US 10,652,129 B2 · Specializing virtual network device processing to avoid interrupt processing for high packet rate applications

Abstract

A method of optimizing network processing in a system comprising a physical host and a set of physical network interface controllers (PNICs) is provided. The physical host includes a forwarding element. The method includes determining that a set of conditions is satisfied to bypass the forwarding element for exchanging packets between a particular data compute node (DCN) and a particular PNIC. The set of conditions includes the particular DCN being the only DCN connected to the forwarding element and the particular PNIC being the only PNIC connected to the forwarding element. The method exchanges packets between the particular DCN and the particular PNIC bypassing the forwarding element. The method determines that at least one condition in said set of conditions is not satisfied. The method utilizes the forwarding element to exchange packets between the particular DCN and the particular PNIC.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method of high packet rate network processing in a system comprising a physical host and a set of physical network interface controllers (PNICs), the physical host hosting a set of data compute nodes (DCNs) for each of a set of tenants, each DCN comprising a virtual network interface controller (VNIC) for communicating with one or more PNICs to exchange packets, the method comprising:

determining whether a predetermined number of packets have been received at a VNIC from a particular DNC;
when the predetermined number of packets have been received at the VNIC from the particular DNC, generate an interrupt to virtualization software;
and
when the predetermined number of packets have not been received at the VNIC from the particular DNC:
determining a rate of packets received from the particular DCN at the VNIC;
and
when the rate of packets exceeds the predetermined threshold, performing polling to determine the availability of packets received at the VNIC from the particular DCN;
and
when the rate of packets does not exceed the predetermined threshold, utilizing interrupts to determine the availability of packets received at the VNIC from the particular DCN.

6 more elements

A non-transitory machine-readable medium storing a program for of high packet rate network processing in a system comprising a physical host and a set of physical network interface controllers (PNICs), the physical host hosting a set of data compute nodes (DCNs) for each of a set of tenants, each DCN comprising a virtual network interface controller (VNIC) for communicating with one or more PNICs to exchange packets, the program executable by at least one processing unit, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

determining whether a predetermined number of packets have been received at a VNIC from a particular DNC;
when the predetermined number of packets have been received at the VNIC from the particular DNC, generate an interrupt to virtualization software;
and
when the predetermined number of packets have not been received at the VNIC from the particular DNC:
determining a rate of packets received from the particular DCN at the VNIC;
and
when the rate of packets exceeds the predetermined threshold, performing polling to determine the availability of packets received at the VNIC from the particular DCN;
and
when the rate of packets does not exceed the predetermined threshold, utilizing interrupts to determine the availability of packets received at the VNIC from the particular DCN.

6 more elements

A physical computing device comprising:

a set of processing units;
and
a non-transitory machine-readable medium storing a program for execution by the set of processing units, the physical computing device hosting a set of data compute nodes (DCNs) for each of a set of tenants, each DCN comprising a virtual network interface controller (VNIC) for communicating with one or more PNICs to exchange packets, the sets of instructions for:
determining whether a predetermined number of packets have been received at a VNIC from a particular DNC;
when the predetermined number of packets have been received at the VNIC from the particular DNC, generate an interrupt to virtualization software;
and
when the predetermined number of packets have not been received at the VNIC from the particular DNC:
determining a rate of packets received from the particular DCN at the VNIC;
and
when the rate of packets exceeds the predetermined threshold, performing polling to determine the availability of packets received at the VNIC from the particular DCN;
and
when the rate of packets does not exceed the predetermined threshold, utilizing interrupts to determine the availability of packets received at the VNIC from the particular DCN.

9 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Specializing virtual network device processing to avoid interrupt processing for high packet rate applications

Life of this patent

Specializing virtual network device processing to avoid interrupt processing for high packet rate applications

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20