Method and system for network stack tuning

• US 8,467,390 B2
• Filed: 12/14/2006
• Issued: 06/18/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Persson, Anders D., Marcondes, Cesar A. C., Johnson, Darrin P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ton, Dang
• Assistant Examiner(s): Preval, Lionel
• Application Number:
  US11/638,858
• Publication Number:
  US 20080144503A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,378 Days
• Field of Search: 370/218, 370/230, 370/235, 370/237, 370/252, 370/392, 709/250, 709/235, 709/224, 709/220, 709/227, 726/14
• US Class Current: 370/392
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/193 at the transport layer, e.g. TCP related
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2475 for supporting traffic characterised by the type of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/32 Architecture of open systems interconnection [OSI] 7-layer type protocol stacks, e.g. the interfaces between the data link level and the physical level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/323 in the physical layer [OSI layer 1]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/325 in the network layer [OSI layer 3], e.g. X.25 H04L69/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/326 in the transport layer [OSI layer 4] H04L69/16 takes precedence

Abstract

In general, the invention relates to a method for sending a packet from an application to a destination. The method includes opening a network connection between the application and the destination, tuning at least one layer in a network stack, based on application information associated with the application, to obtain a tuned network stack, wherein the network stack is associated with the network connection, receiving the packet from the application, processing the packet using the tuned network stack to obtain a processed packet, and sending the processed packet to the destination, wherein the processed packet is received by the destination.

Claims

1. A method for sending a packet from an application to a destination, comprising:

opening a network connection between the application and the destination;

tuning at least one layer in a network stack located on a system, based on application information associated with the application, to obtain a tuned network stack, wherein the network stack is associated with the network connection, wherein the at least one layer in the network stack is tuned using a kernel executing on the system, wherein the kernel uses an application information and configuration database (AICD), and wherein the application information is stored in the AICD;

receiving the packet from the application;

processing the packet using the tuned network stack to obtain a processed packet; and

sending the processed packet to the destination using a network interface controller (NIC), wherein the processed packet is received by the destination,

wherein the at least one layer in the network stack is one selected from a group consisting of a network layer and a transport layer,

wherein tuning the transport layer comprises at least one selected from a group consisting of selecting a transport layer protocol and selecting a congestion control algorithm,

wherein tuning the network layer comprises selecting one network interface controller from a plurality of network interface controllers, wherein each of the plurality of network interface controllers is operatively connected to the network stack and wherein each plurality of network interface controllers is directly connected to a different one of a plurality of networks, and wherein each of the plurality of networks is interposed between the network stack and the destination, and

wherein the AICD is populated using data from the application and the NIC.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the network stack is tuned prior to receiving the packet from the application.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein tuning the at least one layer in the network stack further comprises tuning a physical layer.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein tuning the transport layer further comprises determining a size of a buffer to allocate.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the transport layer protocol is one selected from a group consisting of transmission control protocol (TCP) Tahoe, TCP Reno, TCP Vegas, TCP NewReno, TCP Hybla, TCP Westwood, TCP Selective Acknowledgement Options (SACK), Hamilton TCP (HTCP), HighSpeed TCP (HSTCP), Binary Increase Congestion (BIC) TCP, Cubic BIC (CUBIC) TCP, Fast Active Queue Management Scalable TCP (FAST), Scalable TCP (STCP), and Smart Acknowledgement (ACK) Dropper (SAD).

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the application information comprises at least one selected from a group consisting of a bandwidth requirement of the application, a number of packets issued by the application per time interval, an average size of a packet issued by the application, and a latency requirement of the application.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the packet by the tuned network stack comprises:

processing the packet at the transport layer in the tuned network stack to obtain a transport layer processed packet;

receiving the transport layer processed packet at the network layer in the tuned network stack;

determining a destination internet protocol (IP) address, wherein the destination IP address is associated with a network device in a network, wherein the network is one of the plurality of networks interposed between the network stack and the destination, wherein each of the plurality of networks is operatively connected to the tuned network stack, and wherein the network is selected from the plurality of networks during the turning of the network stack;

processing the transport layer processed packet using the destination IP address to obtain a network processed packet;

receiving the network processed packet at a physical layer in the tuned network stack; and

processing the network processed packet at the physical layer to obtain the processed packet.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein tuning the network stack is further based on operational information associated with a network interface controller (NIC) associated with the network stack and wherein the operational information comprises at least one selected from a group consisting of a type of network to which the NIC is directly connected, a maximum bandwidth of the NIC, a maximum bandwidth of the network to which the NIC is directly connected, and whether the NIC supports local retransmission.

