US 9,544,233 B2Granted

Congestion management for datacenter network

AssigneeNew Jersey Institute of Technology

InventorsNirwan Ansari, Yan Zhang

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Abstract

Technologies are generally described to provide a congestion management system for a datacenter network. According to some examples, the congestion management system may detach management of congestion at the datacenter network from switches of the datacenter network. The congestion management system may also incorporate a distributed detection mechanism that is configured to detect a potential congestion culprit. Furthermore, detachment of the management of the congestion may allow the datacenter network to incorporate switches with limited traffic management capabilities. The switches may monitor a local congestion status and forward the congestion status to a centralized congestion controller that manages the congestion. The congestion management system may also be deployed for a cross-layer congestion management scheme.

Claims14

Dependent claims

A method executed at a congestion controller of a datacenter network that is configured to provide congestion management for the datacenter network, the method comprising:

receiving a congestion status of the datacenter network from one or more congestion detectors;
receiving flow rate information from one or more traffic flow monitors of end hosts;
determining transmission rates for a traffic flow associated with the flow rate information;
determining congestion status information based on the congestion status and the flow rate information;
in response to a determination that a transmission rate of one or more of the end hosts exceeds a rate threshold,
identifying one or more congestion culprits as a subset of the end hosts that cause a network congestion of the datacenter network based on the congestion status information and the transmission rate for the traffic flow;
and
transmitting one or more congestion messages to the one or more congestion culprits to allow one or more actions to resolve the network congestion to be performed by congestion reaction coordinators of the subset of the end hosts;
determining a congested link between two of the end hosts in response to sampling transmission packets from the two of the end hosts based on a sampling probability;
computing a congestion value from the samples of transmission packets;
and
in response to a determination that the congestion value is a negative value,
identifying the congested link;
and
transmitting the congested link and addresses of the two of the end hosts as the congestion status information from the one or more congestion detectors to the congestion controller.

12 more elements

A system to manage network congestion for a datacenter network, the system comprising:

a congestion controller communicatively coupled to one or more congestion detectors, each of the one or more congestion detectors communicatively coupled to one or more traffic flow monitors and one or more congestion reaction coordinators of end hosts, wherein the congestion controller is configured to:
receive a congestion status of the datacenter network;
receive flow rate information from the traffic flow monitors of the end hosts;
determine transmission rates for a traffic flow associated with the flow rate information;
determine congestion status information based on the congestion status and the flow rate information;
in response to a determination that a transmission rate of one or more of the end hosts exceeds a rate threshold,
identify one or more congestion culprits as a subset of the end hosts that cause the network congestion of the datacenter network based on the congestion status information and the transmission rate for the traffic flow;
and
transmit one or more congestion messages to the one or more congestion culprits to allow the one or more congestion reaction coordinators to perform one or more actions to resolve the network congestion;
determine a congested link between two of the end hosts in response to sampling transmission packets from the two of the end hosts based on a sampling probability;
compute a congestion value from the samples of transmission packets;
and
in response to a determination that the congestion value is a negative value,
identify the congested link;
and
transmit the congested link and addresses of the two of the end hosts as the congestion status information to the congestion controller.

13 more elements

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium with instructions stored thereon to provide congestion management for a datacenter network, the instructions, in response to execution by a processor, cause the processor to:

receive a congestion status of the datacenter network;
receive flow rate information from traffic flow monitors of end hosts;
determine transmission rates for a traffic flow associated with the flow rate information;
determine congestion status information based on the congestion status and the flow rate;
in response to a determination that a transmission rate of one or more of the end hosts exceeds a rate threshold,
identify one or more congestion culprits as a subset of the end hosts that cause a network congestion of the datacenter network based on the congestion status information and the transmission rate for the traffic flow;
transmit one or more congestion messages to the one or more congestion culprits;
and
perform one or more actions to resolve the network congestion;
determine a congested link between two of the end hosts in response to sampling transmission packets from the two of the end hosts based on a sampling probability;
compute a congestion value from the samples of transmission packets;
and
in response to a determination that the congestion value is a negative value,
identify the congested link;
and
transmit the congested link and addresses of the two of the end hosts as the congestion status information to one or more congestion controllers.

13 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 14/436,047Filed 28 Apr 2014
Published: US 2016/0087898 A124 Mar 2016
Granted: 10 Jan 2017
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification8 codes

H04L 47/122
Avoiding congestion; Recovering from congestion: by diverting traffic away from congested entities
H04L 12/18
Arrangements for providing special services to substations: for broadcast or conference , e.g. multicast
H04L 43/0876
Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters: network utilisation, e.g. volume of…
H04L 47/10
Traffic control in data switching networks: flow control; Congestion control