Platform · Hardware support
Runs on the servers you already buy.
Netavo BNG deploys on standard x86-64 servers — Intel Xeon or AMD EPYC — with two packet I/O paths: a DPDK path for full performance on validated network adapters, and a compatibility path that runs on virtually any adapter, including virtual machines. Same software, same configuration, either path.
Performance path — DPDK
Kernel-bypass poll-mode I/O on validated adapters, with dedicated data-plane cores and hugepage memory. The path for production deployments at 10G and above.
Validated NICs · IOMMU/VT-d · hugepages
Compatibility path — AF_XDP
High-performance kernel I/O on virtually any adapter, with zero-copy operation on supported families. The path for labs, evaluations, small sites and VM roles — no special BIOS configuration required.
Any Linux-supported NIC · zero-copy on supported families
The appliance reports its own inventory — CPU, memory, adapters and the active I/O path.
Any modern x86-64 processor. Production deployments run on server platforms — Intel Xeon or AMD EPYC — where ECC memory, PCIe lane count and NIC options fit the role. There is no per-core licensing, so core count is purely an engineering choice.
Desktop-class processors (Intel Core, AMD Ryzen) run the software identically and are well suited to labs, evaluations and small sites; for production we recommend server platforms for ECC and platform reliability rather than for any software requirement.
Data-plane workers scale with cores: sizing guidance ships with the benchmark protocol, including a per-core scaling curve so unlisted hardware can be sized by calculation rather than guesswork.
| Performance path | Compatibility path | |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | x86-64 · 8+ cores recommended | x86-64 · 4+ cores |
| Memory | 32 GB+ · hugepages reserved | 8–16 GB · hugepages optional |
| Firmware | VT-d / IOMMU enabled | standard settings |
| Storage | SSD · 100 GB+ | SSD · 50 GB+ |
| Adapter family | Path | Notes | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intel 700 series (X710 / XL710) | DPDK — performance | 10G / 40G · the validated production path, in service on our own network | validated |
| Intel 800 series (E810) | AF_XDP zero-copy today | 25G / 100G · DPDK validation planned with the 25G/100G benchmark programme | DPDK validation planned |
| Intel 500 series (X520/X550) | AF_XDP zero-copy | 10G · widely available second-hand — well suited to evaluations | supported |
| NVIDIA ConnectX (mlx5) | AF_XDP zero-copy | 25G+ · DPDK validation planned | DPDK validation planned |
| Commodity adapters (1G/2.5G) | AF_XDP copy mode | labs and small sites · no special configuration | supported |
| virtio (virtual machine) | AF_XDP | VM deployments — see below | supported |
The validated-hardware list is published with each release and grows with the benchmark programme; deployment telemetry (aggregate hardware inventory only) tells us which platforms to validate next.
Smaller roles run as a virtual machine on the compatibility path — the L2TP LNS role is fully supported on a plain VM, reusing the complete control plane with no separate build. Evaluations and labs commonly start this way before moving to bare metal.
Bare metal on the DPDK path remains the recommendation wherever headline throughput matters: the performance page's benchmark protocol applies to bare metal, and published figures will state the platform explicitly.
A production LNS role on a virtual machine — identical software and configuration to bare metal.