Patent ID: 9703589
Date: 2017-07-11
CPC Classifications: G06F,H04L

Claim:
1. In a host computer having a plurality of containers including a first container executing therein, the host including a physical network interface controller (physical NIC), a method of transmitting and receiving data packets to and from the first container, the method performed by a virtual network interface controller (virtual NIC) operating on a hypervisor of the host computer comprising: detecting a packet handling interrupt upon receiving a first data packet that is associated with the first container; determining, by inspecting a memory-based data structure that contains latency sensitivity data for each of the plurality of containers, whether the first container is latency sensitive; if the first container is determined to be latency sensitive, then processing the packet handling interrupt by forwarding the first data packet to a virtual switch to which the virtual NIC is connected when the first data packet is received from the first container, or forwarding the first data packet to the first container when the first data packet is received from the virtual switch; if the first container is determined to be not latency sensitive, then: queuing the first data packet at the virtual NIC; and delaying processing of the packet handling interrupt by the virtual NIC.