From 06dcd45ff81e06bc8cf40ed487c0b2652d346a5a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: John DeNisco <jdenisco@cisco.com>
Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2018 12:45:10 -0400
Subject: Initial commit of Sphinx docs

Change-Id: I9fca8fb98502dffc2555f9de7f507b6f006e0e77
Signed-off-by: John DeNisco <jdenisco@cisco.com>
---
 docs/overview/features/controlplane.rst            | 10 +++
 docs/overview/features/devices.rst                 | 33 ++++++++++
 docs/overview/features/index.rst                   | 32 ++++++++++
 docs/overview/features/integrations.rst            |  5 ++
 docs/overview/features/l2.rst                      | 56 +++++++++++++++++
 docs/overview/features/l3.rst                      | 55 ++++++++++++++++
 docs/overview/features/l4.rst                      |  5 ++
 docs/overview/features/plugins.rst                 |  7 +++
 docs/overview/features/trafficmanagement.rst       | 55 ++++++++++++++++
 docs/overview/features/tunnels.rst                 | 32 ++++++++++
 docs/overview/index.rst                            | 13 ++++
 .../performance/current_ipv4_throughput.rst        | 12 ++++
 .../performance/current_ipv6_throughput.rst        | 16 +++++
 .../overview/performance/current_l2_throughput.rst | 12 ++++
 .../performance/current_ndr_throughput.rst         | 13 ++++
 docs/overview/performance/index.rst                | 63 +++++++++++++++++++
 .../performance/trending_ipv4_throughput.rst       | 14 +++++
 .../performance/trending_ipv6_throughput.rst       | 16 +++++
 .../performance/trending_l2_throughput.rst         | 14 +++++
 docs/overview/supported.rst                        | 27 ++++++++
 docs/overview/whatisvpp/dataplane.rst              | 34 ++++++++++
 docs/overview/whatisvpp/developer.rst              | 24 +++++++
 docs/overview/whatisvpp/extensible.rst             | 39 ++++++++++++
 docs/overview/whatisvpp/fast.rst                   | 16 +++++
 docs/overview/whatisvpp/index.rst                  | 27 ++++++++
 .../whatisvpp/what-is-vector-packet-processing.rst | 73 ++++++++++++++++++++++
 26 files changed, 703 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 docs/overview/features/controlplane.rst
 create mode 100644 docs/overview/features/devices.rst
 create mode 100644 docs/overview/features/index.rst
 create mode 100644 docs/overview/features/integrations.rst
 create mode 100644 docs/overview/features/l2.rst
 create mode 100644 docs/overview/features/l3.rst
 create mode 100644 docs/overview/features/l4.rst
 create mode 100644 docs/overview/features/plugins.rst
 create mode 100644 docs/overview/features/trafficmanagement.rst
 create mode 100644 docs/overview/features/tunnels.rst
 create mode 100644 docs/overview/index.rst
 create mode 100644 docs/overview/performance/current_ipv4_throughput.rst
 create mode 100644 docs/overview/performance/current_ipv6_throughput.rst
 create mode 100644 docs/overview/performance/current_l2_throughput.rst
 create mode 100644 docs/overview/performance/current_ndr_throughput.rst
 create mode 100644 docs/overview/performance/index.rst
 create mode 100644 docs/overview/performance/trending_ipv4_throughput.rst
 create mode 100644 docs/overview/performance/trending_ipv6_throughput.rst
 create mode 100644 docs/overview/performance/trending_l2_throughput.rst
 create mode 100644 docs/overview/supported.rst
 create mode 100644 docs/overview/whatisvpp/dataplane.rst
 create mode 100644 docs/overview/whatisvpp/developer.rst
 create mode 100644 docs/overview/whatisvpp/extensible.rst
 create mode 100644 docs/overview/whatisvpp/fast.rst
 create mode 100644 docs/overview/whatisvpp/index.rst
 create mode 100644 docs/overview/whatisvpp/what-is-vector-packet-processing.rst

(limited to 'docs/overview')

diff --git a/docs/overview/features/controlplane.rst b/docs/overview/features/controlplane.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..ddf0d34c69f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/overview/features/controlplane.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+.. _cp:
+
+=============
+Control Plane
+=============
+
+* DHCP client/proxy
+
+* DHCPv6 Proxy
+
diff --git a/docs/overview/features/devices.rst b/docs/overview/features/devices.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..f3ecd32c825
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/overview/features/devices.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+.. _dev:
