sonic-net/SONiC

[question] How do packets arrive into the application containers?

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#1,742 opened on Jul 11, 2024

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Description

Hello. I'm new to using SONiC. I read many documents, such as Architecture, Configuration, Design specs, etc but I don't clearly understand how a packet arrives in application containers such as BGP or LDP. What happens when a packet enters an interface until it leaves the switch? I don't understand how SDK and kernel interact. For example, when a new route arrives in one of the interfaces how will it convert to a kernel netlink message?

Contributor guide

Research direction
Study the SONiC architecture documentation and look into the switch state service (SSS) and the orchestration agent (OrchAgent) to understand how packets flow from hardware to application containers. Specifically, trace the path from an incoming packet via the SDK (e.g., SAI) to the kernel, and how routes are installed via netlink messages from the BGP container.
Tech stack
ccpppython
Domain
backendinfrastructure
Issue type
Research
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
2
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-3 hours
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
Active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
Clear
Prerequisites
Networking basics
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
70