diff --git a/Documentation/networking/index.rst b/Documentation/networking/index.rst
index 4f2d1f682a18..10dbbb6694dc 100644
--- a/Documentation/networking/index.rst
+++ b/Documentation/networking/index.rst
@@ -106,6 +106,7 @@ Contents:
    tc-actions-env-rules
    tc-queue-filters
    tcp-thin
+   ulp-ddp-offload
    team
    timestamping
    tipc
diff --git a/Documentation/networking/ulp-ddp-offload.rst b/Documentation/networking/ulp-ddp-offload.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..3927066938fb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/networking/ulp-ddp-offload.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,368 @@
+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: (GPL-2.0-only OR BSD-2-Clause)
+
+=================================
+ULP direct data placement offload
+=================================
+
+Overview
+========
+
+The Linux kernel ULP direct data placement (DDP) offload infrastructure
+provides tagged request-response protocols, such as NVMe-TCP, the ability to
+place response data directly in pre-registered buffers according to header
+tags. DDP is particularly useful for data-intensive pipelined protocols whose
+responses may be reordered.
+
+For example, in NVMe-TCP numerous read requests are sent together and each
+request is tagged using the PDU header CID field. Receiving servers process
+requests as fast as possible and sometimes responses for smaller requests
+bypasses responses to larger requests, e.g., 4KB reads bypass 1GB reads.
+Thereafter, clients correlate responses to requests using PDU header CID tags.
+The processing of each response requires copying data from SKBs to read
+request destination buffers; The offload avoids this copy. The offload is
+oblivious to destination buffers which can reside either in userspace
+(O_DIRECT) or in kernel pagecache.
+
+Request TCP byte-stream:
+
+.. parsed-literal::
+
+ +---------------+-------+---------------+-------+---------------+-------+
+ | PDU hdr CID=1 | Req 1 | PDU hdr CID=2 | Req 2 | PDU hdr CID=3 | Req 3 |
+ +---------------+-------+---------------+-------+---------------+-------+
+
+Response TCP byte-stream:
+
+.. parsed-literal::
+
+ +---------------+--------+---------------+--------+---------------+--------+
+ | PDU hdr CID=2 | Resp 2 | PDU hdr CID=3 | Resp 3 | PDU hdr CID=1 | Resp 1 |
+ +---------------+--------+---------------+--------+---------------+--------+
+
+The driver builds SKB page fragments that point to destination buffers.
+Consequently, SKBs represent the original data on the wire, which enables
+*transparent* inter-operation with the network stack. To avoid copies between
+SKBs and destination buffers, the layer-5 protocol (L5P) will check
+``if (src == dst)`` for SKB page fragments, success indicates that data is
+already placed there by NIC hardware and copy should be skipped.
+
+In addition, L5P might have DDGST which ensures data integrity over
+the network.  If not offloaded, ULP DDP might not be efficient as L5P
+will need to go over the data and calculate it by itself, cancelling
+out the benefits of the DDP copy skip.  ULP DDP has support for Rx/Tx
+DDGST offload. On the received side the NIC will verify DDGST for
+received PDUs and update SKB->ulp_ddp and SKB->ulp_crc bits.  If all the SKBs
+making up a L5P PDU have crc on, L5P will skip on calculating and
+verifying the DDGST for the corresponding PDU. On the Tx side, the NIC
+will be responsible for calculating and filling the DDGST fields in
+the sent PDUs.
+
+Offloading does require NIC hardware to track L5P protocol framing, similarly
+to RX TLS offload (see documentation at
+:ref:`Documentation/networking/tls-offload.rst <tls_offload>`).  NIC hardware
+will parse PDU headers, extract fields such as operation type, length, tag
+identifier, etc. and only offload segments that correspond to tags registered
+with the NIC, see the :ref:`buf_reg` section.
