Open Source Summit + Embedded Linux Conference + OSPOCon 2021

As an OpenWrt contributor running mainline on Wi-Fi routers for more than a decade I dreamed of mainline-based networking beyond Wi-Fi. This talk starts with an introduction to DSA and then dives into the available mainline DSA drivers and how one may run them on regular commercial off-the-shelf switches. While DSA started as a subsystem primarily designed to support Marvell Link Street MV88E6xxx Ethernet switches, it since evolved to support many other vendors as well. Interestingly, however, the first line of supported traditional networking switches in OpenWrt was based on the Realtek RTL83xx series of switching SoCs whose driver got reverse engineered from leaked datasheets. This series of SoCs is very popular, found in dozens of distinct models of many different vendors. The latest work concentrates on integrating further hardware acceleration features like the packet inspection engine which at the moment can already offload routing on the RTL838x at wire speed. A third contender is Microchip (formerly Microsemi resp. Vitesse) which also has a line of standalone as well as SoC integrated switches. Further topics covered include power over ethernet (PoE) which is currently not covered by any upstream subsystem. This talk will conclude with a live demonstration.