linux-drivers/
drivers/infiniband/sw/rxe

Soft-RoCE (RXE) software RDMA over Ethernet

A pure-software implementation of RDMA over Converged Ethernet that lets any ordinary Ethernet NIC speak the RoCE protocol without specialised RDMA hardware. It is widely used for development, testing, and virtualised setups where applications expect an InfiniBand-style verbs interface but no Mellanox-class RDMA card is present.

keep conf=0.91 deploy=medium replacement=none subsystem=infiniband category=networking-other
91%

recommendation

It should stay in the kernel because it is actively maintained, with fixes and feature work (including dma-buf support) landing as recently as 2026, and it is shipped and documented by major distributions such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Although it is not tied to any specific piece of hardware sold today, its value is precisely that it provides RDMA semantics on commodity Ethernet, making it useful for testing, CI, and software-only RDMA scenarios.

repository signals

35 files
14,727 source lines
366 commits, 5y
+10,026 / −7,280 lines added / removed, 5y
51 authors, 5y
monthly commits · 2021-04-21 → 2026-04-21 · 366 total · active in 53/61 months
2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2021-04: 1 commit · +1 −1 2021-05: 6 commits · +470 −171 2021-06: 21 commits · +755 −261 2021-07: 14 commits · +269 −236 2021-08: 4 commits · +4 −4 2021-09: 15 commits · +503 −549 2021-10: 10 commits · +114 −69 2021-11: 7 commits · +196 −227 2021-12: 6 commits · +17 −27 2022-01: 11 commits · +472 −635 2022-02: 12 commits · +660 −529 2022-03: 11 commits · +391 −584 2022-04: 18 commits · +208 −186 2022-05: 5 commits · +47 −56 2022-06: 17 commits · +424 −230 2022-07: 14 commits · +192 −239 2022-08: 8 commits · +53 −66 2022-09: 6 commits · +65 −138 2022-10: 14 commits · +113 −154 2022-11: 20 commits · +221 −165 2022-12: 16 commits · +514 −113 2023-01: 6 commits · +479 −503 2023-02: 3 commits · +171 −133 2023-03: 14 commits · +1,077 −558 2023-04: 9 commits · +497 −401 2023-05: 12 commits · +209 −96 2023-06: 8 commits · +172 −95 2023-07: 2 commits · +27 −21 2023-08: 1 commit · +0 −1 2023-09: 0 commits · +0 −0 2023-10: 0 commits · +0 −0 2023-11: 0 commits · +0 −0 2023-12: 0 commits · +0 −0 2024-01: 2 commits · +139 −141 2024-02: 1 commit · +3 −3 2024-03: 13 commits · +135 −185 2024-04: 1 commit · +2 −2 2024-05: 2 commits · +14 −1 2024-06: 2 commits · +6 −4 2024-07: 1 commit · +1 −0 2024-08: 3 commits · +3 −3 2024-09: 0 commits · +0 −0 2024-10: 2 commits · +5 −2 2024-11: 1 commit · +5 −18 2024-12: 7 commits · +538 −70 2025-01: 3 commits · +35 −10 2025-02: 1 commit · +2 −52 2025-03: 5 commits · +172 −59 2025-04: 9 commits · +62 −91 2025-05: 4 commits · +195 −13 2025-06: 2 commits · +11 −20 2025-07: 3 commits · +14 −23 2025-08: 0 commits · +0 −0 2025-09: 1 commit · +6 −2 2025-10: 2 commits · +1 −8 2025-11: 1 commit · +98 −0 2025-12: 2 commits · +35 −1 2026-01: 4 commits · +203 −103 2026-02: 3 commits · +20 −21 2026-03: 0 commits · +0 −0 2026-04: 0 commits · +0 −0

sources

  1. lore.kernel.org

    Recent 2026 upstream fix for RXE null-pointer dereference shows current maintenance, not abandonment.

  2. lore.kernel.org

    Recent 2026 RXE dma-buf support patch shows ongoing feature work.

  3. cateee.net

    LKDDb identifies CONFIG_RDMA_RXE as the 'Software RDMA over Ethernet (RoCE) driver' and module rdma_rxe.

  4. docs.redhat.com

    RHEL documentation describes RXE/Soft-RoCE deployment and configuration, indicating real distro-supported use outside legacy hardware.

codex reasoning notes (technical)

RXE is a real kernel driver, but it is software RDMA over Ethernet rather than a hardware-specific chipset driver. lore_activity on drivers/infiniband/sw/rxe/rxe.c returned April 25, 2026 fix traffic and March 26, 2026 feature work (first two URLs), which argues strongly against deprecation or removal. Web search returned LKDDb and Red Hat docs (last two URLs), showing the module remains shipped and used for Soft-RoCE on ordinary Ethernet NICs. No cited evidence of an active removal series was found; failed timeout-only lore searches were not used as evidence. Result: keep, with the key note that usefulness is in testing/lab/virtualized/software-RDMA deployments rather than tied to sold-new hardware.