Linux Interfaces on Software Gone Wild

Continuing the Linux networking discussion we had in Episode 86, we focused on Linux interfaces in Episode 87 of Software Gone Wild with Roopa Prabhu and David Ahern.

We started with simple questions like “what is an interface” and “how do they get such weird names in some Linux distributions” which quickly turned into a complex discussion about kernel objects and udev, and details of implementing logical interfaces that are associated with ASIC front-panel physical ports.

Other topics we found interesting:

  • What types of interfaces would you typically see?
  • How do you configure Linux interfaces?
  • How can you stack interfaces and which combinations make sense?
  • How would you use Linux interfaces to deal with VLANs and bridge domains?
  • The history of bridging and VLAN filtering in Linux, and scalability enhancements made to Linux bridge in recent years
  • Who is running Spanning Tree Protocol on a Linux bridge?
  • How are tunnel interfaces implemented in Linux, and what is the role of a tunnel interface driver?
  • What are lightweight tunnel interfaces and why do we need them to make MPLS on Linux scale?
  • How are the tunnel interfaces accelerated in hardware?
  • How multipoint VXLAN tunnels make Linux-based VXLAN implementations scalable

Sounds interesting?

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