Systems and methods for virtio based optimization of data packet paths between a virtual machine and a network device for live virtual machine migration
US10635474B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | May 9, 2017 |
| Grant date | Apr 28, 2020 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Dec 16, 2037 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F2212/152
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A new approach is proposed that contemplates systems and methods to support virtio-based data packet path optimization for live virtual machine (VM) migration for Linux. Specifically, a data packet receiving (Rx) path and a data packet transmitting (Tx) path between a VM running on a host and a virtual function (VF) driver configured to interact with a physical network device of the host to receive and transmit communications dedicated to the VM are both optimized to implement a zero-copy solution to reduce overheads in packet processing. Under the proposed approach, the data packet Tx path utilizes a zero-copy mechanism provided by Linux kernel to avoid copying from virtio memory rings/Tx vrings in memory of the VM. The data packet Rx path also implements a zero-copy solution, which allows a virtio device of the VM to communicate directly with the VF driver of the network device while bypassing a macvtap driver entirely from the data packet Rx path.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.