knic

knic is a small educational Linux virtual Ethernet driver. It creates a paired knic0 and knic1; packets transmitted by one interface are delivered to the other.

Current features:

• Multiple bounded RX queues
• Per-queue NAPI polling and GRO
• TX subqueue backpressure
• Synchronized network statistics
• Basic ethtool driver, channel, and statistics support
• Network namespace and lifecycle stress tests

Build

Install the compiler, make, and headers for the running kernel, then run:

make
sudo insmod knic.ko

Test

The namespace test configures both interfaces and tests traffic in both directions:

./scripts/ns_test.sh

For repeated traffic and module lifecycle testing:

./scripts/stress_lifecycle.sh

Inspect the driver with:

ethtool -i knic0
ethtool -l knic0
ethtool -S knic0

Cleanup

./scripts/cleanup.sh
make clean

This driver is intended for learning and does not control real hardware.