METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CONTROLLING TRAFFIC OVER A COMPUTER NETWORK

• US 20100128605A1
• Filed: 11/24/2008
• Published: 05/27/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Emulex Design & Manufacturing Corp. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bhide, Parag, Shenoy, Ravindra Sadanand, Tumuluri, Chaitanya, Chavan, Mukund T.
• Granted Patent: US 9,407,550 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/230.100
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/11 Identifying congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2483 involving identification of individual flows
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/263 Rate modification at the source after receiving feedback
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/50 in wire-line communication networks, e.g. low power modes or reduced link rate

Abstract

A rate limiter incorporated in a server connected to a network. The rate limiter is adapted to reduce congestion in the network in response to a congestion notification message. The server is adapted to send packets over the network. The rate limiter includes at least one of: a server rate limiter engine adapted to rate limit the packets in response to the server; a virtual machine rate limiter engine adapted to rate limit the packets in response to a virtual machine associated with the packets, the virtual machine hosted by the server; a flow rate limiter engine adapted to rate limit the packets in response to a flow associated with the packets; the flow being one of a plurality of flows transporting packets over the network; and a transmit engine adapted to rate limit the packets in response to a virtual pipe of the network for transmitting the packets.

Claims

1. A rate limiter incorporated in a server connected to a network, the rate limiter adapted to reduce congestion in the network in response to a congestion notification message, the server adapted to send packets over the network, the rate limiter comprising at least one of:

a virtual machine rate limiter engine adapted to rate limit the packets in response to a virtual machine associated with the packets, the virtual machine hosted by the server;

a flow rate limiter engine adapted to rate limit the packets in response to a flow associated with the packets;

the flow being one of a plurality of flows transporting packets over the network; and

a transmit engine adapted to rate limit the packets in response to a virtual pipe of the network for transmitting the packets.

2. The rate limiter of claim 1 wherein the transmit engine is in communication with the virtual machine rate limiter engine and the flow rate limiter engine, and adapted to manage the virtual machine rate limiter engine and the flow rate limiter engine.

3. The rate limiter of claim 1, further comprising a virtual machine profile table including an allocated rate limit and a current rate for the virtual machine, wherein the virtual machine rate limiter engine determines whether the packets should be transmitted by comparing the allocated rate limit with the current rate.

4. The rate limiter of claim 1, further comprising a flow profile table including an allocated rate limit and a current rate for the flow, wherein the flow rate limiter engine determines whether the packets should be transmitted by comparing the allocated rate limit and the current rate.

5. The rate limiter of claim 1, wherein the transmit engine determines whether the virtual pipe has enough bandwidth to transmit the packets.

6. The rate limiter of claim 1, wherein the virtual pipe is selected in response to a priority of the packets.

7. The rate limiter of claim 1, wherein the rate limiter is a part of one of a converged network adapter, a host bust adapter, and a network interface card.

8. The rate limiter of claim 1, wherein the server further comprising a plurality of guest OSs, each hosted on one of a plurality of virtual machines.

9. The rate limiter of claim 1, wherein the transmit engine is adapted to receive transmit descriptors from the server, the transmit descriptors identifying candidate packets for possible transmission.

10. The rate limiter of claim 9, wherein the transmit descriptor includes at least one of a MAC source address, a MAC destination address, a virtual LAN number, a priority field, a source IP address, a destination IP address, a source port, a destination port, a virtual machine ID, and a flow ID.

11. The rate limiter of claim 10, wherein the flow ID is determined by a transmit queue.

12. The rate limiter of claim 1, wherein the rate limiter is implemented in hardware.

13. The rate limiter of claim 1, wherein the network is one of an Ethernet network, a Fibre Channel network, and a Fibre Channel over Ethernet network.

14. A network card comprising the rate limiter of claim 1.

15. A server comprising the network card of claim 14.

16. A blade server rack comprising the network card of claim 14, wherein the blade server rack further comprising a plurality of server blades which shares the network card.

17. The blade server rack of claim 16 further comprising a rate limiter adapted to control traffic in an out of each of the plurality of server blades.

18. A method of rate limiting in a server connected to a network in response to a congestion notification message, the server adapted to send packets over the network, the method comprising:

identifying a candidate packet for transmission; and

controlling the transmission of the candidate packet in response to at least one of a virtual machine associated with the candidate packet, a flow associated with the candidate packet, and a virtual pipe for potential transmission of the candidate packet.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising obtaining a transmit descriptor including information about the candidate packet.

20. The method of claim 18 further comprises:

accessing a profile table storing an allocated rate and a current rate for the virtual machine; and

comparing the allocated rate with the current rate.

21. The method of claim 18 further comprises:

accessing a profile table storing an allocated rate and a current rate for the flow; and

comparing the allocated rate with the current rate.

22. The method of claim 18 further comprises:

determining a priority associated with the candidate packet; and

identifying the virtual pipe assigned to transmit packets having the priority.

23. The method of claim 22 further comprises:

determining an available bandwidth of the virtual pipe; and

comparing a bandwidth required to transmit the candidate packet with the available bandwidth of the virtual pipe.

