Subject: [Questions] LZ4 software compression PMD support in DPDK

[Thomas Monjalon]

Hello,

11/07/2026 04:38, Shravan S (shrraj):
> Hi DPDK Community,
> 
> I am looking for clarification regarding LZ4 compression algorithm support within the DPDK CompressDev framework.
> While looking at the rte_comp.h API, I see references to rte_comp_lz4_params, and the dpdk-test-compress-perf tool lists --algo lz4 as an eligible flag. However, looking through the available software virtual devices (like the ZLIB PMD or ISA-L PMD), they primarily target DEFLATE.

The drivers support is written in this table:
https://doc.dpdk.org/guides/compressdevs/overview.html

As you can see, only mlx5 supports LZ4 for its hardware.

 
> My Questions:
> 
> 
>   1.  Is there an official, built-in software (SW) virtual PMD (compress_lz4) available in DPDK for LZ4 compression/decompression?
>   2.  If a native SW PMD does not exist, are there plans to introduce a reference software driver based on the liblz4 library?
>   3.  What is the recommended approach if I need to run LZ4 software compression over vdevs alongside other DPDK processing pipelines?

There is no plan regarding LZ4 in software, but you are welcome to propose a solution.


> My Environment/Context:
> 
>   *   DPDK Version: DPDK25.11
>   *   Operating System:  Marvel CN106xx Octeon boards with ARM architecture.
> 
> cat /etc/os-release
> NAME=Buildroot
> VERSION=2020.02.3-ge935b06c8-dirty
> ID=buildroot
> VERSION_ID=2020.02.3
> PRETTY_NAME="Buildroot 2020.02.3"
> 
> uname -a
> Linux oct2 5.4.210 #15 SMP PREEMPT Thu Aug 15 12:23:54 CST 2024 aarch64 GNU/Linux
> 
> 
> 
>   *   Target Use Case: We run user space TCP/IP Stack on Marvel CN106xx Octeon ARM boards, as part of FCIP Solutions.
>                  We need to enable LZ4 software compression support and DPDK don't have software PMD support for LZ4 compression.
>                  We are looking for support or any other approach to achieve this implementation.
> 
> Thanks and Regards
>     Shravan S