Patent ID: 7697434

Claim:
A method for controlling resource utilization of containers, comprising: associating each of a plurality of containers with one of a plurality of virtual network stacks, wherein the plurality of containers and the plurality of virtual network stacks are located in a host, wherein each of the plurality of containers comprises an isolated application execution environment, and wherein each one of the plurality of virtual network stacks comprises a virtual network interface card associated with a distinct Internet Protocol (IP) address; receiving, at a physical network interface operatively connected to the host, a plurality of packets from a network; analyzing each of the plurality of packets by a classifier to determine to which of a plurality of temporary data structures each of the plurality of packets is forwarded, wherein the classifier is operatively connected to the physical network interface; forwarding each of the plurality of packets to one of the plurality of temporary data structures as determined by the classifier; requesting a number of packets from the one of the plurality of temporary data structures by a virtual network stack of the plurality of virtual network stacks, wherein the virtual network stack is associated with the one of the plurality of temporary data structures, wherein the virtual network stack is associated with a container of the plurality of containers, and wherein the number of packets is limited by a bandwidth control parameter associated with the virtual network stack; forwarding the number of packets to the virtual network stack; processing the number of packets by the virtual network stack; and forwarding the number of packets to the container associated with the virtual network stack.