+
+=======
+Devices
+=======
+
+Hardware
+--------
+* `DPDK <https://www.dpdk.org/>`_
+
+  * `Network Interfaces <https://doc.dpdk.org/guides/nics/>`_
+  * `Cryptographic Devices <https://doc.dpdk.org/guides/cryptodevs/>`_
+
+* `Open Data Plane <https://github.com/FDio/odp4vpp>`_
+* `Intel Ethernet Adaptive Virtual Function <https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/product-specifications/ethernet-adaptive-virtual-function-hardware-spec.pdf>`_
+
+Operating System
+----------------
+* `Netmap <http://info.iet.unipi.it/~luigi/netmap/>`_
+* `af_packet <http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man7/packet.7.html>`_
+* Tap V2 (FastTap)
+
+Virtualization:
+---------------
+* SSVM
+* Vhost / VirtIO
+
+Containers
+----------
+
+* Vhost-user
+* MemIF
+
diff --git a/docs/overview/features/index.rst b/docs/overview/features/index.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..43d0503d999
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/overview/features/index.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+.. _features:
+
+========
+Features
+========
+
+.. rst-class:: center-align-table
+
++-------------------------+-----------+-----------+
+| :ref:`sdn`              |           |           |
++------------+------------+ :ref:`cp` |           |
+|            | :ref:`l4`  |           |           |
+|            +------------+-----------+ :ref:`pg` |
+| :ref:`tun` | :ref:`l3`  |           |           |
+|            +------------+ :ref:`tm` |           |
+|            | :ref:`l2`  |           |           |
++------------+------------+-----------+-----------+
+| :ref:`dev`                                      |
++-------------------------------------------------+
+
+.. toctree::
+   :hidden:
+
+   devices.rst
+   integrations.rst
+   trafficmanagement.rst
+   l2.rst
+   l3.rst
+   l4.rst
+   tunnels.rst
+   controlplane.rst
+   plugins.rst
diff --git a/docs/overview/features/integrations.rst b/docs/overview/features/integrations.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..848e8648438
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/overview/features/integrations.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+.. _sdn:
+
+========================
+SDN & Cloud Integrations
+========================
diff --git a/docs/overview/features/l2.rst b/docs/overview/features/l2.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..a567356209b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/overview/features/l2.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+.. _l2:
+
+=======
+Layer 2
+=======
+
+MAC Layer
+---------
+* Ethernet
+
+Discovery
+---------
+* Cisco Discovery Protocol
+* Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP)
+
+Link Layer Control Protocol
+---------------------------
+* Bit Index Explicit Replication – Link Layer Multi-cast forwarding.
+* Link Layer Control (LLC) - multiplex protocols over the MAC layer. 
+* Spatial Reuse Protocol (SRP)
+* High-Level Data Link Control (HDLC)
+* Logical link control (LLC)
+* Link Agg Control Protocol (Active/Active, Active/Passive) – 18.04 
+
+Virtual Private Networks
+------------------------
+* MPLS 
+  
+  * MPLS-o-Ethernet – Deep label stacks supported
+
+* Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS)
+* VLAN
+* Q-in-Q
+* Tag-rewrite (VTR) - push/pop/Translate (1:1,1:2, 2:1,2:2)
+* Ethernet flow point Filtering
+* Layer 2 Cross Connect
+
+Bridging
+---------
+* Bridge Domains
+* MAC Learning (50k addresses)
+* Split-horizon group support
+* Flooding
+
+ARP
+---
+* Proxy
+* Termination
+* Bidirectional Forwarding Detection
+
+Integrated Routing and Bridging (IRB)
+-------------------------------------
+* Flexibility to both route and switch between groups of ports.
+* Bridged Virtual Interface (BVI) Support, allows traffic switched traffic to be routed.
+
+
diff --git a/docs/overview/features/l3.rst b/docs/overview/features/l3.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..fd90b13efd9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/overview/features/l3.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+.. _l3:
+
+=======
+Layer 3
+=======
+
+IP Layer
+--------
+* ICMP
+* IPv4
+* IPv6
+* IPSEC
+* Link Local Addressing
+
+MultiCast
+---------
+* Multicast FiB
+* IGMP
+
+Virtual Routing and forwarding (VRF)
+------------------------------------
+* VRF scaling, thousands of tables. 
