.

By default, the API is reachable at http://<host>:8000. The port can be configured via the environment variable CADEN_GATE_API_PORT.

The API is documented using Swagger UI, which is available at http://<host>:<port>/swagger/ui.

GET /api/v1/ports

Retrieves information about all available physical network interfaces detected by DPDK.

Response Example:

[
   {
      "port_id": 0,
      "name": "0000:02:00.0",
      "driver_name": "mlx5_pci",
      "if_index": 3,
      "min_mtu": 68,
      "max_mtu": 9978,
      "max_rx_queues": 1024,
      "max_tx_queues": 1024,
      "tx_offload_capa": [
         "VLAN_INSERT",
         "IPV4_CKSUM",
         "UDP_CKSUM",
         "TCP_CKSUM",
         "TCP_TSO",
         "OUTER_IPV4_CKSUM",
         "VXLAN_TNL_TSO",
         "GRE_TNL_TSO",
         "GENEVE_TNL_TSO",
         "MULTI_SEGS",
         "MBUF_FAST_FREE",
         "UDP_TNL_TSO",
         "IP_TNL_TSO"
      ],
      "rx_offload_capa": [
         "VLAN_STRIP",
         "IPV4_CKSUM",
         "UDP_CKSUM",
         "TCP_CKSUM",
         "TCP_LRO",
         "VLAN_FILTER",
         "SCATTER",
         "TIMESTAMP",
         "KEEP_CRC",
         "RSS_HASH",
         "BUFFER_SPLIT"
      ],
      "link": "Link up at 100 Gbps FDX Autoneg None"
   }
]

GET /api/v1/config/data-path

Retrieves the current data path and ACL configuration.

POST /api/v1/config/data-path

Sets the configuration for the data paths. This includes the mapping between physical and virtual ports, as well as the ACL rules.

Request Body Example:

[
{
   "phys_port": { "port_id": 0 },
   "virt_ports": [
      { "sub_id": 1 },
      { "sub_id": 2 }
   ],
   "acl": {
      "rules_ipv4": [
      {
         "priority": 10,
         "protocol": 17,
         "src_ip": "192.168.1.10/32",
         "dst_ip": "192.168.1.11/32",
         "action": { "type": "forward", "info": 0 }
      },
      {
         "priority": 5,
         "protocol": 6,
         "src_ip": "192.168.2.0/24",
         "dst_ip": "192.168.2.0/24",
         "action": { "type": "drop", "info": 0 }
      }
      ]
   }
}
]

Note: For the forward action, the info field specifies the index of the virtual port in the virt_ports list (0-based).

POST /api/v1/start

Starts the packet processing pipeline based on the current configuration. All required lcores are launched and ports are initialized.

POST /api/v1/stop

Stops the packet processing pipeline and releases all resources (lcores, rings, mempools).

GET /api/v1/stats

Retrieves statistics and metrics for all active ports.

Query Parameters:

• incl_stats (boolean, default: true): Include standard interface statistics.

• incl_xstats (boolean, default: false): Include extended DPDK statistics.

• incl_metrics (boolean, default: true): Include standard and CADEN-specific metrics.

Response Example:

{
"ports": [
   {
      "id": 0,
      "stats": [
      { "key": "ipackets", "value": 123456 },
      { "key": "opackets", "value": 654321 }
      ],
      "metrics": [
      { "key": "mean_bits_in", "value": 15000 },
      { "key": "mean_bits_out", "value": 14995 }
      ]
   }
]
}

Status Codes

The API returns standard HTTP status codes:

• 200 OK: Request successful.

• 400 Bad Request: Invalid configuration or parameters.

• 500 Internal Server Error: Error during pipeline start/stop or internal failure.

In case of an error, the response body contains detailed information:

{
   "code": -2,
   "message": "Invalid physical port id",
   "solution": "Change physical port id"
}

Control via Web-UI

The application can also be controlled using the CADEN-UI.

Configuration

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Dashboard