Real-Time Adaptive Receive Side Scaling Key Selection

• US 20190109859A1
• Filed: 11/14/2017
• Published: 04/11/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/11/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Chao, Chih-Wen, Chen, Kuo-Chun, Hsiung, Wei-Hsiang, Hsu, Sheng-Tung, Hsueh, Ming-Pin
• Granted Patent: US 10,454,946 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/24 using interrupt G06F13/32 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5005 to service a request
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/12 Applying verification of the received information cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for data integrity or data verification H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/123 received data contents, e.g. message integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1466 Active attacks involving interception, injection, modification, spoofing of data unit addresses, e.g. hijacking, packet injection or TCP sequence number attacks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/30 Definitions, standards or architectural aspects of layered protocol stacks

Abstract

Selecting a receive side scaling (RSS) key is provided. It is determined whether a defined time interval expired. In response to determining that the defined time interval has expired, it is determined whether one or more keys in a set of randomly generated candidate RSS keys have a higher packet distribution score than an active RSS key. In response to determining that one or more keys in the set of randomly generated candidate RSS keys have a higher packet distribution score than the active RSS key, an RSS key having a highest packet distribution score is selected from the one or more keys in the set of randomly generated candidate RSS keys that have a higher packet distribution score than the active RSS key. The RSS key having the highest packet distribution score is used to distribute incoming network packets across a plurality of processors.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for selecting a receive side scaling (RSS) key, the computer-implemented method comprising:

determining, by a data processing system, whether a defined time interval expired;

responsive to the data processing system determining that the defined time interval has expired, determining, by the data processing system, whether one or more keys in a set of randomly generated candidate RSS keys have a higher packet distribution score than an active RSS key;

responsive to the data processing system determining that one or more keys in the set of randomly generated candidate RSS keys have a higher packet distribution score than the active RSS key, selecting, by the data processing system, an RSS key having a highest packet distribution score from the one or more keys in the set of randomly generated candidate RSS keys that have a higher packet distribution score than the active RSS key; and

using, by the data processing system, the RSS key having the highest packet distribution score to distribute incoming network packets across a plurality of processors corresponding to the data processing system.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

responsive to the data processing system determining that no keys in the set of randomly generated candidate RSS keys have a higher packet distribution score than the active RSS key, continuing to use, by the data processing system, the active RSS key to distribute the incoming network packets across the plurality of processors corresponding to the data processing system.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining, by the data processing system, whether one or more keys in the set of randomly generated candidate RSS keys have a corresponding packet distribution score less than a packet distribution threshold score; and

responsive to the data processing system determining that one or more keys in the set of randomly generated candidate RSS keys have a corresponding packet distribution score less than the packet distribution threshold score, discarding, by the data processing system, those RSS keys having a corresponding packet distribution score less than the packet distribution threshold score.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 further comprising:

randomly generating, by the data processing system, a number of new RSS keys to replace those discarded RSS keys having a corresponding packet distribution score less than the packet distribution threshold score.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

generating, by the data processing system, a candidate key pool containing the set of randomly generated candidate RSS keys; and

selecting, by the data processing system, a key from the set of randomly generated candidate RSS keys to be the active RSS key for distributing the incoming network packets across the plurality of processors corresponding to the data processing system.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving, by the data processing system, the incoming network packets via a network;

distributing, by the data processing system, the incoming network packets across the plurality of processors corresponding to the data processing system using the active RSS key;

evaluating, the data processing system, performance of the active RSS key in uniformly distributing the incoming network packets across the plurality of processors corresponding the data processing system; and

generating, by the data processing system, a packet distribution score corresponding to the active RSS key based on the evaluating of the performance of the active RSS key in uniformly distributing the incoming network packets across the plurality of processors corresponding to the data processing system.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the active RSS key uniformly distributes the incoming network packets across the plurality of processors by sending an equal number of network packets to each processor in the plurality of processors.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

predicting, by the data processing system, performance of each key in the set of randomly generated candidate RSS keys in uniformly distributing the incoming network packets across the plurality of processors corresponding to the data processing system in a background; and

generating, by the data processing system, a respective packet distribution score corresponding to each key in the set of randomly generated candidate RSS keys based on the predicting of the performance of each key in the set of randomly generated candidate RSS keys in uniformly distributing the incoming network packets across the plurality of processors corresponding to the data processing system.

9-20. -20. (canceled)