Allocation of shared reserve memory

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12192122-B2
Application number	US-202418581423-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 20, 2024
Priority date	Jan 31, 2022
Publication date	Jan 7, 2025
Grant date	Jan 7, 2025

Abstract

A device includes ports, a packet processor, and a memory management circuit. The ports communicate packets over a network. The packet processor processes the packets using queues. The memory management circuit maintains a shared buffer in a memory and adaptively allocates memory resources from the shared buffer to the queues, maintains in the memory, in addition to the shared buffer, a shared-reserve memory pool for use by the queues, identifies, among the queues, a queue that requires additional memory resources, the queue having an occupancy that is (i) above a current value of a dynamic threshold, rendering the queue ineligible for additional allocation from the shared buffer, and (ii) no more than a defined margin above the current value of the dynamic threshold, rendering the queue eligible for allocation from the shared-reserve memory pool, and allocates memory resources to the identified queue from the shared-reserve memory pool.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A device, comprising:
one or more ports, to communicate packets over a network;
a packet processor, to process the packets using a plurality of queues; and
a memory management circuit, to:
maintain a shared buffer in a memory, and adaptively allocate memory resources from the shared buffer to the queues;
maintain in the memory, in addition to the shared buffer, a shared-reserve memory pool for use by one or more of the queues;
identify, among the queues, a queue that requires additional memory resources, the queue having an occupancy that is:
(i) above a current value of a dynamic threshold, rendering the queue ineligible for additional allocation from the shared buffer, and
(ii) no more than a defined margin above the current value of the dynamic threshold, rendering the queue eligible for allocation from the shared-reserve memory pool; and

allocate memory resources to the identified queue from the shared-reserve memory pool.

2. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the memory management circuit is to identify that the queue requires additional memory resources by receiving a request from the queue.

3. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the memory management circuit is to pre-allocate to the queue a private-reserve memory resource, irrespective of the shared buffer and the shared-reserve memory pool.

4. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the queues are associated with a same port of the network device.

5. A memory management circuit, comprising:
one or more interfaces, to communicate with a plurality of queues of the network device that process packets, and with a memory; and
circuitry, to:
maintain a shared buffer in the memory, and adaptively allocate memory resources from the shared buffer to the queues;
maintain in the memory, in addition to the shared buffer, a shared-reserve memory pool for use by one or more of the queues;
identify, among the queues, a queue that requires additional memory resources, the queue having an occupancy that is:
(i) above a current value of a dynamic threshold, rendering the queue ineligible for additional allocation from the shared buffer, and
(ii) no more than a defined margin above the current value of the dynamic threshold, rendering the queue eligible for allocation from the shared-reserve memory pool; and

allocate memory resources to the identified queue from the shared-reserve memory pool.

6. The memory management circuit according to claim 5 , wherein the circuitry is to identify that the queue requires additional memory resources by receiving a request from the queue.

7. The memory management circuit according to claim 5 , wherein the circuitry is to pre-allocate to the queue a private-reserve memory resource, irrespective of the shared buffer and the shared-reserve memory pool.

8. The memory management circuit according to claim 5 , wherein the queues are associated with a same port of the network device.

9. A method for communication, the method comprising:
communicating packets over a network, and processing the packets using a plurality of queues;
maintaining a shared buffer in a memory, and adaptively allocating memory resources from the shared buffer to the queues;
maintaining in the memory, in addition to the shared buffer, a shared-reserve memory pool for use by one or more of the queues;
identifying, among the queues, a queue that requires additional memory resources, the queue having an occupancy that is:
(i) above a current value of a dynamic threshold, rendering the queue ineligible for additional allocation from the shared buffer, and
(ii) no more than a defined margin above the current value of the dynamic threshold, rendering the queue eligible for allocation from the shared-reserve memory pool; and

allocating memory resources to the identified queue from the shared-reserve memory pool.

10. The method according to claim 9 , wherein identifying that the queue requires additional memory resources comprises receiving a request from the queue.

11. The method according to claim 9 , wherein further comprising pre-allocate to the queue a private-reserve memory resource, irrespective of the shared buffer and the shared-reserve memory pool.

12. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the queues in the subset are associated with a same port of the network device.

13. A method for memory management, the method comprising:
communicating with a plurality of queues of the network device that process packets, and with a memory;
maintaining a shared buffer in the memory, and adaptively allocating memory resources from the shared buffer to the queues;
maintaining in the memory, in addition to the shared buffer, a shared-reserve memory pool for use by one or more of the queues;
identifying, among the queues, a queue that requires additional memory resources, the queue having an occupancy that is:
(i) above a current value of a dynamic threshold, rendering the queue ineligible for additional allocation from the shared buffer, and
(ii) no more than a defined margin above the current value of the dynamic threshold, rendering the queue eligible for allocation from the shared-reserve memory pool; and

allocating memory resources to the identified queue from the shared-reserve memory pool.

14. A method for memory management using queues, the method comprising:
maintaining in a memory (i) a shared buffer and (ii) a shared-reserve memory pool;
identifying a queue that requires additional memory resources and has an occupancy that is:
(i) above a current value of a dynamic threshold, rendering the queue ineligible for additional allocation from the shared buffer, and
(ii) no more than a defined margin above the current value of the dynamic threshold, rendering the queue eligible for allocation from the shared-reserve memory pool; and

allocating memory resources to the identified queue from the shared-reserve memory pool.

Assignees

• Mellanox Technologies Ltd

Inventors

• Aibester Niv
• Gafni Barak

Classifications

• H04L49/9047

  including multiple buffers, e.g. buffer pools · CPC title

• H04L49/9005

  using dynamic buffer space allocation · CPC title

• H04L47/30

  in combination with information about buffer occupancy at either end or at transit nodes · CPC title

• H04L45/122

  by minimising distances, e.g. by selecting a route with minimum of number of hops · CPC title

• H04L47/50

  Queue scheduling · CPC title