Managing network function accelerators for radio-based applications from virtualized computing service control plane

A computer-implemented method, comprising:

• performing, by a control plane server of a virtualized computing service of a cloud provider network, one or more configuration operations at an offloading card of a virtualization server, wherein the offloading card includes (a) a virtualization controller for compute instances (b) a first network function accelerator for radio-based applications and (c) a networking hardware device, wherein the one or more configuration operations include assigning a first network address to the networking hardware device and a second network address to the first network function accelerator;
• causing, by the control plane server using at least the virtualization controller, a first compute instance to be launched at the virtualization server, wherein the first compute instance executes a first network function of a first radio-based application in response to a message received using the first network address;
• and
• causing a second network function of the first radio-based application to be executed at the first network function accelerator in response to output obtained from the first network function, wherein an output of the second network function is sent, using the second network address as a source address, to a destination external to the virtualization server.

A non-transitory computer-accessible storage medium storing program instructions that when executed on a processor implement a control plane server of a virtualized computing service, wherein the control plane server is configured to:

• assign, to a networking hardware device of an offloading card of a virtualization server, a first network address, wherein the offloading card comprises (a) a network function accelerator for radio-based applications and (b) a virtualization controller for compute instances;
• assign, to the network function accelerator, a second network address, wherein the second network address is used for communication between the network function accelerator and a radio unit of a radio-based application;
• and
• cause a compute instance to be launched, using the virtualization controller, at the virtualization server, wherein the compute instance (a) executes a first network function of the radio-based application in response to a request received using the first network address and (b) requests execution of a second network function of the radio-based application at the network function accelerator, and wherein output of the second network function is transmitted, using the second network address, to the radio unit.