+
+Device configuration
+====================
+
+During driver initialization the device sets the ``NETIF_F_HW_ULP_DDP`` feature
+and installs its
+:c:type:`struct ulp_ddp_ops <ulp_ddp_ops>`
+pointer in the :c:member:`ulp_ddp_ops` member of the
+:c:type:`struct net_device <net_device>`.
+
+Later, after the L5P completes its handshake, the L5P queries the
+device driver for its ULP capabilities (:c:type:`enum ulp_ddp_offload_capabilities`)
+and runtime limitations via the :c:member:`ulp_ddp_limits` callback:
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+ int (*ulp_ddp_limits)(struct net_device *netdev,
+		      struct ulp_ddp_limits *limits);
+
+The current list of capabilities is:
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+ enum ulp_ddp_offload_capabilities {
+	ULP_DDP_C_NVME_TCP = 1,
+	ULP_DDP_C_NVME_TCP_DDGST_RX = 2,
+ };
+
+All L5P share a common set of limits and parameters (:c:type:`struct ulp_ddp_limits`):
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+ /**
+  * struct ulp_ddp_limits - Generic ulp ddp limits: tcp ddp
+  * protocol limits.
+  * Protocol implementations must use this as the first member.
+  * Add new instances of ulp_ddp_limits below (nvme-tcp, etc.).
+  *
+  * @max_ddp_sgl_len:	maximum sgl size supported (zero means no limit)
+  * @io_threshold:	minimum payload size required to offload
+  */
+ struct ulp_ddp_limits {
+	enum ulp_ddp_type	type;
+	u64			offload_capabilities;
+	int			max_ddp_sgl_len;
+	int			io_threshold;
+	unsigned char		buf[];
+ };
+
+But each L5P can also add protocol-specific limits e.g.:
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+ /**
+  * struct nvme_tcp_ddp_limits - nvme tcp driver limitations
+  *
+  * @full_ccid_range:	true if the driver supports the full CID range
+  */
+ struct nvme_tcp_ddp_limits {
+	struct ulp_ddp_limits	lmt;
+
+	bool			full_ccid_range;
+ };
+
+Once the L5P has made sure the device is supported the offload
+operations are installed on the socket.
+
+If offload installation fails, then the connection is handled by software as if
+offload was not attempted.
+
+To request offload for a socket `sk`, the L5P calls :c:member:`ulp_ddp_sk_add`:
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+ int (*ulp_ddp_sk_add)(struct net_device *netdev,
+		      struct sock *sk,
+		      struct ulp_ddp_config *config);
+
+The function return 0 for success. In case of failure, L5P software should
+fallback to normal non-offloaded operations.  The `config` parameter indicates
+the L5P type and any metadata relevant for that protocol. For example, in
+NVMe-TCP the following config is used:
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+ /**
+  * struct nvme_tcp_ddp_config - nvme tcp ddp configuration for an IO queue
+  *
+  * @pfv:        pdu version (e.g., NVME_TCP_PFV_1_0)
+  * @cpda:       controller pdu data alignment (dwords, 0's based)
+  * @dgst:       digest types enabled.
+  *              The netdev will offload crc if L5P data digest is supported.
+  * @queue_size: number of nvme-tcp IO queue elements
+  * @queue_id:   queue identifier
+  * @cpu_io:     cpu core running the IO thread for this queue
+  */
+ struct nvme_tcp_ddp_config {
+	struct ulp_ddp_config   cfg;
+
+	u16			pfv;
+	u8			cpda;
+	u8			dgst;
+	int			queue_size;
+	int			queue_id;
+	int			io_cpu;
+ };
+
+When offload is not needed anymore, e.g. when the socket is being released, the L5P
+calls :c:member:`ulp_ddp_sk_del` to release device contexts:
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+ void (*ulp_ddp_sk_del)(struct net_device *netdev,
+		        struct sock *sk);
+
+Normal operation
+================
+
+At the very least, the device maintains the following state for each connection:
+
+ * 5-tuple
+ * expected TCP sequence number
+ * mapping between tags and corresponding buffers
+ * current offset within PDU, PDU length, current PDU tag
+
+NICs should not assume any correlation between PDUs and TCP packets.
