Internet Protocol Security (IPsec)¶

VPP IPsec performance tests are executed for the following crypto plugins:

crypto_native, used for software based crypto leveraging CPU platform optimizations e.g. Intel’s AES-NI instruction set.
crypto_ipsecmb, used for hardware based crypto with Intel QAT PCIe cards.

IPsec with VPP Native SW Crypto¶

Currently CSIT-2106 implements following IPsec test cases relying on VPP native crypto (crypto_native plugin):

VPP Crypto Engine	ESP Encryption	ESP Integrity	Scale Tested
crypto_native	AES[128\|256]-GCM	GCM	1 to 60k tunnels
crypto_native	AES128-CBC	SHA[256\|512]	1 to 60k tunnels

VPP IPsec with SW crypto are executed in both tunnel and policy modes, with tests running on 3-node testbeds: 3n-skx, 3n-tsh.

IPsec with Intel QAT HW¶

Currently CSIT-2106 implements following IPsec test cases relying on ipsecmb library (crypto_ipsecmb plugin) and Intel QAT 8950 (50G HW crypto card):

dpdk_cryptodev

VPP Crypto Engine	VPP Crypto Workers	ESP Encryption	ESP Integrity	Scale Tested
crypto_ipsecmb	sync/all workers	AES[128\|256]-GCM	GCM	1, 1k tunnels
crypto_ipsecmb	sync/all workers	AES[128]-CBC	SHA[256\|512]	1, 1k tunnels
crypto_ipsecmb	async/crypto worker	AES[128\|256]-GCM	GCM	1, 4, 1k tunnels
crypto_ipsecmb	async/crypto worker	AES[128]-CBC	SHA[256\|512]	1, 4, 1k tunnels

IPsec with Async Crypto Feature Workers¶

TODO Description to be added

IPsec Uni-Directional Tests with VPP Native SW Crypto¶

Currently CSIT-2106 implements following IPsec uni-directional test cases relying on VPP native crypto (crypto_native plugin) in tunnel mode:

VPP Crypto Engine	ESP Encryption	ESP Integrity	Scale Tested
crypto_native	AES[128\|256]-GCM	GCM	4, 1k, 10k tunnels
crypto_native	AES128-CBC	SHA[512]	4, 1k, 10k tunnels

The tests are running on 2-node testbeds: 2n-tx2. The uni-directional tests are partially addressing a weakness in 2-node testbed setups with T-Rex as the traffic generator. With just one DUT node, we can either encrypt or decrypt traffic in each direction.

The testcases are only doing encryption - packets are encrypted on the DUT and then arrive at TG where no additional packet processing is needed (just counting packets).

Decryption would require that the traffic generator generated encrypted packets which the DUT then would decrypt. However, T-Rex does not have the capability to encrypt packets.