9. A method for sending a packet from an application to a destination, comprising:

opening a network connection between the application and the destination;

tuning a network stack located on a system, based on application information associated with the application, to obtain a tuned network stack, wherein the network connection is associated with the network stack, wherein the at least one layer in the network stack is tuned using a kernel executing on the system, wherein the kernel uses an application information and configuration database (AICD), and wherein the application information is stored in the AICD, and

wherein tuning the network stack comprises;

tuning a physical layer of the network stack to obtain a tuned physical layer;

tuning a network layer of the network stack based on the tuned physical layer to obtain a tuned network layer, wherein tuning the network layer comprises selecting one network interface controller from a plurality of network interface controllers, wherein each of the plurality of network interface controllers is operatively connected to the network stack, wherein each plurality of network interface controllers is directly connected to a different one of a plurality of networks, and wherein each of the plurality of networks is interposed between the network stack and the destination, and

tuning a transport layer of the network stack based on the tuned network layer to obtain a tuned transport layer, wherein tuning the transport layer comprises at least one selected from a group consisting of selecting a transport layer protocol and selecting a congestion control algorithm, receiving the packet from the application;

processing the packet using the tuned network stack to obtain processed packet; and

sending the processed packet using a network interface controller (NIC) to the destination over a network selected during the tuning of the network stack, wherein the processed packet is received by the destination,

wherein the AICD is populated using data from the application and the NIC.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the network stack is tuned prior to receiving the packet from the application.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein tuning the transport layer further comprises determining a size of a buffer to allocate.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the application information comprises at least one selected from a group consisting of a bandwidth requirement of the application, a number of packets issued by the application per time interval, an average size of a packet issued by the application, and a latency requirement of the application.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein processing the packet by the tuned network stack comprises:

processing the packet at the tuned transport layer in the tuned network stack to obtain a transport layer processed packet;

receiving the transport layer processed packet at the tuned network layer;

determining a destination internet protocol (IP) address, wherein the destination IP address is associated with a network device in the network, wherein the network is one of the plurality of networks interposed between the network stack and the destination, wherein each of the plurality of networks are operatively connected to the network stack, and wherein the network is selected from the plurality of networks;

processing the transport layer processed packet using the destination IP address to obtain a network processed packet;

receiving the network processed packet at a tuned physical layer; and

processing the network processed packet at the tuned physical layer to obtain the processed packet.

14. A system comprising:

an application, wherein the application is configured to issue a packet for a destination;

a network stack operatively connected to the application, wherein the network stack comprises a network layer and a transport layer;

an application information and configuration database (AICD) configured to be populated with application information obtained from the application and operational information obtained from the NIC;

a first network interface controller operatively connected to the network stack and a first network;

a second network interface controller operatively connected to the network stack and a second network,

wherein the system is configured to;

open a network connection between the application and the destination;

tune, prior to receiving the packet, at least one layer in the network stack, based on the application information associated with the application, to obtain a tuned network stack, wherein the network connection is associated with the network stack, wherein the at least one layer in the network stack is tuned using a kernel executing on the system, and wherein the kernel uses the AICD to tune the at least one layer in the network stack;

receive the packet from the application;

process the packet using the tuned network stack to obtain processed packet; and

send the processed packet to the destination, wherein the processed packet is received by the destination,

wherein processing the packet by the tuned network stack comprises;

processing the packet at the transport layer in the tuned network stack to obtain a transport layer processed packet;

receiving the transport layer processed packet at the network layer in the tuned network stack;

determining a destination internet protocol (IP) address, wherein the destination IP address is associated with a network device in a network, wherein the network is the network selected during the tuning, and one selected from the first network and the second network, wherein the first network and the second network are interposed between the network stack and the destination, and wherein the network is selected during the turning of the network stack;

processing the transport layer processed packet using the destination IP address to obtain a network processed packet;

receiving the network processed packet at the physical layer in the tuned network stack; and

processing the network processed packet at the physical layer to obtain the processed packet.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the application information comprises at least one selected from a group consisting of a bandwidth requirement of the application, a number of packets issued by the application per time interval, an average size of a packet issued by the application, and a latency requirement of the application.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein tuning the transport layer comprises at least one selected from a group consisting of selecting a transport layer protocol, selecting a congestion control algorithm, and determining a size of a buffer to allocate, wherein the transport layer protocol is one selected from a group consisting of transmission control protocol (TCP) Tahoe, TCP Reno, TCP Vegas, TCP NewReno, TCP Hybla, TCP Westwood, TCP Selective Acknowledgement Options (SACK), Hamilton TCP (HTCP), HighSpeed TCP (HSTCP), Binary Increase Congestion (BIC) TCP, Cubic BIC (CUBIC) TCP, Fast Active Queue Management Scalable TCP (FAST), Scalable TCP (STCP), and Smart Acknowledgement (ACK) Dropper (SAD).