+* Controlled cross-VRF lookups
+
+Multi-path
+----------
+* Equal Cost Multi Path (ECMP)
+* Unequal Cost Multi Path (UCMP)
+
+IPv4
+----
+* ARP
+* ARP Proxy
+* ARP Snooping
+
+IPv6
+----
+* Neighbour discovery (ND)
+* ND Proxy
+* Router Advertisement
+* Segment Routing
+* Distributed Virtual Routing Resolution
+
+Forwarding Information Base (FIB)
+---------------------------------
+
+* Hierarchical FIB
+* Memory efficient
+* Multi-million entry scalable
+* Lockless/concurrent updates
+* Recursive lookups
+* Next hop failure detection
+* Shared FIB adjacencies
+* Multicast support
+* MPLS support
diff --git a/docs/overview/features/l4.rst b/docs/overview/features/l4.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..052c6b1b45a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/overview/features/l4.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+.. _l4:
+
+=======
+Layer 4
+=======
diff --git a/docs/overview/features/plugins.rst b/docs/overview/features/plugins.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..99431134f7f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/overview/features/plugins.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+.. _pg:
+
+=======
+Plugins
+=======
+
+* iOAM
diff --git a/docs/overview/features/trafficmanagement.rst b/docs/overview/features/trafficmanagement.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..9320165ec09
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/overview/features/trafficmanagement.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+.. _tm:
+
+==================
+Traffic Management
+==================
+
+IP Layer Input Checks
+---------------------
+* Source Reverse Path Forwarding
+* Time To Live expiration
+* IP header checksum
+* Layer 2 Length < IP Length
+
+Classifiers
+-----------
+* Multiple million Classifiers - Arbitrary N-tuple
+
+Policers
+--------
+* Colour Aware & Token Bucket
+* Rounding Closest/Up/Down
+* Limits in PPS/KBPS
+* Types: 
+
+  * Single Rate Two Colour
+  * Single Rate Three Colour
+  * Dual Rate Three Colour
+
+* Action Triggers
+
+  * Conform
+  * Exceed
+  * Violate
+
+* Actions Type
+
+  * Drop
+  * Transmit
+  * Mark-and-transmit
+
+Switched Port Analyzer (SPAN)
+* mirror traffic to another switch port
+
+ACLs
+----
+ * Stateful
+ * Stateless
+
+COP
+---
+
+MAC/IP Pairing
+--------------
+(security feature).
+
diff --git a/docs/overview/features/tunnels.rst b/docs/overview/features/tunnels.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..352c4393099
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/overview/features/tunnels.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+.. _tun:
+
+=======
+Tunnels
+=======
+
+Layer 2
+-------
+* L2TP
+* PPP
+* VLAN
+
+Layer 3
+-------
+* Mapping of Address and Port with Encapsulation (MAP-E)
+* Lightweight IPv4 over IPv6
+
+   * An Extension to the Dual-Stack Lite Architecture
+
+* GENEVE
+* VXLAN
+
+Segment Routing
+---------------
+* IPv6
+* MPLS
+
+Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE)
+* GRE over IPSEC
+* GRE over IP
+* MPLS
+* NSH
diff --git a/docs/overview/index.rst b/docs/overview/index.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..d3da0e211fa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/overview/index.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+.. _overview:
+
+=========================================
+Overview
+=========================================
+
+.. toctree::
+   :maxdepth: 1
+
+   whatisvpp/index.rst
+   features/index.rst
+   performance/index.rst
+   supported.rst
diff --git a/docs/overview/performance/current_ipv4_throughput.rst b/docs/overview/performance/current_ipv4_throughput.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..3a34da76ca0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/overview/performance/current_ipv4_throughput.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+.. _current_ipv4_throughput:
+
+.. toctree::
+
+IPv4 Routed-Forwarding Performance Tests
+****************************************
+
+VPP NDR 64B packet throughput in 1t1c setup (1thread, 1core) is presented in the graph below.
