SR-IOV NIC Overlay Network Offload for Multi-Tenancy
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing overlay network technologies in cloud computing environments incur significant CPU costs due to software handling of packet encapsulation and decapsulation, affecting performance, and SR-IOV configurations bypass the virtualization software/network stack, limiting multi-tenancy capabilities.
Innovation Solution
Offloading overlay network packet encapsulation and decapsulation to hardware using an overlay network offload capable NIC, which receives a copy of the overlay network mapping table from the virtualization software to perform encapsulation and decapsulation tasks, thereby bypassing the software-based CPU-intensive processes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If overlay network packet encapsulation and decapsulation is handled in software, then multi-tenancy support is achieved, but CPU performance deteriorates due to significant CPU costs for mapping table lookups and packet processing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the packet encapsulation and decapsulation functions from the software domain and relocates them to hardware (NIC). The NIC is enhanced with overlay network processing capabilities, including mapping table storage and encapsulation/decapsulation engines, thereby removing the CPU-intensive workload from the software stack while preserving multi-tenancy support through hardware-based overlay network processing
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary hardware component (the overlay network processing unit within the NIC) that mediates between the VM and the network. This intermediary handles the overlay network encapsulation and decapsulation tasks, allowing the VM to communicate in overlay networks without burdening the CPU with software-based processing of mapping tables and packet transformation
2Productivity
If SR-IOV VFs are assigned directly to VMs for near native performance, then network performance improves, but multi-tenancy capability deteriorates because the data path bypasses the virtualization software/network stack
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the benefits of SR-IOV direct assignment with overlay network multi-tenancy support by integrating overlay network processing capabilities directly into the NIC. This combination allows VMs to utilize SR-IOV VFs for direct hardware access and near-native performance while simultaneously enabling overlay network encapsulation and decapsulation through the enhanced NIC, thus restoring multi-tenancy capability without sacrificing performance
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary configuration of the NIC with overlay network processing capabilities, including pre-loading mapping tables and configuring encapsulation rules, before the VM needs to communicate in overlay networks. This preliminary setup enables the NIC to automatically perform encapsulation and decapsulation operations without requiring software intervention, thus maintaining both high performance and multi-tenancy support
Data Source
AI summary
A method for providing support for multi-tenancy in single root input/out virtualization (SR-IOV) enabled physical network interface controller (NIC) is provided. The NIC is associated with a host. The SR-IOV provides a physical function (PF) and a set of virtual functions (VFs) for the NIC. The method at a VF of the physical NIC, receives a mapping table of an overlay network which associates an identification of each of a set of virtual machine (VM) of a tenant on the host to an identification of a tunnel end point on the overlay network. The method receives a transmit packet from a VM connected to the VF and performs a lookup in the mapping table to identify source and destination tunnel end points associated with source and destination VMs in the packet. The method encapsulates the packet, for transmission through the tunnel end point associated with the source VM.