Application-specific packet processing offload service

A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium that provides instructions that, when executed by a processor of a device in a network system, will cause said processor to perform operations comprising:

• receiving an offload service capabilities request message from a first application, wherein the offload service capabilities request message requests information from an offload service regarding capabilities of the offload service that meet a set of requirements provided by the first application;
• transmitting an offload service capabilities request message response to the first application, wherein the offload service capabilities request message response includes a set of offload service templates that are (1) selected by the offload service based on the set of requirements of the first application and (2) possible templates to be modified for performing network operations of the first application, wherein each template in the set of offload service templates includes one or more of a parameter list to be modified for performance of the network operations of the first application, a set of code stubs for use in generating program code for performance of the network operations of the first application, and a set of libraries for use in generating the program code;
• evaluating the network resources for the program code of the first application to select a set of network resources for installing the program and offloading network operations of the first application to the set of network resources;
• and
• installing the program code for the first application, which was generated based on the set of offload service templates, on the set of network resources such that the set of network resources process one or more of (1) packets from a second application that are addressed to the first application and (2) packets from the first application that are addressed to the second application.

A device for offloading network operations of a first application to network resources in a network system, the device comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, will cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
• receiving an offload service capabilities request message from the first application, wherein the offload service capabilities request message requests information from an offload service regarding capabilities of the offload service that meet a set of requirements provided by the first application;
• transmitting an offload service capabilities request message response to the first application, wherein the offload service capabilities request message response includes a set of offload service templates that are (1) selected by the offload service based on the set of requirements of the first application and (2) possible templates to be modified for performing network operations of the first application, wherein each template in the set of offload service templates includes one or more of a parameter list to be modified for performance of the network operations of the first application, a set of code stubs for use in generating program code for performance of the network operations of the first application, and a set of libraries for use in generating the program code;
• evaluating the network resources for the program code of the first application to select a set of network resources for installing the program and offloading network operations of the first application to the set of network resources;
• and
• installing the program code for the first application, which was generated based on the set of offload service templates, on the set of network resources such that the set of network resources process one or more of (1) packets from a second application that are addressed to the first application and (2) packets from the first application that are addressed to the second application.