+
+.. raw:: html
+
+    <iframe src="https://docs.fd.io/csit/rls1804/report/_static/vpp/64B-1t1c-ethip4-ip4-ndrdisc.html" width="1200" height="1000" frameborder="0">
diff --git a/docs/overview/performance/current_ipv6_throughput.rst b/docs/overview/performance/current_ipv6_throughput.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..119f28f5665
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/overview/performance/current_ipv6_throughput.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+.. _current_ipv6_throughput:
+
+.. toctree::
+
+IPv6 Routed-Forwarding Performance Tests
+****************************************
+
+VPP NDR 78B packet throughput in 1t1c setup (1 thread, 1 core) is presented in the graph below.
+
+.. raw:: html
+
+    <iframe src="https://docs.fd.io/csit/rls1801/report/_static/vpp/78B-1t1c-ethip6-ip6-ndrdisc.html" width="1200" height="1000" frameborder="0">
+
+
+
+
diff --git a/docs/overview/performance/current_l2_throughput.rst b/docs/overview/performance/current_l2_throughput.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..532e6dc7163
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/overview/performance/current_l2_throughput.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+ .. _current_l2_throughput:
+
+.. toctree::
+
+L2 Ethernet Switching Throughput Tests
+***************************************
+
+VPP NDR 64B packet throughput in 1 Core, 1 Thread setup, is presented in the graph below.
+
+.. raw:: html
+
+    <iframe src="https://docs.fd.io/csit/rls1801/report/_static/vpp/64B-1t1c-l2-sel2-ndrdisc.html" width="1200" height="1000" frameborder="0">
diff --git a/docs/overview/performance/current_ndr_throughput.rst b/docs/overview/performance/current_ndr_throughput.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..c7348314ef6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/overview/performance/current_ndr_throughput.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+.. _current_ndr_throughput:
+
+.. toctree::
+
+NDR Performance Tests
+*********************
+
+This is a VPP NDR 64B packet throughput in 1 Core, 1 Thread setup, live graph of the NDR (No Drop Rate) L2 Performance Tests. 
+
+.. raw:: html
+
+    <iframe src="https://docs.fd.io/csit/rls1804/report/_static/vpp/64B-1t1c-l2-sel1-ndrdisc.html" width="800" height="1000" frameborder="0">
+
diff --git a/docs/overview/performance/index.rst b/docs/overview/performance/index.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..4255d495c38
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/overview/performance/index.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+.. _performance:
+
+Performance
+===========
+
+Overview
+^^^^^^^^
+
+One of the benefits of FD.io VPP, is high performance on relatively low-power computing, this performance is based on the following features:
+
+* A high-performance user-space network stack designed for commodity hardware.
+
+  - L2, L3 and L4 features and encapsulations.
+
+* Optimized packet interfaces supporting a multitude of use cases.
+
+  - An integrated vhost-user backend for high speed VM-to-VM connectivity.
+  - An integrated memif container backend for high speed Container-to-Container connectivity. 
+  - An integrated vhost based interface to punt packets to the Linux Kernel. 
+
+* The same optimized code-paths run execute on the host, and inside VMs and Linux containers.
+* Leverages best-of-breed open source driver technology: `DPDK <https://www.dpdk.org/>`_.
+* Tested at scale; linear core scaling, tested with millions of flows and mac addresses.  
+
+These features have been designed to take full advantage of common micro-processor optimization techniques, such as: 
+
+* Reducing cache and TLS misses by processing packets in vectors. 
+* Realizing `IPC <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructions_per_cycle>`_ gains with vector instructions such as: SSE, AVX and NEON.
+* Eliminating mode switching, context switches and blocking, to always be doing useful work.  
+* Cache-lined aliged buffers for cache and memory efficiency.
+
+
+Packet Throughput Graphs
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+These are some of the packet throughput graphs for FD.io VPP 18.04 from the CSIT `18.04 benchmarking report <https://docs.fd.io/csit/rls1804/report/>`_.   
+
+.. toctree::
+
+    current_l2_throughput.rst    
+    current_ndr_throughput.rst
+    current_ipv4_throughput.rst
+    current_ipv6_throughput.rst
+
+Trending Throughput Graphs
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
+
+These are some of the trending packet throughput graphs from the CSIT `trending dashboard <https://docs.fd.io/csit/master/trending/introduction/index.html>`_. **Please note that**, performance in the trending graphs will change on a nightly basis in line with the software development cycle.
