diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 3d6ef2959..3cd746dba 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ env:
   - DEF_LIB="static" OPTS="-Denable_kmods=false"
   - DEF_LIB="shared" OPTS="-Denable_kmods=false"
   - DEF_LIB="shared" RUN_TESTS=1
+  - DEF_LIB="shared" OPTS="-Db_lto=true"
 
 matrix:
   include:
@@ -105,6 +106,12 @@ matrix:
       apt:
         packages:
           - *extra_packages
+  - env: DEF_LIB="shared" OPTS="-Db_lto=true" EXTRA_PACKAGES=1
+    compiler: gcc
+    addons:
+      apt:
+        packages:
+          - *extra_packages
 
 
 script: ./.ci/${TRAVIS_OS_NAME}-build.sh
diff --git a/config/common_base b/config/common_base
index b2be3d96a..0d1207166 100644
--- a/config/common_base
+++ b/config/common_base
@@ -49,6 +49,11 @@ CONFIG_RTE_FORCE_INTRINSICS=n
 #
 CONFIG_RTE_ARCH_STRICT_ALIGN=n
 
+#
+# Enable link time optimization
+#
+CONFIG_RTE_ENABLE_LTO=n
+
 #
 # Compile to share library
 #
diff --git a/config/meson.build b/config/meson.build
index e1ebdad26..2b1cb92e7 100644
--- a/config/meson.build
+++ b/config/meson.build
@@ -225,3 +225,16 @@ add_project_arguments('-D_GNU_SOURCE', language: 'c')
 if is_freebsd
 	add_project_arguments('-D__BSD_VISIBLE', language: 'c')
 endif
+
+if get_option('b_lto')
+	if cc.has_argument('-ffat-lto-objects')
+		add_project_arguments('-ffat-lto-objects', language: 'c')
+	else
+		error('compiler does not support fat LTO objects - please turn LTO off')
+	endif
+	# workaround for gcc bug 81440
+	if cc.get_id() == 'gcc' and cc.version().version_compare('<8.0')
+		add_project_arguments('-Wno-lto-type-mismatch', language: 'c')
+		add_project_link_arguments('-Wno-lto-type-mismatch', language: 'c')
+	endif
+endif
diff --git a/doc/guides/prog_guide/index.rst b/doc/guides/prog_guide/index.rst
index 692409af8..dc4851c57 100644
--- a/doc/guides/prog_guide/index.rst
+++ b/doc/guides/prog_guide/index.rst
@@ -65,5 +65,6 @@ Programmer's Guide
     ext_app_lib_make_help
     perf_opt_guidelines
     writing_efficient_code
+    lto
     profile_app
     glossary
diff --git a/doc/guides/prog_guide/lto.rst b/doc/guides/prog_guide/lto.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..50aecc9e5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/guides/prog_guide/lto.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+..  SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
+    Copyright(c) 2019 Marvell International Ltd.
+
+Link Time Optimization
+======================
+
+The DPDK supports compilation with link time optimization turned on.
+This depends obviously on the ability of the compiler to do "whole
+program" optimization at link time and is available only for compilers
+that support that feature.
+To be more specific, compiler (in addition to performing LTO) have to
+support creation of ELF objects containing both normal code and internal
+representation (called fat-lto-objects in gcc and icc).
+This is required since during build some code is generated by parsing
+produced ELF objects (pmdinfogen).
+
+The amount of performance gain that one can get from LTO depends on the
+compiler and the code that is being compiled.
+However LTO is also useful for additional code analysis done by the
+compiler.
+In particular due to interprocedural analysis compiler can produce
+additional warnings about variables that might be used uninitialized.
+Some of these warnings might be "false positives" though and you might
+need to explicitly initialize variable in order to silence the compiler.
+
+Please note that turning LTO on causes considerable extension of
+build time.
+
+When using make based build, link time optimization can be enabled for
+the whole DPDK by setting:
+
+.. code-block:: console
+    CONFIG_ENABLE_LTO=y
+
+in config file.
+For the meson based build it can be enabled by setting meson built-in
+'b_lto' option:
+
+.. code-block:: console
+    meson build -Db_lto=true
diff --git a/doc/guides/rel_notes/release_19_11.rst b/doc/guides/rel_notes/release_19_11.rst
index ae8e7b2f0..b11abe2fe 100644
--- a/doc/guides/rel_notes/release_19_11.rst
+++ b/doc/guides/rel_notes/release_19_11.rst
@@ -231,6 +231,15 @@ New Features
   * Added a console command to testpmd app, ``show port (port_id) ptypes`` which
     gives ability to print port supported ptypes in different protocol layers.
 
