Resource Allocation Policy for Virtualized Network Interfaces

Abstract

Over the last decade, virtualization has gained widespread importance. Virtual Machines (VMs) can now share network access in hardware, or in software or in a hybridized way. Input/Output (IO) virtualization technologies based on software utilize emulation technique, but this requires Virtualization Manager which presents central processing overhead in a significant amount. Besides, each IO operation in turn poses overhead additionally and any supported advanced capabilities inherent of physical hardware are not utilized properly. Some direct assignment based IO virtualization technologies suffer from limitations to scalability. The support for Quality of Service (QoS) may be offered within the software layers at the Virtualization Manager or Guest Operating System level which interact with the IO device that is being shared. With a preliminary investigation of the functionality of the RiceNIC (an open standard platform meant for research and education into concurrent network interface design), a study of the various network interface technologies supporting IO device virtualization was carried out to precisely understand IO virtualized network interfaces. The project describes a resource allocation policy for the on-device memory of the IO device being shared, taking the instance of a complex IO device, i.e., a Network Interface Controller(NIC) supporting a reconfigurable virtualized network interface architecture design which endures multiple reconfigurable virtualized network interfaces working independently using a reconfigurable partitioned memory. It enhances the scalability of the IO device.