DPDK Summit 2026

grout, an official dpdk.org project, is modular DPDK-based software utilizing the DPDK graph library. This is the third project update, following presentations in September 2024 and May 2025.

The talk will start with a brief recap of grout's design principles: strict separation between control and data planes, OSI layer-based module organization, and runtime configuration via a socket API.

Since May 2025, major updates include an OpenMetrics exporter for production monitoring, a DHCP client for dynamic addresses, improved control plane interfaces for FRR integration, continued multi-VRF work, and Layer 2 bridging with MAC learning. We will discuss the technical challenges and solutions.

We will discuss concrete deployment scenarios: integrating grout with OpenStack Neutron as a third-party L3 provider, and using grout as a PE router in Kubernetes environments. Each use case highlights different grout capabilities.

Finally, you will discover our roadmap for the coming year. Bring your use cases, features and ideas so we can integrate them in the roadmap: what should be added to grout so you can use it?