Arbitration in an sriov environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016147685-A1
Application number	US-201514844053-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 3, 2015
Priority date	Nov 25, 2014
Publication date	May 26, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

In one embodiment, a computer-implemented method includes assigning a time budget to each of a plurality of virtual functions in a single-root input/output (SRIOV) environment, where a first time budget of a first virtual function indicates a quantity of cycles on an engine of the SRIOV environment allowed to the first virtual function within a time slice. A plurality of requests issued by the plurality of virtual functions are selected by a computer processor, where the selecting excludes requests issued by virtual functions that have used their associated time budgets of cycles in a current time slice. The selected plurality of requests are delivered to the engine for processing. The time budgets of the virtual functions are reset and a new time slice begins, at the end of the current time slice.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A computer-implemented method, comprising:
assigning a time budget to each of a plurality of virtual functions in a single-root input/output (SRIOV) environment, wherein a first time budget of a first virtual function indicates a quantity of cycles on an engine of the SRIOV environment allowed to the first virtual function within a time slice; selecting, by a computer processor, a plurality of requests issued by the plurality of virtual functions, wherein the selecting excludes requests issued by virtual functions that have used their associated time budgets of cycles in a current time slice; delivering the selected plurality of requests to the engine for processing; and resetting the time budgets of the virtual functions and beginning a new time slice, at the end of the current time slice.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
assigning a quantity of credits to each of the plurality of virtual functions, wherein the quantity of credits assigned to the first virtual function indicates a priority level of the first virtual function; and restricting the first virtual function to a quantity of sessions on the engine, wherein each session is in response to a request, and wherein the quantity of sessions is determined by the quantity of credits assigned to the first virtual function.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein selecting the plurality of requests comprises excluding requests issued by virtual functions that have used their associated credits in the current time slice.

4 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
counting, in real time, the quantity of sessions on the engine used by the first virtual function; and resetting the count of the quantity of sessions used by the first virtual function at the end of the current time slice.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
counting, in real time, the quantity of cycles on the engine used by the first virtual function; and resetting the count of the quantity of cycles used by the first virtual function at the end of the current time slice.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising reallocating, to other virtual functions of the plurality of virtual functions, the cycles of the first time budget within the current time slice when the first virtual function has completed its tasks within the current time slice.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Check Mark A
• Condorelli Vincenzo
• Hadzic Nihad
• Santiago Fernandez William

Classifications

• G06F2009/45579

  I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage · CPC title

• G06F13/372

  using a time-dependent priority, e.g. individually loaded time counters or time slot · CPC title

• G06F13/4221

  being an input/output bus, e.g. ISA bus, EISA bus, PCI bus, SCSI bus · CPC title

• G06F1/24

  Resetting means · CPC title

• G06F9/45558

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title