diff --git a/CONFIG b/CONFIG
index e65dd970b..4c354de65 100644
--- a/CONFIG
+++ b/CONFIG
@@ -217,3 +217,6 @@ CONFIG_SMA=n
 
 # Build with Avahi support
 CONFIG_AVAHI=n
+
+# Setup DPDK's RTE_MAX_LCORES
+CONFIG_MAX_LCORES=
diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 1c9c7980c..392f13757 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ function usage() {
 	echo " --cross-prefix=prefix     Prefix for cross compilation (default: none)"
 	echo "                           example: aarch64-linux-gnu"
 	echo " --libdir=path             Configure installation path for the libraries (default: \$prefix/lib)"
+	echo " --max-lcores=VAL          DPDK configuration. Maximum number of lcores supported by EAL."
 	echo ""
 	echo " --enable-debug            Configure for debug builds"
 	echo " --enable-werror           Treat compiler warnings as errors"
@@ -651,6 +652,14 @@ for i in "$@"; do
 		--without-avahi)
 			CONFIG[AVAHI]=n
 			;;
+		--max-lcores='')
+			echo "Must specify max number of lcores for --max-lcores"
+			usage
+			exit 1
+			;;
+		--max-lcores=*)
+			CONFIG[MAX_LCORES]="${i#*=}"
+			;;
 		--)
 			break
 			;;
@@ -1250,6 +1259,13 @@ if [[ "${CONFIG[AVAHI]}" = "y" ]]; then
 	fi
 fi
 
+if [[ -n ${CONFIG[MAX_LCORES]} ]]; then
+	if [[ ! ${CONFIG[MAX_LCORES]} =~ ^[1-9][0-9]*$ ]] || ((CONFIG[MAX_LCORES] > 1024)); then
+		echo "ERROR: Max number of lcores must be a decimal number in range [1..1024] (given: ${CONFIG[MAX_LCORES]})"
+		exit 1
+	fi
+fi
+
 # For ARM Neoverse-N1 platform, debug build needs gcc version newer than 8.4
 if [[ "${CONFIG[DEBUG]}" = "y" && $arch = aarch64* && "$CC_TYPE" = "gcc" ]]; then
 	GCC_VERSION=$($CC -dumpfullversion)
diff --git a/dpdkbuild/Makefile b/dpdkbuild/Makefile
index 663ba062c..62b789119 100644
--- a/dpdkbuild/Makefile
+++ b/dpdkbuild/Makefile
@@ -103,6 +103,10 @@ endif
 
 DPDK_CFLAGS += -fPIC
 
+ifneq ($(CONFIG_MAX_LCORES),)
+DPDK_OPTS += -Dmax_lcores=$(CONFIG_MAX_LCORES)
+endif
+
 ifeq ($(CONFIG_WERROR),y)
 DPDK_CFLAGS += -Werror
 else