Dynamic maximum transmission unit size adaption

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9237110-B2
Application number	US-201414501181-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 30, 2014
Priority date	Mar 15, 2013
Publication date	Jan 12, 2016
Grant date	Jan 12, 2016

Abstract

An aspect includes dynamically adapting a maximum transmission unit (MTU) size in a computer network. A packet is received at a first link of a switch of the computer network. An MTU size of the received packet is determined based on an application programming interface (API) crossing value associated with the first link of the switch. An associated destination MTU size of a second link of the switch is determined as a target destination of the received packet. The associated destination MTU size of the second link is adjusted based on a difference between the MTU size of the received packet and the associated destination MTU size of the second link.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A method for dynamically adapting a maximum transmission unit (MTU) size in a computer network, comprising:
receiving a packet at a first link of a switch of the computer network;
determining, by an MTU size adaptor of the switch, a message type of the received packet;
determining, by the MTU size adaptor of the switch, an MTU size of the received packet based on an application programming interface (API) crossing value associated with the first link of the switch;
determining, by the MTU size adaptor of the switch, an associated destination MTU size of a second link of the switch as a target destination of the received packet;
decreasing, by the MTU size adaptor of the switch, the associated destination MTU size of the second link based on determining that the message type is a control message type;
increasing, by the MTU size adaptor of the switch, the associated destination MTU size of the second link based on determining that the message type is a data message type; and
adjusting, by the MTU size adaptor of the switch, the associated destination MTU size of the second link based on a difference between the MTU size of the received packet and the associated destination MTU size of the second link.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein adjusting the associated destination MTU size of the second link further comprises:
reducing the associated destination MTU size of the second link based on determining that the MTU size of the received packet is less than the associated destination MTU size of the second link.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
fragmenting the received packet into multiple transmit packets based on determining that the MTU size of the received packet is greater than the associated destination MTU size of the second link.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
performing time division multiplexing on the second link by adjusting the associated destination MTU size of the second link between different sizes based on periods of time.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second link comprises a pair physical links including a lower associated destination MTU size and a higher associated destination MTU size, and further comprising:
routing the received packet to the physical link having the lower associated destination MTU size based on determining that the MTU size of the received packet is less than or equal to the lower associated destination MTU size; and
routing the received packet to the physical link having the higher associated destination MTU size based on determining that the MTU size of the received packet is greater than the lower associated destination MTU size.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
monitoring network performance at the switch;
adjusting the associated destination MTU size of the second link based on the network performance over a period of time to progressively reduce the associated destination MTU size of the second link in response to one or more of: an increasing level of congestion for the second link and an increasing retransmission rate for the second link; and
progressively increasing the associated destination MTU size of the second link in response to one or more of: a decreasing level of congestion for the second link and a decreasing retransmission rate for the second link.

7. A computer program product for dynamically adapting a maximum transmission unit (MTU) size in a computer network, the computer program product comprising:
a non-transitory storage medium readable by a processing circuit and storing instructions for execution by the processing circuit for performing a method comprising:
receiving a packet at a first link of a switch of the computer network;
determining, by an MTU size adaptor of the switch, a message type of the received packet;
determining, by the MTU size adaptor of the switch, an MTU size of the received packet based on an application programming interface (API) crossing value associated with the first link of the switch;
determining, by the MTU size adaptor of the switch, an associated destination MTU size of a second link of the switch as a target destination of the received packet;
decreasing, by the MTU size adaptor of the switch, the associated destination MTU size of the second link based on determining that the message type is a control message type;
increasing, by the MTU size adaptor of the switch, the associated destination MTU size of the second link based on determining that the message type is a data message type; and
adjusting, by the MTU size adaptor of the switch, the associated destination MTU size of the second link based on a difference between the MTU size of the received packet and the associated destination MTU size of the second link.

8. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein adjusting the associated destination MTU size of the second link further comprises reducing the associated destination MTU size of the second link based on determining that the MTU size of the received packet is less than the associated destination MTU size of the second link; and further comprising:
fragmenting the received packet into multiple transmit packets based on determining that the MTU size of the received packet is greater than the associated destination MTU size of the second link.

9. The computer program product of claim 7 , further comprising:
performing time division multiplexing on the second link by adjusting the associated destination MTU size of the second link between different sizes based on periods of time.

10. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein the second link comprises a pair physical links including a lower associated destination MTU size and a higher associated destination MTU size, and further comprising:
routing the received packet to the physical link having the lower associated destination MTU size based on determining that the MTU size of the received packet is less than or equal to the lower associated destination MTU size; and
routing the received packet to the physical link having the higher associated destination MTU size based on determining that the MTU size of the received packet is greater than the lower associated destination MTU size.

11. The computer program product of claim 7 , further comprising:
monitoring network performance at the switch;
adjusting the associated destination MTU size of the second link based on the network performance over a period of time to progressively reduce the associated destination MTU size of the second link in response to one or more of: an increasing level of congestion for the second link and an increasing retransmission rate for the second link; and
progressively increasing the associated destination MTU size of the second link in response to one or more of: a decreasing level of congestion for the second link and a decreasing retransmission rate for the second link.

12. A method for dynamically adapting a maximum transmission unit (MTU) size in a computer network, comprising:
receiving a packet at a first link of a switch of the computer network;
determining, by an MTU size adaptor of the switch, an MTU size of the received packet based on an application programming interface (API) crossing value associated with the first link of the switch;
determining, by the MTU size adaptor of the switch, an associated destination MTU size of a second link of the switch as a target destination of the received packet;
adjusting, by the MTU size adaptor of the switch, the associated destination MTU size of the second link based on a difference between the MTU size of the received packet and the associated destination MTU siz

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Decusatis Casimer
• Krishnamurthy Rajaram B

Classifications

• H04L43/10

  Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route · CPC title

• H04L45/70

  Routing based on monitoring results · CPC title

• H04L47/365 Primary

  Dynamic adaptation of the packet size · CPC title

• H04L45/64

  using an overlay routing layer · CPC title

• H04L47/36

  by determining packet size, e.g. maximum transfer unit [MTU] · CPC title