US20170142732A1 - Allocation of shared resources for virtualized networking - Google Patents
Allocation of shared resources for virtualized networking Download PDFInfo
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- US20170142732A1 US20170142732A1 US15/420,052 US201715420052A US2017142732A1 US 20170142732 A1 US20170142732 A1 US 20170142732A1 US 201715420052 A US201715420052 A US 201715420052A US 2017142732 A1 US2017142732 A1 US 2017142732A1
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- virtual
- computing device
- network adapter
- radio
- adapters
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- H04W72/08—
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
- H04W28/00—Network traffic management; Network resource management
- H04W28/16—Central resource management; Negotiation of resources or communication parameters, e.g. negotiating bandwidth or QoS [Quality of Service]
- H04W28/18—Negotiating wireless communication parameters
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
- H04L47/00—Traffic control in data switching networks
- H04L47/10—Flow control; Congestion control
- H04L47/28—Flow control; Congestion control in relation to timing considerations
- H04L47/283—Flow control; Congestion control in relation to timing considerations in response to processing delays, e.g. caused by jitter or round trip time [RTT]
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
- H04L47/00—Traffic control in data switching networks
- H04L47/50—Queue scheduling
- H04L47/52—Queue scheduling by attributing bandwidth to queues
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
- H04W72/00—Local resource management
- H04W72/12—Wireless traffic scheduling
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
- H04W72/00—Local resource management
- H04W72/50—Allocation or scheduling criteria for wireless resources
- H04W72/54—Allocation or scheduling criteria for wireless resources based on quality criteria
Definitions
- Virtualization technology enables physical resources to be shared by multiple virtual devices.
- multiple virtual stations or other virtual adapters may be associated with an underlying network adapter (i.e., a network interface card or a network controller).
- These multiple virtual adapters may provide network connectivity or access to a communications medium via the underlying network adapter's physical resources such as buffers, wireless radio(s), other kind of transceiver(s), and/or antenna(s).
- virtual adapters may provide this connectivity or access to applications such as user-mode programs, kernel-mode processes, virtual machines, or the like.
- multiple applications or multiple virtual adapters may contend for the same resources (e.g., the resources associated with the underlying network adapter). Such contention may result in connectivity problems (e.g., slow data rates, dropped connections, difficulty in establishing connections, etc.). In addition, such contention may lead to inefficient usage of the resources associated with the underlying network adapter.
- the resource allocation may be based on analysis of the relative latency, jitter, or bandwidth considerations for applications communicating via each of the multiple virtual adapters.
- the resource allocation may also be based on how efficiently each of the virtual adapters utilized previously allocated resources.
- the disclosed technology may be employed with Wi-Fi virtualization to allocate resources such as a network adapter, components of the network adapter (e.g., queue space, other memory, signal processing components, receivers, transmitters, antennas, etc.), capacity between a host and the network adapter, access to a communication medium, or the like.
- the disclosed technology may be employed to enable multiple virtual Wi-Fi stations or virtual Wi-Fi access points to operate on a single computing device.
- the disclosed technology may also be employed in conjunction with Wi-Fi Direct to facilitate both peer-to-peer connection(s) and infrastructure connection(s) over a single radio.
- the disclosed technology is not limited to these examples.
- FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating one example of a suitable environment in which aspects of the technology may be employed
- FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating functional blocks of a computing device in which aspects of the technology may be employed
- FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating functional blocks of network adapter driver 250 of FIG. 2 ;
- FIG. 4 is a logical flow diagram illustrating a process for allocating shared resources and operating a network adapter according to aspects of the technology.
- FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating example hardware components of a computing device in which aspects of the technology may be practiced.
- the term “based on” or “based upon” is not exclusive and is equivalent to the term “based, at least in part, on” and includes being based on additional factors, some of which are not described herein. References in the singular are made merely for clarity of reading and include plural references unless plural references are specifically excluded.
- the term “or” is an inclusive “or” operator and is equivalent to the term “and/or” unless specifically indicated otherwise.
