Linux Kernel RX Path
An in-depth visualization of a packet's journey from the physical wire up to a user-space application.
RX Architecture Canvas
1. NIC (Hardware)
Receives electrical/optical signals
2. Ring Buffer (RAM)
DMA copies packet to memory (sk_buff)
3. Hardware IRQ
Interrupt sent to CPU
4. SoftIRQ / NAPI
net_rx_action polls ring buffer
5. Protocol Stack
L3 (ip_rcv) -> L4 (tcp_v4_rcv) -> Netfilter
6. Socket Receive Buffer
Queued for specific destination port
Kernel Space / User Space Boundary
7. Application
Calls recv() / read() system call
Kernel Execution Log
Click 'Receive Packet' to trace the RX path.