+
+.. toctree::
+
+    trending_l2_throughput.rst
+    trending_ipv4_throughput.rst
+    trending_ipv6_throughput.rst
+
+For More information on CSIT 
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+These are FD.io Continuous System Integration and Testing (CSIT)'s documentation links.
+
+* `CSIT Code Documentation <https://docs.fd.io/csit/master/doc/overview.html>`_
+* `CSIT Test Overview <https://docs.fd.io/csit/rls1804/report/introduction/overview.html>`_
+* `VPP Performance Dashboard <https://docs.fd.io/csit/master/trending/introduction/index.html>`_
diff --git a/docs/overview/performance/trending_ipv4_throughput.rst b/docs/overview/performance/trending_ipv4_throughput.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..4ba028b9e59
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/overview/performance/trending_ipv4_throughput.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+.. _trending_ipv4_throughput:
+
+.. toctree::
+
+IPv4 Routed-Forwarding Performance Tests
+****************************************
+
+This is a live graph of the IPv4 Routed Forwarding Switching Performance Tests. 
+
+.. raw:: html
+
+    <iframe src="https://docs.fd.io/csit/master/trending/_static/vpp/cpta-ip4-1t1c-x520.html" width="1200" height="1000" frameborder="0">
+
+
diff --git a/docs/overview/performance/trending_ipv6_throughput.rst b/docs/overview/performance/trending_ipv6_throughput.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..8217b41e817
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/overview/performance/trending_ipv6_throughput.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+.. _trending_ipv6_throughput:
+
+.. toctree::
+
+IPv6 Routed-Forwarding Performance Tests
+****************************************
+
+VPP NDR 78B packet throughput in 1t1c setup (1 thread, 1 core) is presented in the trending graph below.
+
+.. raw:: html
+
+    <iframe src="https://docs.fd.io/csit/master/trending/_static/vpp/cpta-ip6-1t1c-x520-1.html" width="1200" height="1000" frameborder="0">
+
+
+
+
diff --git a/docs/overview/performance/trending_l2_throughput.rst b/docs/overview/performance/trending_l2_throughput.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..59bb3bf6f1a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/overview/performance/trending_l2_throughput.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+ .. _trending_l2_throughput:
+
+.. toctree::
+
+L2 Ethernet Switching Performance Tests
+***************************************
+
+This is a live graph of the 1 Core, 1 Thread, L2 Ethernet Switching Performance Tests Test on the x520 NIC.
+
+.. raw:: html
+
+    <iframe src="https://docs.fd.io/csit/master/trending/_static/vpp/cpta-l2-1t1c-x520.html" width="1200" height="1000" frameborder="0">
+
+
diff --git a/docs/overview/supported.rst b/docs/overview/supported.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..801fdcc6966
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/overview/supported.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+.. _supported:
+
+.. toctree::
+
+Architectures and Operating Systems
+***********************************
+
+Architectures
+-----------------------
+
+* - The FD.io VPP platform supports:
+
+   * - x86/64
+   * - ARM
+     
+Operating Systems and Packaging
+-------------------------------
+
+FD.io VPP supports package installation on the following 
+recent LTS operating systems releases:
+
+* - Operating Systems:
+
+   * - Debian
+   * - Ubuntu 
+   * - CentOS 
+   * - OpenSUSE
diff --git a/docs/overview/whatisvpp/dataplane.rst b/docs/overview/whatisvpp/dataplane.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..9113038fc57
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/overview/whatisvpp/dataplane.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+.. _packet-processing:
+
+=================
+Packet Processing
+=================
+
+* Layer 2 - 4 Network Stack
+
+  * Fast lookup tables for routes, bridge entries
+  * Arbitrary n-tuple classifiers 
+  * Control Plane, Traffic Management and Overlays
+ 
+* `Linux <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux>`_ and `FreeBSD <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeBSD>`_ support
+
+  * Wide support for standard Operating System Interfaces such as AF_Packet, Tun/Tap & Netmap.
+
+* Wide network and cryptograhic hardware support with `DPDK <https://www.dpdk.org/>`_.