- the terms “component” and “system” are intended to encompass hardware, software, or various combinations of hardware and software. Thus, for example, a system or component may be a process, a process executing on a computing device, the computing device, or a portion thereof.
- the resource allocation may be based on analysis of the relative latency, jitter, or bandwidth considerations for applications communicating via each of the multiple virtual adapters.
- the resource allocation may also be based on how efficiently each of the virtual adapters utilized previously allocated resources.
- the disclosed technology may be employed with Wi-Fi virtualization to allocate resources such as a network adapter, components of the network adapter (e.g., queue space, other memory, signal processing components, receivers, transmitters, antennas, etc.), capacity between a host and the network adapter, access to a communication medium, or the like.
- the disclosed technology may be employed to enable multiple virtual Wi-Fi stations or virtual Wi-Fi access points to operate on a single computing device.
- the disclosed technology may also be employed in conjunction with Wi-Fi Direct to facilitate both peer-to-peer connection(s) and infrastructure connection(s) over a single underlying network adapter.
- a single computing device may host multiple virtual Wi-Fi adapters that are configured to interface with any one or more networks via a shared wireless radio.
- the disclosed technology may be employed to manage the transfer of data (e.g., protocol data units) from virtual Wi-Fi adapter queues (e.g., in virtual adapter drivers or in virtual adapters) to queues of a network adapter, manage the transmission of data from the network adapter queues, manage the time that the wireless radio listens for data directed to each of the virtual adapters on their respective channels, or the like.
- the disclosed technology may automatically allocate resources based on the type of traffic originating from or destined to the virtual adapters, provide a “minimum” resource allocation to each virtual adapter, and resolve allocation or resource conflicts between various virtual stations. In these and other manners, the disclosed technology may enable greater utilization of network adapters and provide improved communications to and from virtual adapters.
- FIG. 1 is a diagram of environment 100 in which aspects of the technology may be practiced.
- environment 100 includes computing devices 110 , 120 , and 130 , as well as access point 140 .
- computing device 110 is configured to communicate with computing devices 120 and 130 as well as with access point 140 via wireless links 125 , 135 , and 145 , respectively.
- Computing device 110 may be virtually any type of general- or specific-purpose computing device.
- these computing devices may be user devices such as desktop computers, laptop computers, tablet computers, display devices, cameras, printers, or smartphones.
- these computing devices may also be server devices such as application server computers, virtual computing host computers, or file server computers.
- wireless links 125 and 135 are Wi-Fi peer-to-peer links such as Wi-Fi Independent Basic Service Set (IBSS) links, Mesh Basic Service Set (MBSS) links, or Wi-Fi Direct links.
- IBSS Wi-Fi Independent Basic Service Set
- MBSS Mesh Basic Service Set
- Wi-Fi Direct links there is no requirement for wireless links 125 and 135 to be either Wi-Fi links or peer-to-peer links.
- wireless links 125 and 135 may be ZigBee links or Bluetooth links.
- wireless links 125 and 135 may employ any suitable air interface protocols or standards, or other communications protocols or standards, including those discussed above.
- environment 100 also includes access point 140 which is linked to computing device 110 via wireless link 145 .
- Access point 140 may be, for example, a Wi-Fi access point that is configured to provide a Basic Service Set (BSS) link between computing device 110 and a backend network such as the Internet or an intranet.
- BSS Basic Service Set
- access point 140 may alternately or additionally be any other type of device that provides access to a network or resource.
- access point 140 may be a wireless repeater, a femtocell, an access point for a wide area network or metropolitan area network (e.g., a WiMax base station, a 4 G base station, a Long Term Evolution (LTE) base station, etc.), or the like.
- LTE Long Term Evolution
- access point 140 may either be a stand-alone/hardware access point or a Software Enabled Access Point (SoftAP), e.g., operating on a general-purpose computing device or on a smart phone.
- SoftAP Software Enabled Access Point
- wireless link 145 may also employ any suitable communications protocols or standards.
