Bandwidth-Control Policers in Network Adapters
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Solution Overview
Problem
Software-based bandwidth-control policing in user-plane servers degrades performance and consumes significant processing resources, making it poorly scalable and inefficient for enforcing bandwidth-related policies on packet streams.
Innovation Solution
Implementing bandwidth-control policers in a network adapter that connects user-plane servers to access networks, allowing for flexible application of policers to packets, reducing host processing overhead and enabling scalable enforcement of bandwidth policies.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If software-based bandwidth-control policing is implemented in user-plane servers, then bandwidth policies can be enforced on packet streams, but processing resources are significantly consumed and performance degrades
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the bandwidth-control policer functionality from the user-plane server software and relocates it to dedicated hardware components within the network adapter. This separation allows the policing function to operate independently in hardware, removing the processing burden from the software-based user-plane server while maintaining policy enforcement capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a hardware-based policer as an intermediary component between the network adapter and the user-plane server. This intermediary handles bandwidth control operations in hardware, acting as a mediator that offloads processing tasks from the server software, thereby improving overall system throughput while maintaining policy enforcement.
2Reliability
If software-based bandwidth-control policing is used, then bandwidth policies can be enforced, but scalability is poor due to high processing resource consumption
Solution Approach 1:
By extracting the policing function from software to hardware, the system gains scalability. Multiple hardware policers can be instantiated in parallel within network adapters, allowing the system to scale to handle increasing numbers of packet streams and policies without proportionally increasing software processing resources.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the implementation parameter of the policer from software-based to hardware-based. This fundamental parameter change enables the system to scale more effectively, as hardware implementations can parallelize processing more efficiently than software, allowing broader adaptability across different deployment scenarios.
3Productivity
If bandwidth-control policers are implemented in hardware network adapters, then processing overhead on host is reduced and scalability improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the bandwidth-control policer functionality directly into the network adapter hardware architecture. By combining these functions in a single integrated device, the system reduces the need for separate hardware components while achieving the desired offloading effect, thereby managing device complexity more effectively.
Solution Approach 2:
The network adapter is designed with multi-functionality, incorporating both network interface operations and bandwidth-control policing capabilities within the same hardware device. This universal approach allows the network adapter to perform multiple functions, reducing overall system complexity compared to having separate dedicated policer hardware.
Data Source
AI summary
A network adapter includes a network interface, a host interface and processing circuitry. The network interface is configured to connect to a communication network. The host interface is configured to communicate with a host processor running multiple application programs. The processing circuitry includes one or more bandwidth-control policers, and is configured to receive from the communication network a packet destined to a given application program among the application programs running on the host processor, to associate a bandwidth-control policer with the packet, selected from among the bandwidth-control policers, and to apply the selected bandwidth-control policer to the packet to produce a policer result.