snabb

Snabb is an open-source software toolkit designed for building high-performance packet-processing pipelines and virtual network functions. It presents a modular, pipeline-based architecture in which individual components, called apps, perform specialized tasks such as Ethernet I/O, protocol parsing, or packet modification, and are connected by in-memory pipes to form processing graphs.

The runtime operates primarily in user space on Linux and other POSIX systems. Configuration is expressed in Lua, allowing researchers and developers to compose and modify pipelines without rebuilding the core engine. Core performance is achieved with C code and carefully optimized data paths, while Lua serves as a flexible orchestration layer.

Key features include fast input/output paths, zero-copy packet buffers, and the ability to mix and match different I/O adapters and protocol handlers within a single pipeline. The design emphasizes portability, experimentation, and rapid prototyping, making Snabb a popular tool in academic and testbed contexts for exploring software-defined networking (SDN), network function virtualization (NFV), and other packet-processing ideas.

Name and etymology: the word “snabb” means fast in Swedish, chosen to reflect the project’s emphasis on speed and efficiency. The software has been developed and maintained by a global community of researchers and practitioners, with its codebase hosted publicly and subject to open-source licensing and collaboration.

Usage and status: Snabb is primarily used as a research and educational platform, enabling users to experiment with custom packet-processing pipelines, evaluate performance characteristics, and prototype new network functions before committing to production-grade solutions.