- computing device 110 is configured to communicate with computing devices 120 and 130 , as well as with access point 140 , via wireless links 125 , 135 , and 145 , respectively. As discussed above, the communications over these links and with these devices/access points may be conducted by computing device 110 via separate networks using Wi-Fi virtualization technology. As one example, computing device 110 may include only a single physical wireless network adapter but be configured with multiple virtual adapters and associated components that enable sharing of the single physical wireless network adapter. However, in other examples, computing device 110 includes more than one physical wireless network adapter.
- computing device 110 may also include any number of virtual adapters and associated components of any one or more types.
- computing device 110 may include both a virtual non-access point Wi-Fi station as well as a virtual Wi-Fi SoftAP.
- the non-access point Wi-Fi station and the Wi-Fi SoftAP may be separate Wi-Fi entities that appear to upper level applications as independent/separate media access control/physical layer interfaces.
- Computing device 110 may also employ any of the allocation technology described herein to allocate shared resources amongst the virtual adapters or amongst applications that utilize the virtual adapters. This allocation technology may, for example, enable computing device 110 to maintain separate connections to multiple devices. In one example, these separate connections are via separate networks but over a shared network adapter.
- any other number or types of virtual adapters may be employed.
- the described technology may be employed in conjunction with virtualization of multiple standards or protocols over the same network adapter.
- a Wi-Fi station and a WiMax station may be virtualized over a single physical radio.
- a WiMax station and a Bluetooth interface may be virtualized over a shared network adapter.
- a Wireless Mesh Network adapter and a Wi-Fi adapter may be virtualized on the same computing device.
- FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating functional blocks of computing device 200 , which may be an embodiment of computing device 110 , 120 , or 130 of FIG. 1 .
- computing device 200 includes applications 210 A and 210 B, network/transport components 220 A and 220 B, virtual adapter drivers 230 A and 230 B, virtual adapters 240 A and 240 B, network adapter driver 250 , and network adapter 260 .
- applications 210 A and 210 B includes applications 210 A and 210 B, network/transport components 220 A and 220 B, virtual adapter drivers 230 A and 230 B, virtual adapters 240 A and 240 B, network adapter driver 250 , and network adapter 260 .
- FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating functional blocks of computing device 200 , which may be an embodiment of computing device 110 , 120 , or 130 of FIG. 1 .
- computing device 200 includes applications 210 A and 210 B, network/transport components 220 A and 220 B, virtual adapter drivers 230 A and 230
- Applications 210 A and 210 B may include any type of application that may receive or transmit data over a network or other communications medium, or be otherwise coupled to a communications medium.
- applications 210 A and 210 B may include user-mode programs, kernel-mode processes, virtual machines, or the like.
- applications 210 A and 210 B may also include programs or components that interface other devices or components to a communications medium.
- applications 210 A and 210 B are configured to communicate with applications on other computing devices over a communications link, but may not be “aware of” or “concerned with” the underlying communications infrastructure.
- the structure/organization of the underlying virtual and physical network adapters are typically abstracted away from, are not relevant to, and are not shared with applications 210 A and 2106 .
- applications 210 A and 210 B may be “unaware” that they are communicating via virtualized network adapters.
- Applications 210 A and 210 B may be respectively interfaced to virtual adapters 240 A and 240 B via network/transport components 220 A and 220 B and virtual adapter drivers 230 A and 230 B.
- network/transport components 220 A and 220 B may provide functionality typically associated with layers 3 , 4 , or higher of the Open System Interconnection (OSI) model.
- OSI Open System Interconnection
- network/transport components 220 A and 220 B convert data from/for the applications to/from Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), User Datagram Protocol (UDP), and Internet Protocol (IP) packets.
- TCP Transmission Control Protocol
- UDP User Datagram Protocol
- IP Internet Protocol
- network/transport components 220 A and 220 B may be part of an operating system.
- virtual adapter drivers 230 A and 230 B may provide respective interfaces between network/transport components 220 A and 220 B and virtual adapters 240 A and 240 B.
- virtual adapter drivers 230 A and 230 B may be adapted to provide interface, translation, and abstraction functionalities commonly associated with device drivers.
- virtual adapter drivers 230 A and 230 B may provide functionality typically associated with layers 2 and lower of the OSI model.
