Understanding Performance of eBPF Maps

The Linux community has witnessed the rapid development of eBPF technology that allows users to load custom programs into the Linux kernel to extend its capabilities. A key feature that makes eBPF powerful is eBPF maps, which provide data storage and communication capabilities for eBPF programs. However, despite being widely used in eBPF programs, the performance of eBPF maps has received little attention. To understand the performance characteristics of eBPF maps, we conduct a comprehensive benchmark on them. The benchmark results demonstrate the access overhead of different types of eBPF maps and reveal the impact of various factors on the access overhead. By analyzing the benchmark results, we derive some implications for eBPF users to use eBPF maps more efficiently.