Scaling egress network traffic

• US 8,085,769 B2
• Filed: 09/07/2010
• Issued: 12/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Cornett, Linden, Sarangam, Parthasarathy, Sen, Sujoy
• Primary Examiner(s): Shah, Chirag
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Minh-Trang
• Application Number:
  US12/877,072
• Publication Number:
  US 20100329264A1
• Time in Patent Office: 476 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/389
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/021 Ensuring consistency of routing table updates, e.g. by using epoch numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/7453 using hashing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/13 in a LAN segment, e.g. ring or bus
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/22 Traffic shaping
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/50 Queue scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/621 Individual queue per connection or flow, e.g. per VC
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/6225 Fixed service order, e.g. Round Robin
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/6295 using multiple queues, one for each individual QoS, connection, flow or priority

Abstract

In an embodiment, a method is provided. The method of this embodiment provides generating one or more packets of data, the one or more packets of data being associated with a connection; and associating the one or more packets with one of a plurality of transmit queues based, at least in part, on the connection associated with the one or more packets.

Claims

1. A method for distributing traffic, said method executed on a transmit side of a network connection, said method comprising:

establishing, via at least one protocol stack, said network connection;

generating an identifier associated with said network connection at said at least one protocol stack;

sending at least one transmit request comprising said identifier from said at least one protocol stack to a network device driver;

selecting, via a network device driver, at least one transmit queue from a plurality of transmit queues, said selecting comprising using said identifier as an index in a lookup table, each entry in said lookup table corresponding to at least one transmit queue from said plurality of transmit queues;

determining whether said lookup table has changed using said at least one protocol stack; and

waiting and ensuring that any previously submitted transmit requests have completed submission prior to sending an additional transmit request to said network device driver if said lookup table has changed; and

sending an additional transmit request from said at least one protocol stack to said network device driver after any previously submitted transmit requests have been completed.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting a packet over said network from a first application to a second application.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said network device driver is configured to select said at least one transmit queue from a plurality of transmit queues.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

adding an entry to said lookup table if said identifier is not found in said lookup table, said entry comprising said identifier and said at least one transmit queue from said plurality of transmit queues.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said protocol stack is a Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) stack.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said identifier comprises an RSS (Receive Side Scaling) hash value, wherein said RSS hash value is determined by performing a hash function over one or more header fields in a header of a packet to be transmitted.

7. An apparatus for distributing traffic, said apparatus being on a transmit side of a network connection, said apparatus comprising:

at least one processor; and

circuitry configured to be coupled to said at least one processor, said circuitry comprising a plurality of transmit queues configured to store packets to be transmitted and further configured to store at least one application and an operating system, said operating system comprising;

a network device driver; and

at least one protocol stack configured to establish said network connection and to transmit at least one transmit request to said network device driver, said transmit request comprising an identifier associated with said network connection;

wherein;

the network device driver is configured to select at least one transmit queue from said plurality of transmit queues using said identifier as an index in a lookup table, each entry in said lookup table corresponding to at least one transmit queue from said plurality of transmit queues;

an entry is added to said lookup table if said identifier is not found in said lookup table, said entry comprising said identifier and said at least one transmit queue from said plurality of transmit queues;

said at least one protocol stack is configured to determine whether said lookup table has changed, to wait and ensure any previously submitted transmit requests have completed submission prior to sending new transmit requests to said network device driver if said lookup table has changed, and to send an additional transmit request to said network device driver after any previously submitted transmit requests have been completed.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein a packet is transmitted over said network from a first application to a second application.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein said identifier is generated by said at least one protocol stack.

10. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein said protocol stack is a Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) stack.

11. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein said identifier comprises an RSS (Receive Side Scaling) hash value, wherein said RSS hash value is determined by performing a hash function over one or more header fields in a header of a packet to be transmitted.