Allocation of shared reserve memory

A memory management circuit, comprising:

• one or more interfaces, to communicate with a plurality of queues of the network device that process packets, and with a memory;
• and
• circuitry, to:
• maintain a shared buffer in the memory, and adaptively allocate memory resources from the shared buffer to the queues;
• maintain in the memory, in addition to the shared buffer, a shared-reserve memory pool for use by one or more of the queues;
• identify, among the queues, a queue that requires additional memory resources, the queue having an occupancy that is:
• (i) above a current value of a dynamic threshold, rendering the queue ineligible for additional allocation from the shared buffer, and
• (ii) no more than a defined margin above the current value of the dynamic threshold, rendering the queue eligible for allocation from the shared-reserve memory pool;
• and
• allocate memory resources to the identified queue from the shared-reserve memory pool.

A method for communication, the method comprising:

• communicating packets over a network, and processing the packets using a plurality of queues;
• maintaining a shared buffer in a memory, and adaptively allocating memory resources from the shared buffer to the queues;
• maintaining in the memory, in addition to the shared buffer, a shared-reserve memory pool for use by one or more of the queues;
• identifying, among the queues, a queue that requires additional memory resources, the queue having an occupancy that is:
• (i) above a current value of a dynamic threshold, rendering the queue ineligible for additional allocation from the shared buffer, and
• (ii) no more than a defined margin above the current value of the dynamic threshold, rendering the queue eligible for allocation from the shared-reserve memory pool;
• and
• allocating memory resources to the identified queue from the shared-reserve memory pool.

A method for memory management, the method comprising:

• communicating with a plurality of queues of the network device that process packets, and with a memory;
• maintaining a shared buffer in the memory, and adaptively allocating memory resources from the shared buffer to the queues;
• maintaining in the memory, in addition to the shared buffer, a shared-reserve memory pool for use by one or more of the queues;
• identifying, among the queues, a queue that requires additional memory resources, the queue having an occupancy that is:
• (i) above a current value of a dynamic threshold, rendering the queue ineligible for additional allocation from the shared buffer, and
• (ii) no more than a defined margin above the current value of the dynamic threshold, rendering the queue eligible for allocation from the shared-reserve memory pool;
• and
• allocating memory resources to the identified queue from the shared-reserve memory pool.

A method for memory management using queues, the method comprising:

• maintaining in a memory (i) a shared buffer and (ii) a shared-reserve memory pool;
• identifying a queue that requires additional memory resources and has an occupancy that is:
• (i) above a current value of a dynamic threshold, rendering the queue ineligible for additional allocation from the shared buffer, and
• (ii) no more than a defined margin above the current value of the dynamic threshold, rendering the queue eligible for allocation from the shared-reserve memory pool;
• and
• allocating memory resources to the identified queue from the shared-reserve memory pool.