+* Container and Virtualization support
+
+  * Para-virtualized intefaces; Vhost and Virtio 
+  * Network Adapters over PCI passthrough
+  * Native container interfaces; MemIF
+  
+* Universal Data Plane: one code base, for many use cases
+ 
+  * Discrete appliances; such as `Routers <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Router_(computing)>`_ and `Switches <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_switch>`_.
+  * `Cloud Infrastructure and Virtual Network Functions <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_function_virtualization>`_
+  * `Cloud Native Infrastructure <https://www.cncf.io/>`_
+  * The same binary package for all use cases. 
+
+* Out of the box production quality, with thanks to `CSIT <https://wiki.fd.io/view/CSIT#Start_Here>`_. 
+
+For more information, please see :ref:`features` for the complete list.
+
diff --git a/docs/overview/whatisvpp/developer.rst b/docs/overview/whatisvpp/developer.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..a0bb2d451c0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/overview/whatisvpp/developer.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+.. _developer-friendly:
+
+==================
+Developer Friendly
+==================
+
+* Extensive runtime counters; throughput, `intructions per cycle <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructions_per_cycle>`_, errors, events etc.
+* Integrated pipeline tracing facilities
+* Multi-language API bindings
+* Integrated command line for debugging
+* Fault-tolerant and upgradable
+
+  * Runs as a standard user-space process for fault tolerance, software crashes seldom require more than a process restart. 
+  * Improved fault-tolerance and upgradability when compared to running similar packet processing in the kernel, software updates never require system reboots. 
+  * Development expierence is easier compared to similar kernel code 
+  * Hardware isolation and protection (`iommu <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Input%E2%80%93output_memory_management_unit>`_)
+
+* Built for security
+
+  * Extensive white-box testing
+  * Image segment base address randomization
+  * Shared-memory segment base address randomization
+  * Stack bounds checking
+  * Static analysis with `Coverity <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity>`_
diff --git a/docs/overview/whatisvpp/extensible.rst b/docs/overview/whatisvpp/extensible.rst
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+++ b/docs/overview/whatisvpp/extensible.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+.. _extensible:
+
+=============================
+Extensible and Modular Design
+=============================
+
+* Pluggable, easy to understand & extend
+* Mature graph node architecture
+* Full control to reorganize the pipeline
+* Fast, plugins are equal citizens
+
+**Modular, Flexible, and Extensible**
+
+The FD.io VPP packet processing pipeline is decomposed into a ‘packet processing
+graph’.  This modular approach means that anyone can ‘plugin’ new graph
+nodes. This makes VPP easily exensible and means that plugins can be
+customized for specific purposes. VPP is also configurable through it's
+Low-Level API.
+
+.. figure:: /_images/VPP_custom_application_packet_processing_graph.280.jpg
+   :alt: Extensible, modular graph node architecture?
+   
+   Extensible and modular graph node architecture. 
+
+At runtime, the FD.io VPP platform assembles a vector of packets from RX rings,
+typically up to 256 packets in a single vector. The packet processing graph is
+then applied, node by node (including plugins) to the entire packet vector. The
+received packets typically traverse the packet processing graph nodes in the
+vector, when the network processing represented by each graph node is applied to
+each packet in turn.  Graph nodes are small and modular, and loosely
+coupled. This makes it easy to introduce new graph nodes and rewire existing
+graph nodes.
+
+Plugins are `shared libraries <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_(computing)>`_ 
+and are loaded at runtime by VPP. VPP find plugins by searching the plugin path 
+for libraries, and then dynamically loads each one in turn on startup. 
+A plugin can introduce new graph nodes or rearrange the packet processing graph. 
+You can build a plugin completely independently of the FD.io VPP source tree,
+which means you can treat it as an independent component.
diff --git a/docs/overview/whatisvpp/fast.rst b/docs/overview/whatisvpp/fast.rst
new file mode 100644
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@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+.. _fast:
+
+================================
+Fast, Scalable and Deterministic
+================================
+
+* `Continuous integration and system testing <https://wiki.fd.io/view/CSIT#Start_Here>`_
+
+  * Including continuous & extensive, latency and throughput testing
+
+* Layer 2 Cross Connect (L2XC), typically achieve 15+ Mpps per core.
+* Tested to achieve **zero** packet drops and ~15µs latency.