24. The method of claim 18 further comprises controlling the transmission of the candidate packet in response to the server from which the packet is sent or received, wherein the server is one of a plurality of blade servers in a blade server rack.

25. A rate limiter incorporated in a server connected to a network, the rate limiter adapted to reduce congestion in the network in response to a congestion notification message, the server comprising a plurality of virtual machines and adapted to send packets over the network in a plurality of flows, the rate limiter comprising:

a virtual machine rate limiter engine adapted to rate limit the packets in response to a virtual machine associated with the packets;

a flow rate limiter engine adapted to rate limit the packets in response to a flow associated with the packets; and

a transmit engine in communication with the virtual machine rate limiter engine and the flow rate limiter engine, and adapted to manage the virtual machine rate limiter engine and the flow rate limiter engine.

26. A method of rate limiting in a server connected to a network in response to a congestion notification message, the server comprising a plurality of virtual machines and adapted to send packets over the network in a plurality of flows, the method comprising:

identifying a candidate packet for transmission;

identifying a virtual machine associated with the candidate packet;

determining whether to transmit the candidate packet over the network in response to a rate limit of the virtual machine;

identifying a flow associated with the candidate packet; and

determining whether to transmit the candidate packet over the network in response to a rate limit of the flow.

27. A rate limiter incorporated in a server connected to a network, the rate limiter adapted to reduce congestion in the network in response to a congestion notification message, the server adapted to send packets over the network in a plurality of flows, each of the plurality of flows transmitted over one of a plurality of virtual pipes of the network, the rate limiter comprising:

a flow rate limiter engine adapted to rate limit the packets in response to a flow associated with the packets; and

a transmit engine adapted to rate limit the packets in response to a virtual pipe for transmitting the packets, the transmit engine in communication with the flow rate limiter engine and adapted to manage the flow rate limiter engine.

28. A method of rate limiting in a server connected to a network in response to a congestion notification message, the server adapted to send packets over the network in a plurality of flows, each of the plurality of flows transmitted over one of a plurality of virtual pipes of the network, the method comprising:

identifying a candidate packet for transmission;

identifying a flow associated with the candidate packet; and

determining whether to transmit the candidate packet over the network in response to a rate limit of the flow.

identifying a virtual pipe for potential transmission of the candidate packet; and

determining whether to transmit the candidate packet in response to a rate limit of the virtual pipe.

29. A rate limiter incorporated in a server connected to a network, the rate limiter adapted to reduce congestion in the network in response to a congestion notification message, the server comprising a plurality of virtual machines and adapted to send packets over the network in a plurality of flows, each of the plurality of flows transmitted over one of a plurality of virtual pipes of the network, the rate limiter comprising:

a virtual machine rate limiter engine adapted to rate limit the packets in response to a virtual machine associated with the packets;

a flow rate limiter engine adapted to rate limit the packets in response to a flow associated with the packets; and

a transmit engine adapted to rate limit the packets in response to a virtual pipe for transmitting the packets, and the transmit engine in communication with the virtual machine rate limiter engine and the flow rate limiter engine and also adapted to manage the virtual machine rate limiter engine and the flow rate limiter engine.

30. A method of rate limiting in a server connected to a network in response to a congestion notification message, the server comprising a plurality of virtual machines and adapted to send packets over the network in a plurality of flows, each of the plurality of flows transmitted over one of the plurality of virtual pipes of the network, the method comprising:

identifying a candidate packet for transmission;

identifying a virtual machine associated with the candidate packet;

determining whether to transmit the candidate packet over the network in response to a rate limit of the virtual machine;

identifying a flow associated with the candidate packet;

determining whether to transmit the candidate packet over the network in response to a rate limit of the flow;

identifying a virtual pipe for potential transmission of the candidate packet; and

determining whether to transmit the candidate packet in response to a rate limit of the virtual pipe.

31. A rate limiter incorporated in a server connected to a network, the rate limiter adapted to reduce congestion in the network in response to a congestion notification message, the server adapted to send packets over the network, the rate limiter comprising at least one of:

a server rate limiter engine adapted to rate limit the packets in response to the server, the server is one or a plurality of servers residing in a blade server chassis;

a virtual machine rate limiter engine adapted to rate limit the packets in response to a virtual machine associated with the packets, the virtual machine hosted by the server;

a flow rate limiter engine adapted to rate limit the packets in response to a flow associated with the packets;

the flow being one of a plurality of flows transporting packets over the network; and

a transmit engine adapted to rate limit the packets in response to a virtual pipe of the network for transmitting the packets.

32. A method of rate limiting in a server connected to a network in response to a congestion notification message, the server adapted to send packets over the network, the server being one of a plurality of servers residing in a blade server chassis, the method comprising:

identifying a candidate packet for transmission; and

controlling the transmission of the candidate packet in response to at least one of a virtual machine associated with the candidate packet, a flow associated with the candidate packet, a virtual pipe for potential transmission of the candidate packet, and the server.