- virtual adapters 240 A and 240 B are configured to interface applications 210 A and 210 B to lower levels interfaces such as network adapter driver 250 and network adapter 260 .
- virtual adapters 240 A and 240 B may each be a virtual non-access point Wi-Fi adapter, a virtual Wi-Fi SoftAP adapter, a WiMax adapter, a Bluetooth interface, a Wireless Mesh Network adapter, a ZigBee interface, or the like.
- each virtual adapter may couple computing device 200 to a separate network, e.g., to enable computing device 200 to maintain simultaneous connections with multiple networks over a shared network adapter.
- multiple virtual adapters on one computing device may alternately be configured to provide multiple connections to the same network.
- network adapter driver 250 is configured to interface both virtual adapters 240 A and 240 B to network adapter 260 , for example, by providing the interface, translation, and abstraction functionalities commonly associated with device drivers.
- network adapter driver 250 may also be configured to provide or enable some or all of the resource allocation technology described herein.
- one implementation of network adapter driver 250 is adapted to receive data from applications 210 A and 210 B via the paths associated with virtual adapters 220 A and 220 B then dynamically allocate resources associated with network adapter 260 to virtual adapters 240 A and 240 B and applications 210 A and 210 B.
- network adapter driver 250 is adapted to analyze the data and to allocate resources to applications 210 A and 210 B and virtual adapters 240 A and 240 B based on communications characteristics (such as latency requirements, bandwidth requirements, or jitter requirements) determined from the analysis of the data.
- communications characteristics such as latency requirements, bandwidth requirements, or jitter requirements
- Network adapter driver 250 may also be adapted to determine how efficiently previously allocated resources were utilized by the applications or virtual adapters to which they were allocated and to reallocate resources or base later allocations on the prior utilization. Likewise, network adapter driver 250 may be adapted to resolve conflicts in the allocation of resources between to the various virtual stations. Further details regarding these and other features are provided below in conjunction with FIG. 3 .
- network adapter 260 is adapted to interface computing device 200 to a wireless medium under the control of network adapter driver 250 , e.g., by enabling transmission and reception of data to the wireless medium via an air interface.
- network adapter 260 is a physical Wi-Fi adapter embodied in what may commonly be referred to as a “wireless card.”
- These and other examples of network adapter 260 may include a wireless receiver and a wireless transmitter that are respectively adapted to receive and transmit data via the wireless medium under the control of network adapter driver 250 .
- certain implementations of network adapter 260 may be half-duplex network interfaces.
- network adapters that are designed to operate with half-duplex duplex protocols may be half-duplex interfaces.
- other network adapters may be full duplex interfaces.
- network adapter 260 may also include a finite amount of queue space (e.g., to buffer data to be transmitted, to buffer received data before it is transferred to network adapter driver 250 , etc.), other memory, and signal processing resources. These and other resources may be allocated with the described technology.
- applications 210 A and 210 B, virtual adapters 240 A and 240 B, and network adapter driver 250 would be implemented in software (e.g., either part of the operating system, as user-mode software, kernel-mode software, or as a combination of user-mode software and kernel-mode software) while network adapter 260 would be implemented in combinations of firmware and hardware.
- network adapter 260 may be implemented in software (e.g., within network adapter driver 250 or another component) or functionalities described as performed by network adapter driver 250 may be implemented within network adapter 260 .
- the disclosed technology may be implemented in these and other ways.
- FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating functional blocks of network adapter driver 250 of FIG. 2 .
- network adapter driver 250 includes virtual adapter interface 370 , resource manager 380 , and network adapter interface 390 .
- other network adapter drivers may include other, additional, or fewer components.
- network adapter driver 250 may be adapted to interface multiple virtual adapters to a network adapter.
- virtual adapter interface 370 may be adapted to provide an interface to the virtual adapters. For example, virtual adapter interface 370 may provide this interface by forwarding data-path data between the virtual adapters and network adapter interface 390 , by receiving attributes regarding the data-path data (either within or separate from the data-path data), and by providing communications characteristics of the data-path data to resource manager 380 . In addition, virtual adapter interface 370 may be adapted to analyze the attributes and generate the communications characteristics for resource manager 380 .
