METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR IMPROVED LOAD BALANCING OF RECEIVED NETWORK TRAFFIC

• US 20160142320A1
• Filed: 11/14/2014
• Published: 05/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Marvell Asia Pte Limited (Marvell Technology Group Limited)
• Original Assignee: Cavium, LLC (Marvell Technology Group Limited)
• Inventors: Gyllenhammer, Carl Richard, Snyder, Wilson Parkhurst II, Romanov, Philip
• Granted Patent: US 9,813,342 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/70 Virtual switches
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers

Abstract

A method and a system embodying the method for load balancing of a received a packet based network traffic, comprising: receiving a packet at a software defined network switch; determining information pertaining to uniqueness of a packet flow for the received packet; providing the determined information and the received packet to a network interface controller; and processing the received packet at the network interface controller in accordance with the provided determined information, are disclosed.

Claims

1. A method for load balancing of a received a packet based network traffic, comprising:

receiving a packet at a software defined network switch;

determining information pertaining to uniqueness of a packet flow for the received packet;

providing the determined information and the received packet to a network interface controller; and

processing the received packet at the network interface controller in accordance with the provided determined information.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the determining information pertaining to uniqueness of a packet flow for the received packet comprises:

parsing at least one layer of the packet in accordance with rules of the software defined network switch; and

determining the information from the at least one parsed layer in accordance with the rules.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processing the received packet at the network interface controller in accordance with the provided determined information comprises:

determining a value of a first field in the provided information; and

processing the received packet in accordance with the determined value.

4. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the processing the received packet in accordance with the determined value comprises:

processing the received packet in accordance with a receive side scaling as indicated by the first field comprising a first value.

5. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the processing the received packet in accordance with the determined value comprises:

modifying the receive side scaling as indicated by the first filed comprising other than the first value.

6. The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the modifying the receive side scaling as indicated by other than the first determined value of the first field comprises:

determining a value of second field in the provided information as indicated by the first filed comprising a second value; and

mapping the packet to a received queue indicated by the determined value of the second field.

7. The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the modifying the receive side scaling as indicated by other than the first determined value of the first field comprises:

determining a value of a second field in the provided information as indicated by the first filed comprising a third value; and

using the determined value of the second field of the information as a pointer into a packet format lookup table of the receive side scaling.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7, further comprising:

determining a value of a third field in the provided information as indicated by the first field comprising the third value; and

combining an indirection index generated by the receive side scaling with the determined value of the third field.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a packet at a network interface;

determining a physical port identifier; and

providing the determined physical port identifier to the software defined network switch.

10. The method as claimed in claim 9, comprising:

determining whether the physical port identifier identifies one of a first set of physical ports; and

carrying out the determining information pertaining to uniqueness of a packet flow for the received packet comprises;

the providing the determined information and the received packet to a network interface controller; and

the processing the received packet at the network interface controller in accordance with the provided determined information, when the determination is positive.

11. The method as claimed in claim 10, comprising:

providing the packet to the network interface controller, when the determination is negative.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11, comprising:

processing the received packet in accordance with a receive side scaling.

13. An apparatus for load balancing of a received a packet based network traffic, comprising:

a software defined network switch; and

a network interface controller communicatively coupled to the software defined network switch;

wherein

the software defined network switch is configure to

receive a data packet,

determine information pertaining to uniqueness of a packet flow for the received packet, and

provide the determined information and the received packet to a network interface controller, and

the network interface controller is configured to process the received packet in accordance with the provided determined information.

14. The apparatus as claimed in claim 13, wherein the software defined network switch determines information pertaining to uniqueness of a packet flow for the received packet by being configured to:

parse at least one layer of the packet in accordance with rules; and

determine the information from the at least one parsed layer in accordance with the rules.

15. The apparatus as claimed in claim 13, wherein the network interface controller processes the received packet at the in accordance with the provided determined information by being configured to:

determine a value of a first field in the provided information; and

process the received packet in accordance with the determined value.

16. The apparatus as claimed in claim 15, wherein the network interface controller processes the received packet in accordance with the determined value by being configured to:

process the received packet in accordance with a receive side scaling as indicated by the first field comprising a first value.

17. The apparatus as claimed in claim 15, wherein the network interface controller processes the received packet in accordance with the determined value by being configured to:

modify the receive side scaling as indicated by the first filed comprising other than the first value.

18. The apparatus as claimed in claim 17, wherein the network interface controller modifies the receive side scaling as indicated by other than the first determined value of the first field by being configured to:

determine a value of second field in the provided information as indicated by the first filed comprising a second value; and

map the packet to a received queue indicated by the determined value of the second field.

19. The apparatus as claimed in claim 17, wherein the network interface controller modifies the receive side scaling as indicated by other than the first determined value of the first field by being configured to:

determine a value of a second field in the provided information as indicated by the first filed comprising a third value; and

use the determined value of the second field of the information as a pointer into a packet format lookup table of the receive side scaling.

20. The apparatus as claimed in claim 19, wherein the network interface controller is further configured to:

determine a value of a third field in the provided information as indicated by the first filed comprising the third value; and

combine an indirection index generated by the receive side scaling with the determined value of the third field.

21. The apparatus as claimed in claim 13, further comprising a network interface communicatively coupled to the software defined network switch and configured to:

receive a packet;

determine a physical port identifier; and

provide the determined physical port identifier to the software defined network switch.

22. The apparatus as claimed in claim 21, wherein the software defined network switch is further configured to:

determine whether the physical port identifier identifies one of a first set of physical ports, and

carry out the determining information pertaining to uniqueness of a packet flow for the received packet comprises;

the providing the determined information and the received packet to a network interface controller; and

the network interface controller is configured to process the received packet in accordance with the provided determined information, when the determination is positive.

23. The apparatus as claimed in claim 22, the software defined network switch is configured to:

provide the packet to the network interface controller, when the determination is negative.

24. The apparatus as claimed in claim 23, wherein the network interface controller is configured to:

process the received packet in accordance with a receive side scaling.