+* **Added build support for Link Time Optimization.**
+
+  LTO is an optimization technique used by the compiler to perform whole
+  program analysis and optimization at link time.  In order to do that
+  compilers store their internal representation of the source code that
+  the linker uses at the final stage of compilation process.
+
+  See :doc:`../prog_guide/lto` for more information:
+
 
 Removed Items
 -------------
diff --git a/mk/toolchain/gcc/rte.toolchain-compat.mk b/mk/toolchain/gcc/rte.toolchain-compat.mk
index ea40a11c0..ad4fad83c 100644
--- a/mk/toolchain/gcc/rte.toolchain-compat.mk
+++ b/mk/toolchain/gcc/rte.toolchain-compat.mk
@@ -88,6 +88,10 @@ else
 		MACHINE_CFLAGS := $(filter-out -march% -mtune% -msse%,$(MACHINE_CFLAGS))
 	endif
 
+	ifeq ($(shell test $(GCC_VERSION) -lt 45 && echo 1), 1)
+		CONFIG_RTE_ENABLE_LTO=n
+	endif
+
 	# Disable thunderx PMD for gcc < 4.7
 	ifeq ($(shell test $(GCC_VERSION) -lt 47 && echo 1), 1)
 		CONFIG_RTE_LIBRTE_THUNDERX_NICVF_PMD=d
diff --git a/mk/toolchain/gcc/rte.vars.mk b/mk/toolchain/gcc/rte.vars.mk
index b852fcfd7..9fc704193 100644
--- a/mk/toolchain/gcc/rte.vars.mk
+++ b/mk/toolchain/gcc/rte.vars.mk
@@ -62,6 +62,18 @@ endif
 # process cpu flags
 include $(RTE_SDK)/mk/toolchain/$(RTE_TOOLCHAIN)/rte.toolchain-compat.mk
 
+ifeq ($(CONFIG_RTE_ENABLE_LTO),y)
+# 'fat-lto' is used since pmdinfogen needs to have 'this_pmd_nameX'
+# exported in symbol table and without this option only internal
+# representation is present.
+TOOLCHAIN_CFLAGS += -flto -ffat-lto-objects
+TOOLCHAIN_LDFLAGS += -flto
+# workaround for GCC bug 81440
+ifeq ($(shell test $(GCC_VERSION) -lt 80 && echo 1), 1)
+WERROR_FLAGS += -Wno-lto-type-mismatch
+endif
+endif
+
 # workaround GCC bug with warning "missing initializer" for "= {0}"
 ifeq ($(shell test $(GCC_VERSION) -lt 47 && echo 1), 1)
 WERROR_FLAGS += -Wno-missing-field-initializers
diff --git a/mk/toolchain/icc/rte.vars.mk b/mk/toolchain/icc/rte.vars.mk
index aa1422bf1..8aa87aa1e 100644
--- a/mk/toolchain/icc/rte.vars.mk
+++ b/mk/toolchain/icc/rte.vars.mk
@@ -54,5 +54,13 @@ endif
 # process cpu flags
 include $(RTE_SDK)/mk/toolchain/$(RTE_TOOLCHAIN)/rte.toolchain-compat.mk
 
+ifeq ($(CONFIG_RTE_ENABLE_LTO),y)
+# 'fat-lto' is used since pmdinfogen needs to have 'this_pmd_nameX'
+# exported in symbol table and without this option only internal
+# representation is present.
+TOOLCHAIN_CFLAGS += -flto -ffat-lto-objects
+TOOLCHAIN_LDFLAGS += -flto
+endif
+
 export CC AS AR LD OBJCOPY OBJDUMP STRIP READELF
 export TOOLCHAIN_CFLAGS TOOLCHAIN_LDFLAGS TOOLCHAIN_ASFLAGS