- the attributes may include traffic category information such as the traffic category classifications defined by the Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA) portions of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standards.
- traffic category classifications may indicate that given traffic flows have been assigned voice priority, video priority, best effort priority, or background priority.
- the attributes may indicate a specific scenario associated with a particular application or virtual adapter, such as an Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) request or a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) request.
- EAP Extensible Authentication Protocol
- DHCP Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
- the assigned EDCA traffic classifications may not adequately reflect the importance of the associated traffic or may not fully reflect the resources that should be allocated to transmit or receive the associated traffic.
- virtual adapter interface 370 may generate communications characteristics and provide the generated communications characteristics to resource manager 380 .
- the communications characteristics may be generated by associating priorities to at least two network traffic flows from different virtual network adapters and be based on EDCA classifications associated the traffic flows.
- the classifications may reflect on latency, jitter, or bandwidth requirements, or other considerations associated with the traffic flows.
- the communications characteristics may be generated by estimating bandwidth, latency, jitter, or other characteristics of the traffic flows.
- the communications characteristics may include or serve as requests for resources.
- communications characteristics may include or serve as a Limited Latency Request (LLR), a Resource Availability Request (RAR), or a Bandwidth Request (BWR).
- LLR Limited Latency Request
- RAR Resource Availability Request
- BWR Bandwidth Request
- a LLR may be based on the least latency or jitter tolerant application accessing a network adapter via any associated virtual adapter.
- a LLR may also reflect a request for the associated virtual adapter to be granted a transmit or receive opportunity according to a periodic schedule (e.g., every 50 milliseconds) and may include a tolerance for variation from the periodic schedule.
- Such a request may be generated by virtual adapter interface 370 in response to detection of a latency-sensitive marking in a traffic flow or in response to an application issuing an explicit request, e.g., upon entry into media streaming mode or upon connection of a voice over IP (VoIP) call.
- a LLR request may remain in effect until it is canceled, for example, by a LLR request with latency and jitter tolerance parameter set to zero. Further, a LLR may have a greater priority than other requests.
- a RAR may indicate that an application or a virtual adapter should receive guaranteed access to transmit or receive resources for a given duration, until completion of an operation, or until the RAR is canceled. Additionally, a RAR may specify a virtual adapter and an interval during which the specified virtual adapter is to have continuous access to the transmit or receive resources of a network adapter. For example, a RAR request may be issued to ensure presence of a radio on a particular channel until an EAP process has completed, a DHCP request has been fulfilled, a Wi-Fi Direct discovery or pairing process has completed, or the like. In this example, a RAR may cause resource manager 380 to hold the network adapter on the channel associated with virtual adapter for the duration of the RAR.
- a BWR may specify an estimate of a bandwidth demand for an application or a virtual adapter, and may serve as a request for a statistical or other bandwidth reservation for an associated application or virtual adapter.
- Virtual adapter interface 370 may generate a BWR in response to a particular traffic profile with predicable bandwidth demands (e.g., video playback). For example, virtual adapter interface 370 may detect such a situation by monitoring traffic volume, Quality of Service (QoS) markings, or via receipt of a command from an application or virtual adapter.
- QoS Quality of Service
- bandwidth of a network adapter may be shared equally by all virtual adapters associated with the network adapter.
- resource manager 380 may manage resources associated with a network adapter based on communications characteristics provided by virtual adapter interface 370 .
- These managed resources may include but are not limited to queue space (e.g., in the network adapter driver, the network adapter, or both), other memory, signal processing resources, receivers, transmitters, antennas, capacity between a host and the network adapter, access to a communication medium, portions of a radio transmission or reception schedule, or the like.
- this resource allocation may be based on analysis of the relative latency, jitter, or bandwidth considerations for applications communicating via each of the multiple virtual adapters associated with the network adapter.
- resource manager 380 may allocate transmission resources through use of transmit tokens.
- each virtual adapter may be associated with a transmit token bucket and have transmit tokens added to its buckets in proportion to its bandwidth allocation.
