Remote smart NIC-based service acceleration

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11150963-B2
Application number	US-201916289412-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 28, 2019
Priority date	Feb 28, 2019
Publication date	Oct 19, 2021
Grant date	Oct 19, 2021

Abstract

Systems and methods provide for accelerating and offloading network processing to a remote smart network interface card (NIC). A first network element, including a first smart NIC, can transmit capability information of the first smart NIC for receipt by a neighboring second network element. The second network element can determine that a network processing task of a virtualized network function (e.g., virtual network function (VNF), cloud-native network function (CNF), etc.) instantiated on the second network element can be offloaded to the first smart NIC. The second network element can receive processing information from the virtualized network function for performing the network processing task. Based on the processing information, the second network element can transmit control information that causes the first smart NIC to perform the network processing task on at least a portion of network data received by the first network element for transmission to the second network element.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
receiving, at a second network element over a network from a first network element, an advertisement including capability information of a first smart network interface card (NIC) installed at the first network element, wherein the first network element is remotely and physically located from the second network element;
in response to receiving the advertisement, determining, based on the received capability information and at the second network element, that one or more network processing tasks of a virtualized network function instantiated in the second network element can be offloaded to the first smart NIC;
receiving, at the second network element from the virtualized network function, processing information for performing the one or more network processing tasks; and
transmitting, from the second network element based on the processing information to the first network element, control information that causes the first smart NIC to perform the one or more network processing tasks on at least a portion of network data received by the first network element for transmission to the second network element.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising: determining that a second smart NIC is accessible to the second network element; determining a current load of at least one of the first smart NIC or the second smart NIC; and determining an apportioning of the network data based on the current load, wherein the control information further causes the second smart NIC to perform the one or more network processing tasks on an apportioned amount of the network data.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , wherein the second smart NIC is integrated in the second network element.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , wherein the second smart NIC is integrated in a third network element neighboring the second network element.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the capability information is received within an in-bound or in-situ operations, administration, and management (IOAM) portion of data traffic.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5 , further comprising: extracting, by a data path element of the second network element, the capability information from the IOAM portion of the data traffic; and updating, by the data path element, a control path element of the second network element with the capability information.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , wherein the data path element includes a Fast data-Input/Output (Fd.IO) vector packet processor (VPP).

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , wherein the data path element resides in kernel space of the second network element.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , wherein the data path element resides in user space of the second network element.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , wherein the data path element resides in the first smart NIC.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , wherein the control path element includes at least one of an Open Virtual Switch (OVS) switch, a Contiv plugin, a Kubernetes proxy, or an Istio sidecar proxy.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , the capability information is received via at least one of Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP), Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP), Extended Address Resolution Protocol (E-ARP), or Neighbor Discovery Protocol (NDP).

13. A system, comprising:
one or more processors; and
memory including instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to:
receive, over a network from a first network element, an advertisement including capability information of a first smart network interface card (NIC) installed at the first network element, wherein the first network element is remotely and physically located from a second network element;
in response to receiving the advertisement, determine, based on the received capability information, that one or more network processing tasks of a virtualized network function instantiated in the system can be offloaded to the first smart NIC;
receive, from the virtualized network function, processing information for performing the one or more network processing tasks; and
transmit, to the first network element and based on the processing information, control information that causes the first smart NIC to perform the one or more network processing tasks on at least a portion of network data received by the first network element for transmission to the system.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the system to: determine that a second smart NIC is accessible to the system;
determine a current load of at least one of the first smart NIC or the second smart NIC; and
determine an apportioning of the network data based on the current load,
wherein the control information further causes the second smart NIC to perform the one or more network processing tasks on an apportioned amount of the network data.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the second smart NIC is integrated in the first network element.

16. The system of claim 13 , wherein the capability information is received over a control plane protocol.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including instructions that, upon being executed by one or more processors of a system, cause the system to:
receive, over a network from a first network element, an advertisement including capability information of the first smart network interface card (NIC) installed at the first network element, wherein the first network element is remotely and physically located from a second network element;
in response to receiving the advertisement, determine, based on the received capability information, that one or more network processing tasks of a virtualized network function instantiated in the system can be offloaded to the first smart NIC,
receive, from the virtualized network function, processing information for performing the one or more network processing tasks; and
transmit, to the first network element and based on the processing information, control information that causes the first smart NIC to perform the one or more network processing tasks on at least a portion of network data received by the first network element for transmission to the system.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 , wherein the capability information is received in data traffic.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18 , wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the system to:
extract, by a data path element of the system, the capability information from the data traffic; and
update, by the data path element, a control path element of the system with the capability information.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 19 , wherein the data path element includes a Fast data-Input/Output (Fd.IO) vector packet processor (VPP).

Assignees

• Cisco Tech Inc

Inventors

• Nainar Nagendra Kumar
• Pignataro Carlos M

Classifications

• G06F2009/45595

  Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances · CPC title

• G06F9/5055

  considering software capabilities, i.e. software resources associated or available to the machine · CPC title

• G06F9/45558

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• Y02D30/00

  Reducing energy consumption in communication networks · CPC title

• G06F9/541 Primary

  via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications · CPC title