+If TCP packets arrive in-order, offload will place PDU payloads
+directly inside corresponding registered buffers. NIC offload should
+not delay packets. If offload is not possible, than the packet is
+passed as-is to software. To perform offload on incoming packets
+without buffering packets in the NIC, the NIC stores some inter-packet
+state, such as partial PDU headers.
+
+RX data-path
+------------
+
+After the device validates TCP checksums, it can perform DDP offload.  The
+packet is steered to the DDP offload context according to the 5-tuple.
+Thereafter, the expected TCP sequence number is checked against the packet
+TCP sequence number. If there is a match, offload is performed: the PDU payload
+is DMA written to the corresponding destination buffer according to the PDU header
+tag.  The data should be DMAed only once, and the NIC receive ring will only
+store the remaining TCP and PDU headers.
+
+We remark that a single TCP packet may have numerous PDUs embedded inside. NICs
+can choose to offload one or more of these PDUs according to various
+trade-offs. Possibly, offloading such small PDUs is of little value, and it is
+better to leave it to software.
+
+Upon receiving a DDP offloaded packet, the driver reconstructs the original SKB
+using page frags, while pointing to the destination buffers whenever possible.
+This method enables seamless integration with the network stack, which can
+inspect and modify packet fields transparently to the offload.
+
+.. _buf_reg:
+
+Destination buffer registration
+-------------------------------
+
+To register the mapping between tags and destination buffers for a socket
+`sk`, the L5P calls :c:member:`ulp_ddp_setup` of :c:type:`struct ulp_ddp_ops
+<ulp_ddp_ops>`:
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+ int (*ulp_ddp_setup)(struct net_device *netdev,
+		     struct sock *sk,
+		     struct ulp_ddp_io *io);
+
+
+The `io` provides the buffer via scatter-gather list (`sg_table`) and
+corresponding tag (`command_id`):
+
+.. code-block:: c
+ /**
+  * struct ulp_ddp_io - tcp ddp configuration for an IO request.
+  *
+  * @command_id:  identifier on the wire associated with these buffers
+  * @nents:       number of entries in the sg_table
+  * @sg_table:    describing the buffers for this IO request
+  * @first_sgl:   first SGL in sg_table
+  */
+ struct ulp_ddp_io {
+	u32			command_id;
+	int			nents;
+	struct sg_table		sg_table;
+	struct scatterlist	first_sgl[SG_CHUNK_SIZE];
+ };
+
+After the buffers have been consumed by the L5P, to release the NIC mapping of
+buffers the L5P calls :c:member:`ulp_ddp_teardown` of :c:type:`struct
+ulp_ddp_ops <ulp_ddp_ops>`:
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+ int (*ulp_ddp_teardown)(struct net_device *netdev,
+			struct sock *sk,
+			struct ulp_ddp_io *io,
+			void *ddp_ctx);
+
+`ulp_ddp_teardown` receives the same `io` context and an additional opaque
+`ddp_ctx` that is used for asynchronous teardown, see the :ref:`async_release`
+section.
+
+.. _async_release:
+
+Asynchronous teardown
+---------------------
+
+To teardown the association between tags and buffers and allow tag reuse NIC HW
+is called by the NIC driver during `ulp_ddp_teardown`. This operation may be
+performed either synchronously or asynchronously. In asynchronous teardown,
+`ulp_ddp_teardown` returns immediately without unmapping NIC HW buffers. Later,
+when the unmapping completes by NIC HW, the NIC driver will call up to L5P
+using :c:member:`ddp_teardown_done` of :c:type:`struct ulp_ddp_ulp_ops`:
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+ void (*ddp_teardown_done)(void *ddp_ctx);
+
+The `ddp_ctx` parameter passed in `ddp_teardown_done` is the same on provided
+in `ulp_ddp_teardown` and it is used to carry some context about the buffers
+and tags that are released.
