Congestion control enforcement in a virtualized environment

摘要

In a data network congestion control in a virtualized environment is enforced in packet flows to and from virtual machines in a host. A hypervisor and network interface hardware in the host are trusted components. Enforcement comprises estimating congestion states in the data network attributable to respective packet flows, recognizing a new packet that belongs to one of the data packet flows, and using one or more of the trusted components and to make a determination based on the congestion states that the new packet belongs to a congestion-producing packet flow. A congestion-control policy is applied by one or more of the trusted components to the new packet responsively to the determination.

主权项

1. A method for communication, comprising the steps of:
supporting a plurality of virtual machines in a host, wherein the host comprises a hypervisor, and network interface hardware, the hypervisor and the network interface hardware being trusted components; communicating data packet flows to and from the virtual machines over a data network via the network interface hardware; estimating congestion states in the data network attributable to respective packet flows; recognizing a new packet that belongs to one of the data packet flows; making a determination based on the congestion states that the new packet belongs to a congestion-producing packet flow; and applying a congestion-control policy to the new packet responsively to the determination, wherein the steps of making a determination and applying a congestion-control policy are performed by one or more of the trusted components, and wherein applying a congestion-control policy comprises sending a congestion-notification message to a source of the new packet, transmission of the congestion-notification message being delayed according to a class-based delay interval.