Patent ID: 11178023

Abstract:
Methods, apparatus, and systems for data plane interface network Quality of Service (QoS) in multi-tenant data centers. Data plane operations including packet generation and encapsulation are performed in software running in virtual machines (VMs) or containers hosted by a compute platform. Control plane operations, including QoS traffic classification, are implemented in hardware by a network controller. Work submission and work completion queues are implemented in software for each VM or container. Work elements (WEs) defining work to be completed by the network controller are generated by software and processed by the network controller to classify packets associated with the WEs into QoS traffic classes, wherein packets belonging to a give traffic flow are classified to the same QoS traffic class. The network controller is also configured to perform scheduling of packet egress as a function of the packet's QoS traffic classifications, to transmit packets that are scheduled for egress onto the network, and to DMA indicia to the work completion queues to indicate the work associated with WEs has been completed.