+* Performance scales linearly with core/thread count
+* Supporting millions of concurrent lookup tables entries
+
+Please see :ref:`performance` for more information.
diff --git a/docs/overview/whatisvpp/index.rst b/docs/overview/whatisvpp/index.rst
new file mode 100644
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+.. _whatisvpp:
+
+=========================================
+What is VPP?
+=========================================
+
+FD.io's Vector Packet Processing (VPP) technology is a :ref:`fast`,
+:ref:`packet-processing` stack that runs on commodity CPUs. It provides
+out-of-the-box production quality switch/router functionality and much, much
+more. FD.io VPP is at the same time, an :ref:`extensible` and
+:ref:`developer-friendly` framework, capable of boot-strapping the development
+of packet-processing applications. The benefits of FD.io VPP are its high
+performance, proven technology, its modularity and flexibility, integrations and
+rich feature set.
+
+FD.io VPP is vector packet processing software, to learn more about what that
+means, see the :ref:`what-is-vector-packet-processing` section. 
+
+For more detailed information on FD.io features, see the following sections:
+
+.. toctree::
+   :maxdepth: 1
+
+   dataplane.rst
+   fast.rst
+   developer.rst
+   extensible.rst
diff --git a/docs/overview/whatisvpp/what-is-vector-packet-processing.rst b/docs/overview/whatisvpp/what-is-vector-packet-processing.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..994318e81c5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/overview/whatisvpp/what-is-vector-packet-processing.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+:orphan:
+
+.. _what-is-vector-packet-processing:
+
+=================================
+What is vector packet processing?
+=================================
+
+FD.io VPP is developed using vector packet processing concepts, as opposed to
+scalar packet processing, these concepts are explained in the following sections. 
+
+Vector packet processing is a common approach among high performance `Userspace
+<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_space>`_ packet processing applications such
+as developed with FD.io VPP and `DPDK
+<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Plane_Development_Kit>`_. The scalar based
+aproach tends to be favoured by Operating System `Kernel
+<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernel_(operating_system)>`_ Network Stacks and
+Userspace stacks that don't have strict performance requirements.
+
+**Scalar Packet Processing**
+
+A scalar packet processing network stack typically processes one packet at a
+time: an interrupt handling function takes a single packet from a Network
+Inteface, and processes it through a set of functions: fooA calls fooB calls
+fooC and so on.
+
+.. code-block:: none 
+
+   +---> fooA(packet1) +---> fooB(packet1) +---> fooC(packet1)
+   +---> fooA(packet2) +---> fooB(packet2) +---> fooC(packet2)
+   ...
+   +---> fooA(packet3) +---> fooB(packet3) +---> fooC(packet3)
+
+
+Scalar packet processing is simple, but inefficent in these ways:
+
+* When the code path length exceeds the size of the Microprocessor's instruction
+  cache (I-cache), `thrashing
+  <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrashing_(computer_science)>`_ occurs as the
+  Microprocessor is continually loading new instructions. In this model, each
+  packet incurs an identical set of I-cache misses.
+* The associated deep call stack will also add load-store-unit pressure as
+  stack-locals fall out of the Microprocessor's Layer 1 Data Cache (D-cache).
+
+**Vector Packet Processing**
+
+In contrast, a vector packet processing network stack processes multiple packets
+at a time, called 'vectors of packets' or simply a 'vector'. An interrupt
+handling function takes the vector of packets from a Network Inteface, and
+processes the vector through a set of functions: fooA calls fooB calls fooC and
+so on.
+
+.. code-block:: none 
+
+   +---> fooA([packet1, +---> fooB([packet1, +---> fooC([packet1, +--->
+               packet2,             packet2,             packet2,
+               ...                  ...                  ...
+               packet256])          packet256])          packet256])
+
+This approach fixes: 
+
+* The I-cache thrashing problem described above, by ammoritizing the cost of
+  I-cache loads across multiple packets.
+
+* The ineffeciences associated with the deep call stack by recieving vectors
+  of up to 256 packets at a time from the Network Interface, and processes them
+  using a directed graph of node. The graph scheduler invokes one node dispatch
+  function at a time, restricting stack depth to a few stack frames.
+
+The further optimizations that this approaches enables are pipelining and
+prefetching to minimize read latency on table data and parallelize packet loads
+needed to process packets.
+
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