- resource manager 380 may service the virtual adapter with greatest number of tokens, for example, by issuing a requesting to transmit data frames from that virtual adapter's queue.
- resource manager 380 may service a virtual adapter by moving data frames from that virtual adapter's queue closer to transmission (e.g., by moving the data frames from a network adapter driver queue to a network adapter queue). The number of transmit tokens may then be decreased in proportion to the amount of data that was moved or transmitted.
- the number of data frames that may be transmitted or moved in a single service may be limited in any suitable manner.
- a transmit or move limit may be implemented by capping the number of transmit tokens that can be in a transmit bucket.
- resource manager 380 may service the virtual adapter associated with the LLR before servicing the virtual adapter with the greatest number of transmit tokens. For example, resource manager 380 may service the virtual adapter associated with the LLR based on the last time that that virtual adapter was serviced.
- Resource manager 380 may also optionally employ a token or credit based mechanism (e.g., receive queue tokens and receive queue token buckets) to allocate receive resources. Such mechanisms may be employed if host packet processing or a host/network adapter interface (rather than network adapter resources) is a likely receive-chain bottleneck. In such situations, resource manager 380 may service receive queues based solely on receive queue tokens or based on a combination of receive queue tokens and LLR requests.
- a token or credit based mechanism e.g., receive queue tokens and receive queue token buckets
- receive path resource allocation such as allocation of channel monitoring time, may also be performed by resource manager 380 .
- resource manager 380 may be adapted to perform receive path resource allocation if the various virtual adapters are configured to receive data via different channels or via different air interface standards or protocols. In such a situation, resource manager 380 may also maintain receiver time tokens and receiver time token buckets that to define how long a network adapter is to monitor/dwell on given channel while servicing a virtual adapter's receive path.
- monitoring/dwelling on a channel may be defined in terms of an absolute duration to be tuned to a channel, as a duration to remain on a channel after receiving a beacon, or the like.
- monitoring/dwelling on a channel may be have a higher priority than data transmission, monitoring for beacons, or the like.
- other suitable priority schemes may be employed for these and other operations.
- resource manager 380 may also receive feedback regarding how efficiently previously allocated resources were utilized by the applications or virtual adapters to which they were allocated and reallocate resources or base later allocations on the this feedback. For example, this feedback may be received from a network adapter via network adapter interface 390 and may be indicative of an actual over-the-air transmission rate of virtual adapter, transmission of data from a particular virtual adapter over an air interface during a scheduled transmission time, or the like. Further, such feedback may be employed to prevent a virtual adapter that unable to utilize its allocated resources (e.g., due to a congested channel, a non-responsive receiver, or other problems) from being allocated resources that could be better utilized by other virtual adapters.
- this feedback may be received from a network adapter via network adapter interface 390 and may be indicative of an actual over-the-air transmission rate of virtual adapter, transmission of data from a particular virtual adapter over an air interface during a scheduled transmission time, or the like. Further, such feedback may be employed to prevent a virtual adapter that unable to utilize
- the feedback may be based on information for any one or more prior periods.
- the feedback may include a moving average of information from a predefined number of beacon periods.
- any other suitable feedback may be employed.
- a virtual adapter is associated with multiple remote peers, e.g., if the virtual adapter is operating as Wi-Fi SoftAP, or as a member of an IBSS, efficiency may be received or determined on a per-remote-peer basis.
- information for each remote peer such as each remote peer's address, may be employed to track efficiency in a manner that captures potential differences in communications conditions between the various remote peers and that avoids penalizing unaffected peers.
- resource manager 380 may be adapted to allocate a minimum resource allocation to each virtual adapter, regardless of the respective priorities of traffic from the other virtual adapters. For example, this minimum resource allocation may prevent high-priority traffic on one virtual adapter from monopolizing resources and causing other virtual adapters to drop connections. In one specific example, resource manager 380 may allocate air interface access time to each virtual adapter based upon the amount of time needed by that virtual adapter to maintain an established wireless connection. However, any other suitable allocation scheme may be employed.
- Resource manager 380 may also be adapted to resolve allocation conflicts or resource conflicts between various virtual adapters, for example, if there are conflicts between various LLRs, RARs, or BWRs.
