TNAPI (Threaded NAPI) is an accelerated driver for Silicom
1 Gigabit (Intel 82576/80-based) and
10 Gigabit (Intel 82598/99-based)
multi-queue adapters, that allows to exploit multi-core architectures and
multi-queue adapters for improving packet capture performance. Contrary to Linux NAPI that has been designed for general purpose networking, TNAPI is based on kernel threads for efficiently reading packets from
network adapters and delivering them to
PF_RING at maximum speed without passing through typical Linux kernel mechanisms.
Thanks to efficient memory usage and optimization for reducing packet latency, TNAPI allows to network monitoring application increase up to 30% packet capture speed with respect to
PF_RING-aware drivers. TNAPI drivers are designed uniquely for improving packet capture performance and not for general purpose networking; they can be exploited only by
PF_RING-based applications.
See also PF_RING & DNA for more advanced packet capturing:
PF_RING
DNA