What is this? #

bngx is the upcoming AF_XDP accelerated load balancer from Inlab Networks. The name is an acronym for “BalanceNG eXpress”.

bngx utilizes AF_XDP in zero-copy mode (if supported by the driver) and runs “busy polling” for minimum latency.

What is AF_XDP? #

AF_XDP is a raw socket optimized for high performance packet processing and allows zero-copy between kernel and applications. As the socket can be used for both receiving and transmitting, it supports high performance network applications purely in user space.

References #

• https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/networking/af_xdp.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Express_Data_Path
• https://ebpf-docs.dylanreimerink.nl/linux/concepts/af_xdp/

What is Consistent Hashing? #

For load balancing Consistent Hashing effectively allows to agree on how packets are distributed to real servers algorithmically instead of maintaining and synchronizing a session table.

References #

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consistent_hashing
• https://www.the-paper-trail.org/post/2020-06-23-maglev/

bngx Release Date #

A release date is not yet available.