Real-Time Development Kit (RTDK)

The Real-Time Development Kit (RTDK) is a comprehensive framework designed to measure network and compute performance of real-time applications across diverse environments. It provides developers with a suite of applications and configurations to ensure their applications meet the stringent performance requirements of real-time systems.

The RTDK build system has been enhanced to automatically clone, patch, build, and install DPDK from source into a local directory within the project. This ensures that all developers use the same DPDK version with the necessary patches applied, eliminating discrepancies caused by differing system-installed DPDK versions.

The repository includes three main applications:

• Real-time Application Testing Tool (RATT): A utility for real-time application testing and telemetry. While traditional DPDK applications are typically optimized for maximum throughput, RATT distinguishes itself by prioritizing ultra-low latency performance.
• Launch-Time Testing Tool (LTTT): A DPDK-based application for precise packet transmission and reception timing.
• TSN Testbench (TSN-TestBench): A Linux-based application for evaluating Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) performance.

Along with the applications, RTDK provides an example Docker Compose configuration that enables statistical visualization through a TIG stack.

Features

• Comprehensive Platform Support: RTDK operates seamlessly across multiple deployment environments, including bare metal servers, VMware virtualized infrastructure, and cloud platforms, ensuring consistent testing capabilities regardless of your infrastructure setup.
• Streamlined Configuration Management: Effortlessly create, manage, and deploy tailored configurations for diverse testing scenarios, enabling rapid adaptation to different performance requirements and test conditions.
• Real-time Performance Monitoring & Diagnostics: Continuously monitor application performance with visibility into system bottlenecks and optimization opportunities. RTDK's analytics help identify issues across the entire stack such as:
• Hardware-level problems: High PCIe read latency, memory bandwidth constraints, etc,
• Firmware misconfigurations: ASPM (Active State Power Management) settings, power management policies, etc.
• OS-level issues: Incorrect CPU core isolation, sub-optimal interrupt handling, scheduler conflicts, etc.

Getting Started

Download and Install RTDK

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone "TODO:ADD REPO ADDRESS HERE" rtdk
   cd rtdk

2. Build the application:

   The build system automatically clones, patches, builds, and installs DPDK from source into the external/install directory. This ensures you're using the correct DPDK version with all required patches applied.

   # Build everything (DPDK + RATT + Launch-Time + other apps)
   make
   
   # Debug build
   make BUILD_TYPE=debug ENABLE_DEBUG=true
   
   # Use specific DPDK version
   make distclean
   make DPDK_GIT_TAG=v24.11
   
   # Install LTTT (optional, requires sudo)
   make install

   Note: The first build will take longer as it clones and builds DPDK. Subsequent builds will be faster as DPDK is already built.

   Alternative: Direct Meson/Ninja usage:

   # First, ensure DPDK is installed in external/install
   make dpdk
   
   # Then build with Meson (PKG_CONFIG_PATH must point to external/install/lib/pkgconfig)
   export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$PWD/external/install/lib/pkgconfig:$PKG_CONFIG_PATH
   meson setup builddir
   ninja -C builddir

   For detailed build instructions and Makefile options, see doc/MAKEFILE.md.

3. Configure your testing environment by modifying the configuration files in the configs/ directory.

4. Run the applications:

   This project includes three main applications:

   • lttt (Launch-Time Testing Tool) - located in builddir/apps/launch-time/lttt
   • tsn_tb (TSN Testbench) - located in builddir/apps/testbench/tsn_tb
   • ratt (RATT tool) - located in builddir/apps/ratt/ratt

   Important: DPDK applications require root privileges and proper library paths.

   Using the usertools/run Helper Script

   The easiest way to run applications is using the usertools/run helper script, which automatically:

   • Sets LD_LIBRARY_PATH to include the locally-built DPDK libraries
   • Executes the command with sudo
   • Locates applications in builddir/apps if not found in the current directory
   • Works from any directory in the project

   Examples:

   # Run by application name (script will find it in builddir/apps)
   ./usertools/run lttt --help
   ./usertools/run tsn_tb -c configs/example.cfg
   ./usertools/run ratt --help
   
   # Or use full paths if preferred
   ./usertools/run ./builddir/apps/launch-time/lttt --help
   ./usertools/run ./builddir/apps/testbench/tsn_tb -c configs/example.cfg
   
   # Works from any directory in the project
   cd usertools
   ./run lttt --help

   Running Without the Helper Script

   If you prefer to run applications directly, you must:

   1. Set the library path to the locally-built DPDK
   2. Run with sudo

   # Set LD_LIBRARY_PATH (from project root)
   export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$PWD/external/install/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
   
   # Run with sudo
   sudo -E ./builddir/apps/launch-time/lttt --help
   sudo -E ./builddir/apps/testbench/tsn_tb --help

   Note: The -E flag preserves environment variables including LD_LIBRARY_PATH.

   Application-Specific Documentation

   For detailed usage instructions for each application, see:

   • Real-time Application Testing Tool: apps/ratt/README.md
   • Launch-Time Testing Tool: apps/launch-time/README.md
   • TSN Testbench: apps/testbench/README.md
   • Configuration files: configs/README-configs.md

Prerequisites

The following system packages are required:

Dependency	Required	Notes
GCC or Clang	Yes	C compiler with C99 support
Meson (>= 1.5.0)	Yes	Build system
Ninja	Yes	Build backend
Python 3	Yes	Required by Meson
pkg-config	Yes	Dependency detection
OpenSSL (libssl-dev)	Yes	Cryptographic functions
libyaml (libyaml-dev)	Yes	YAML configuration parsing
libmosquitto (libmosquitto-dev)	No	MQTT telemetry (disable with ENABLE_MQTT=false)

Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt install build-essential meson ninja-build pkg-config libssl-dev libyaml-dev libmosquitto-dev

Fedora/RHEL:

sudo dnf install gcc meson ninja-build pkgconfig openssl-devel libyaml-devel mosquitto-devel

Contributing

We welcome contributions from the community! Please read our Contributing Guide before submitting a pull request.

License

This project is licensed under the BSD-3-Clause License. See LICENSE for details.

The TSN Testbench component (apps/testbench/) is licensed under BSD-2-Clause — see apps/testbench/LICENSE.

Security

To report a security vulnerability, please see SECURITY.md.