NVIDIA
NVIDIA
DOCA HBN
Helm Chart
NVIDIA
NVIDIA
DOCA HBN

Host based networking (HBN) is a DOCA Service that runs on NVIDIA's DPU. It orchestrates network connectivity of dynamically created VMs/Containers on cloud servers. HBN service is a BGP router that supports EVPN extension to enable multi-tenant cloud.

Introduction

The host-based networking (HBN) solution packages a set of network functions inside a container which, itself, is packaged as a service pod to be run on the DPU.

At the core of HBN is the Linux networking DPU acceleration driver. Netlink to DOCA daemon, or nl2docad, implements the DPU acceleration driver. nl2docad seamlessly accelerates Linux networking using DPU hardware programming APIs.

Service Architecture

The driver mirrors the Linux kernel routing and bridging tables into the DPU hardware by discovering the configured Linux networking objects using the Linux Netlink API. Dynamic network flows, as learned by the Linux kernel networking stack, are also programmed by the driver into DPU hardware by listening to Linux kernel networking events.

License & EULA

This DOCA Microservice is licensed under the NVIDIA Networking Product Agreement. By pulling and using this product, you accept the terms and conditions of this license.

Technical Support

Use the NVIDIA Developers forum for questions regarding this software.

Enterprise Support

Get access to knowledge base articles and support cases or submit a ticket.

Publisher
NVIDIA
NVIDIA
Latest Version3.4.0
UpdatedJune 16, 2026 UTC
Compressed Size4.6 KB

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