LARGE RECEIVE OFFLOAD FOR VIRTUAL MACHINES

• US 20150263974A1
• Filed: 03/11/2014
• Published: 09/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wu, Weiqing, Jain, Jayant, Sengupta, Anirban
• Granted Patent: US 9,742,682 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/36 by determining packet size, e.g. maximum transfer unit [MTU]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/621 Individual queue per connection or flow, e.g. per VC
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/82 Miscellaneous aspects

Abstract

A network interface controller (NIC) that includes a set of receive NIC queues capable of performing large receive offload (LRO) operations by aggregating incoming receive packets is provided. Each NIC queue turns on or off its LRO operation based a set of LRO enabling rules or parameters, whereby only packets that meet the set of rules or parameters will be aggregated in the NIC queue. Each NIC queue is controlled by its own set of LRO enabling rules such that the LRO operations of the different NIC queues can be individually controlled.

Claims

1. A computing device serving as host machine for a plurality of virtual machines, the computing device comprising:

a physical network interface controller (PNIC) for receiving data packets from a network and for aggregating the received data packets at a plurality of queues, each queue of the plurality of queues aggregating data packets according to a corresponding rule in a set of rules that are specified by an application programming interface (API) for the PNIC; and

a virtualization machine monitor (VMM) for forwarding the aggregated packets to the plurality of virtual machines, wherein the VMM uses the API for the PNIC to specify the set of rules.

2. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the VMM uses the API to specify different rules for at least two of the queues in the PNIC.

3. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the set of rules comprises a rule for enabling a packet aggregation operation at a first queue in the PNIC.

4. The computing device of claim 3, wherein the set of rules further comprises a rule for disabling a packet aggregation operation at a second queue in the PNIC.

5. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the set of packet aggregation rules comprises a rule to activate packet aggregation operation on data packets destined for a particular virtual machine.

6. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the set of rules comprises a rule to enable a packet aggregation operation on data packets that belongs to a particular connection session.

7. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the set of rules comprises a rule to enable packet aggregation operation at a particular queue when a set of criteria is met.

8. The computing device of claim 7, wherein the set of criteria comprise a protocol identifier, a source IP address, a destination IP address, a source transport identifier, and a destination transport identifier.

9. A computing device serving as host machine for a plurality of virtual machines, the computing device executing a computer program comprising sets of instructions for:

providing a set of packet aggregation rules to a physical network interface card (PNIC), the PNIC comprising a plurality of queues for providing data received from a network to the plurality of virtual machines, each rule in the set of rules controlling a packet aggregation operation in a corresponding queue of the plurality of queues for aggregating data packets from the network; and

forwarding a first aggregated data packet from a first queue in the PNIC to a first virtual machine and a second non-aggregated data packet from a second queue in the PNIC to a second virtual machine.

10. The computing device of claim 9 further comprising receiving the set of packet aggregation rules from a controller for the network.

11. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the set of packet aggregation rules comprises a rule for enabling a packet aggregation operation at the first queue.

12. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the set of packet aggregation rules further comprises a rule for disabling a packet aggregation operation at the second queue.

13. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the first virtual machine consumes the first data packet and the second virtual machine forwards the second data packet to another node in the network.

14. The computing device of claim 13, wherein the second virtual machine is a router.

15. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the set of packet aggregation rules comprises a rule to activate packet aggregation operation on data packets destined for a particular virtual machine.

16. The computing device of claim 15, wherein the rule to enable the packet aggregation operation on data packets destined for the particular virtual machine specifies a destination media access control (MAC) address of the virtual machine.

17. The computing device of claim 15, wherein the rule to enable the packet aggregation operation on data packets destined for the particular virtual machine specifies a destination internet protocol (IP) address of the virtual machine.

18. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the set of rules comprises a rule to enable a packet aggregation operation on data packets that belongs to a particular connection session.

19. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the set of rules comprises a rule to enable packet aggregation operation at the first queue when a set of criteria is met.

20. The computing device of claim 19, wherein the set of criteria comprise a protocol identifier, a source IP address, a destination IP address, a source transport identifier, and a destination transport identifier.

21. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing a program for execution on one or more processors, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

operating a plurality of virtual machines;

setting a plurality of packet aggregation rules for a plurality of queues in a physical network interface controller (PNIC) by using an application programming interface (API) of the PNIC, each packet aggregation rule controlling an packet aggregation operation in a corresponding queue of the plurality of queues; and

retrieving an aggregated packet from the PNIC.

22. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein the program further comprises a set of instruction for operating a plurality of network stacks, wherein a particular network stack for a particular virtual machine receives an interrupt from the API of the PNIC when an aggregated packet is ready to be retrieved from a particular queue.

23. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein a packet aggregation rule specifies that a particular packet is be aggregated if the particular packet is destined for a first virtual machine.

24. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein a packet aggregation rule specifies that a particular packet is to be aggregated if the particular packet belongs to a particular connection session.

25. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 24, wherein the particular connection session is specified by a set of parameters comprising a protocol identifier, a source IP address, a destination IP address, a source transport identifier, and a destination transport identifier.

26. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 25, wherein at least one of the parameters in the set of parameters is not specified.

27. A method for operating a host machine in a virtualized network environment, the host machine hosting a plurality of virtual machines, the method comprising:

identifying a first queue in a physical network interface controller (PNIC) that is buffering data packets for a first virtual machine that consumes data packets;

identifying a second queue in the PNIC that is buffering data packets for a second virtual machine that forwards data packets; and

enabling packet aggregation in the first queue and disabling packet aggregation in the second queue.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein enabling packet aggregation in the first queue comprises setting a first packet aggregation rule for the first queue, wherein disabling packet aggregation in the second queue comprises setting a second packet aggregation rule for the second queue.