Method for congestion control in a network interface card

摘要

Congestion detection is implemented on the ingress direction, egress direction, or both directions in a network interface controller. Congestion notification is facilitated between a source and a destination through a network interface controller. In accordance with an aspect, a NIC is configured to label ingress packets—coming from the network—in relation to the presence of congestion. In accordance with another aspect, the NIC is configured to label egress packets—going to the network—in relation to the presence of congestion. A full offload NIC is equipped to operate on the packet labels in the presence of congestion and to react appropriately if it is on the receiving end, sending end, or both.

主权项

1. Network interface circuitry configured to couple a host computer and a network such that the host is interoperable with a peer via the network, the network interface circuitry comprising:
congestion detection circuitry configured to, based on an operating state of the network interface circuitry relative to a transport layer flow of packets being communicated between the host and the peer, detect congestion at the network interface circuitry, relative to the transport layer flow; and indication providing circuitry configured to provide an indication of the detected congestion correlated to the transport layer flow, wherein the network interface circuitry further comprises protocol processing circuitry configured to perform transport layer protocol processing on packets of the transport layer flow; and wherein the congestion detection circuitry is configured to set the congestion experienced indication on a packet to be transmitted from the network interface circuitry as a result of the transport layer protocol processing.