Large receive offload (LRO) processing in virtualized computing environments

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that includes a set of instructions which, in response to execution by a processor of a host, cause the processor to implement a method of large receive offload (LRO) processing in a virtualized computing environment, wherein the host includes a physical network interface controller (NIC) and a networking service pipeline having a packet aggregation service and multiple networking services and supports a virtualized computing instance, and the method comprises:

• receiving, via the physical NIC, incoming packets that are destined for the virtualized computing instance, wherein prior to receiving the incoming packets, enabling a packet splitting service at another service point along the networking service pipeline based on an LRO capability of the virtualized computing instance, or an LRO capability of at least one of the multiple networking services, or both;
• processing the incoming packets to generate at least one processed packet using the networking service pipeline,
• wherein the packet aggregation service is configured to aggregate the incoming packets into an aggregated packet and enabled at a service point along the networking service pipeline based on an LRO capability of at least one of the multiple networking services to process the aggregated packet, and
• wherein the aggregated packet is split by the packet splitting service at the another service point into multiple non-aggregated packets;
• and
• forwarding the at least one processed packet generated by the networking service pipeline to the virtualized computing instance.

A host configured to perform large receive offload (LRO) processing in a virtualized computing environment, wherein the host comprises:

• a processor;
• a physical network interface controller (NIC);
• a networking service pipeline having a packet aggregation service and multiple networking services;
• and
• a non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
• receive, via the physical NIC, incoming packets that are destined for a virtualized computing instance supported by the host, wherein prior to receiving the incoming packets, enabling a packet splitting service at another service point along the networking service pipeline based on an LRO capability of the virtualized computing instance, or an LRO capability of at least one of the multiple networking services, or both;
• process the incoming packets to generate at least one processed packet using the networking service pipeline,
• wherein the packet aggregation service is configured to aggregate the incoming packets into an aggregated packet and enabled at a service point along the networking service pipeline based on an LRO capability of at least one of the multiple networking services to process the aggregated packet, and
• wherein the aggregated packet is split by the packet splitting service at the another service point into multiple non-aggregated packets;
• and
• forward the at least one processed packet generated by the networking service pipeline to the virtualized computing instance.