LF Networking Announces L3AF Release 2.1.0: Extending eBPF Life Cycle Management for Advancing Networking, Security and Observability Across Production Networks

• L3AF’s latest release expands capabilities for seamless network operations and cloud native integration

• Walmart leverages L3AF’s platform solutions to help manage complex holiday sales

• Latest release and deployments strengthen L3AF’s position as a leader in eBPF-based networking and observability solutions.

SAN FRANCISCO - January 29, 2025 - LF Networking, the de-facto collaboration ecosystem for Open Source Networking projects, is proud to announce the release of L3AF 2.1, packed with powerful new features designed to enhance performance, reliability, and flexibility for modern network operations. L3AF, a project hosted under LF Networking, is a leader in eBPF-based networking solutions, providing advanced tools for network observability, traffic management, and performance optimization.

This release continues the mission to provide open, cutting-edge solutions in eBPF-based networking, now with improved support for cloud native environments, increased observability, and streamlined operational upgrades.

"As we continue to see eBPF emerge as a transformative technology for observability and networking, projects like L3AF play a critical role in pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in modern infrastructures," said Arpit Joshipura, general manager, Networking, Edge and IoT at the Linux Foundation. "The new features in L3AF 2.1—especially its support for containers and BPF CO-RE—underscore its relevance for cloud native ecosystems and the rapidly growing demand for portable, scalable networking solutions."

"As one of the largest retailers in the world, Walmart relies on innovative technology to ensure the performance, security, and scalability of our global network infrastructure," said Mohit Arora, Vice President, Runtime Platforms at Walmart. "Open source is an important part of our strategy, and L3AF provides us with the flexibility and observability we need to manage our complex, large-scale networks. With the new features in L3AF 2.1, we are able to enhance our network operations without disruption, ensuring that our systems continue to deliver the level of performance our customers expect."

"This release is a significant milestone for L3AF and our community," said Patrick Moroney, member of the L3AF Technical Steering Committee. "The introduction of graceful restart and advanced observability features such as kprobes and tracepoints enhances our operational resilience and monitoring capabilities, while container support marks a crucial step toward cloud-native integration. We’re excited to see how these new features will help users optimize their networks in real-world scenarios."

Key Highlights of L3AF v2.1:

• L3AF 2.1 introduces Graceful Restart functionality, allowing seamless upgrades of the L3AF control plane without impacting any running eBPF programs in the data plane.
• Container Support for l3afd: L3AF can now run within a container, equipped to operate in cloud native environments, improving orchestration and scalability for users leveraging cloud-native platforms.
• BPF CO-RE in the eBPF Package Repository: L3AF 2.1 now supports BPF CO-RE, enabling portable BPF applications that run across different Linux kernels without modifications.
• Support for KProbes and Tracepoints: Enhanced observability with support for kprobes and tracepoints, providing deeper kernel-level insights for better eBPF troubleshooting.
• Dynamically add programs to new interfaces: L3AF 2.1 allows dynamic program attachment to new interfaces, benefiting complex network environments like multi-VM hypervisors.
• Alternative traffic management options: L3AF now supports attaching eBPF programs to HTB qdisc hooks for refined traffic shaping and resource allocation.
• Enhanced Logging and Storage for Easier Debugging: Improved logging with local filesystem storage simplifies debugging, accelerates issue resolution, and supports integration with centralized log analysis systems for better observability.
• L3AF Goes to Dockerhub: L3AF is now available on Docker Hub, making deployment easier within containerized environments for streamlined DevOps integration.

With these new capabilities, L3AF strengthens its position as a leader in eBPF-based networking and observability solutions. This release opens the door for improved cloud native integration, zero-downtime upgrades, and expanded monitoring capabilities, making it easier for enterprises to manage and optimize their network infrastructure.

For more information about L3AF 2.1 and its new features, please visit https://l3af.io/, and to learn more about LF Networking and how to join as a member, visit www.lfnetworking.org. 

L3AF in Action

The L3AF platform provides full lifecycle management to defend against DDoS attacks. It offers deep visibility into network infrastructure, which are usually hidden outside of the Linux kernel, and enables complex functions to be performed directly in the traffic flow of Walmart's retail and e-commerce platform.

Learn more at Open Networking & Edge Summit

For over 10 years, Open Networking & Edge Summit has remained the premier event for open networking, edge, cloud, and IoT industries, bringing together technical and business leaders for in-depth, interactive discussions in a neutral and collaborative environment. This dynamic forum fosters innovative planning and strategizing of cutting-edge technologies with the operational support needed to maximize their impact. This year’s event takes place March 31, 2025 at EXCEL London, alongside March 31 KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe and will be followed by a half-day Cloud Native Telco Day event officially co-located with KubeCon + CloudNativeCon. Attendees are encouraged to attend both events at the same venue over two days to get the full experience. Details and registration information are available here.

Resources

• How Walmart Leverages Open Source for Operational Excellence
  • Blog post
  • Keynote presentation
• News article: Walmart scales stupendous global network on open source
• Blog post: L3AF R2 brings New Improvements & features to eBPF functionality, chaining, monitoring, and more
• Blog post: Open-sourcing traffic mirroring (eBPF package) to the L3AF project
• L3AF Documents & Collateral Wiki 
• Release Notes: https://github.com/l3af-project/l3afd/releases/tag/v2.1.0