Logical network packet handling on physical network interface controller (pnic)

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that includes a set of instructions which, in response to execution by a processor of a physical network interface controller (PNIC), cause the processor to perform logical network packet handling, wherein the method comprises:

• receiving an ingress encapsulated packet associated with a packet flow via a physical network to which the PNIC is connected, wherein the ingress encapsulated packet includes an outer header and an inner packet that is destined for a virtualized computing instance;
• steering the ingress encapsulated packet towards a processing pipeline supported by the PNIC by applying a filter associated with content of the ingress encapsulated packet;
• processing the ingress encapsulated packet using the processing pipeline to generate a processed packet, wherein the processing pipeline includes (a) retrieving a logical network policy associated with the packet flow from a datastore on the PNIC;
• and (b) performing decapsulation to remove the outer header and one or more actions on the inner packet according to the logical network policy;
• and
• forwarding the processed packet towards the virtualized computing instance via a virtual function supported by the PNIC and assigned to the virtualized computing instance.

A computer system, comprising:

• a processor;
• a physical network interface controller (PNIC) enabled with Input/Output (I/O) virtualization;
• and
• a non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform the following:
• receive an ingress encapsulated packet associated with a packet flow via a physical network to which the PNIC is connected, wherein the ingress encapsulated packet includes an outer header and an inner packet that is destined for a virtualized computing instance;
• steer the ingress encapsulated packet towards a processing pipeline supported by the PNIC by applying a filter associated with content of the ingress encapsulated packet;
• process the ingress encapsulated packet using the processing pipeline to generate a processed packet, wherein the processing pipeline includes (a) retrieving a logical network policy associated with the packet flow from a datastore on the PNIC;
• and (b) performing decapsulation to remove the outer header and one or more actions on the inner packet according to the logical network policy;
• and
• forward the processed packet towards the virtualized computing instance via a virtual function supported by the PNIC and assigned to the virtualized computing instance.