+
+Resync handling
+===============
+
+RX
+--
+In presence of packet drops or network packet reordering, the device may lose
+synchronization between the TCP stream and the L5P framing, and require a
+resync with the kernel's TCP stack. When the device is out of sync, no offload
+takes place, and packets are passed as-is to software. (resync is very similar
+to TLS offload (see documentation at
+:ref:`Documentation/networking/tls-offload.rst <tls_offload>`)
+
+If only packets with L5P data are lost or reordered, then resynchronization may
+be avoided by NIC HW that keeps tracking PDU headers. If, however, PDU headers
+are reordered, then resynchronization is necessary.
+
+To resynchronize hardware during traffic, we use a handshake between hardware
+and software. The NIC HW searches for a sequence of bytes that identifies L5P
+headers (i.e., magic pattern).  For example, in NVMe-TCP, the PDU operation
+type can be used for this purpose.  Using the PDU header length field, the NIC
+HW will continue to find and match magic patterns in subsequent PDU headers. If
+the pattern is missing in an expected position, then searching for the pattern
+starts anew.
+
+The NIC will not resume offload when the magic pattern is first identified.
+Instead, it will request L5P software to confirm that indeed this is a PDU
+header. To request confirmation the NIC driver calls up to L5P using
+:c:member:`*resync_request` of :c:type:`struct ulp_ddp_ulp_ops`:
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+  bool (*resync_request)(struct sock *sk, u32 seq, u32 flags);
+
+The `seq` parameter contains the TCP sequence of the last byte in the PDU header.
+The `flags` parameter contains a flag (`ULP_DDP_RESYNC_PENDING`) indicating whether
+a request is pending or not.
+L5P software will respond to this request after observing the packet containing
+TCP sequence `seq` in-order. If the PDU header is indeed there, then L5P
+software calls the NIC driver using the :c:member:`ulp_ddp_resync` function of
+the :c:type:`struct ulp_ddp_ops <ulp_ddp_ops>` inside the :c:type:`struct
+net_device <net_device>` while passing the same `seq` to confirm it is a PDU
+header.
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+ void (*ulp_ddp_resync)(struct net_device *netdev,
+		       struct sock *sk, u32 seq);
+
+Statistics
+==========
+
+Per L5P protocol, the following NIC driver must report statistics for the above
+netdevice operations and packets processed by offload. For example, NVMe-TCP
+offload reports:
+
+ * ``rx_nvmeotcp_sk_add`` - number of NVMe-TCP Rx offload contexts created.
+ * ``rx_nvmeotcp_sk_add_fail`` - number of NVMe-TCP Rx offload context creation
+   failures.
+ * ``rx_nvmeotcp_sk_del`` - number of NVMe-TCP Rx offload contexts destroyed.
+ * ``rx_nvmeotcp_ddp_setup`` - number of DDP buffers mapped.
+ * ``rx_nvmeotcp_ddp_setup_fail`` - number of DDP buffers mapping that failed.
+ * ``rx_nvmeoulp_ddp_teardown`` - number of DDP buffers unmapped.
+ * ``rx_nvmeotcp_drop`` - number of packets dropped in the driver due to fatal
+   errors.
+ * ``rx_nvmeotcp_resync`` - number of packets with resync requests.
+ * ``rx_nvmeotcp_offload_packets`` - number of packets that used offload.
+ * ``rx_nvmeotcp_offload_bytes`` - number of bytes placed in DDP buffers.
+
+NIC requirements
+================
+
+NIC hardware should meet the following requirements to provide this offload:
+
+ * Offload must never buffer TCP packets.
+ * Offload must never modify TCP packet headers.
+ * Offload must never reorder TCP packets within a flow.
+ * Offload must never drop TCP packets.
+ * Offload must not depend on any TCP fields beyond the
+   5-tuple and TCP sequence number.