- resource manager 380 will not allow conflicting RARs to be in effect at the same time.
- RARs that require multiple virtual adapters associated with the same network adapter to access different channels at the same time may be considered conflicting RARs.
- resource manager 380 will not allow conflicting LLRs to be in effect at the same time, but may allow a RAR to temporarily violate a preexisting LLR. In this example, such a determination may be based on the relative priorities associated with the relevant applications or virtual adapters.
- a network adapter may not be available to receive one or more beacons for a virtual adapter. For example, such a situation may occur if multiple virtual adapters are associated with BSSs having synchronized beacons, if a channel schedule parameters or a RAR requires tuning of a radio to away from a channel for an extended duration (e.g., longer than a beacon interval), or the like.
- resource manager 380 may cause the network adapter to broadcast a sleep mode message on behalf of an associated virtual adapter.
- network adapter interface 390 is adapted to interface network adapter driver 250 to a network adapter.
- network adapter interface 390 may be adapted to pass data between virtual adapter interface 370 and the network adapter, and be adapted to control the network adapter based on the output of resource manager 380 .
- network adapter interface 390 may provide queue servicing parameters such as bandwidth allocations per virtual adapter or average or absolute frequencies for servicing queues of a particular virtual adapter.
- network adapter interface 390 may also provide channel scheduling parameters to the network adapter, e.g., in response to a RAR. Such channel scheduling parameters may include a maximum time between visits to a given channel and the minimum dwell time per visit.
- network adapter interface 390 may also provide the feedback information to resource manager 380 from the network adapter.
- network adapter interface 390 may poll the network adapter for feedback, or may receive the feedback information provided at the initiative of the network adapter.
- FIG. 4 is a logical flow diagram illustrating process 400 for allocating shared resources, e.g., amongst multiple virtual adapters, and operating a network adapter.
- process 400 is described in terms of operations performed in particular sequences by particular devices or components of a system. However, it is noted that other processes are not limited to the stated sequences, devices, or components. For example, certain acts may be performed in different sequences, in parallel, omitted, or may be supplemented by additional acts or features, whether or not such sequences, parallelisms, acts, or features are described herein. Likewise, any of the technology described in this disclosure may be incorporated into process 400 or other processes, whether or not that technology is specifically described in conjunction with a process.
- Process 400 may also be performed on or by other devices, components, or systems, whether or not such devices, components, or systems are described herein. These processes may also be embodied in a variety of ways. For example, they may be embodied on an article of manufacture, e.g., as computer-readable instructions stored in a computer-readable storage medium or be performed as a computer-implemented process. As an alternate example, these processes may be encoded as computer-executable instructions and transmitted via a communications medium.
- Process 400 begins at 410 where attributes are received from multiple virtual stations. In one implementation, these attributes are received at virtual adapter interface 370 from applications associated with each of the multiple virtual stations. These attributes may be received as part of, or separately from, data-path data that is to be forwarded to network adapter 260 via network adapter interface 390 .
- virtual adapter interface 370 may generate communications characteristics at 420 .
- these communications characteristics may include requests such as LLRs, RARs, or BWRs, or may be generated by associating priorities to at least two network traffic flows based on EDCA traffic classifications.
- resource manager 380 may allocate resources, for example, based on the communication characteristics generated at 420 . These resources may be allocated using any of the above-discussed technology and be provided to network adapter interface 390 .
- network adapter interface 390 of network adapter driver 250 may control network adapter 260 based on the output of resource manager 380 . As one example, this control may include controlling the loading of data-path data into queues of network adapter 260 or instructing network adapter 260 to transmit or receive data. Further, at 450 , network adapter 260 transmits or receives data under the control of network adapter interface 390 .
- Network adapter interface 390 receives feedback from network adapter 260 regarding how efficiently previously allocated resources were utilized.
- processing may loop back to 410 for the allocation of additional resources and the transmission or reception of additional data.
- the feedback received at 460 may be employed to allocate or reallocate resources for the handling of the additional data.
- FIG. 5 is a high-level illustration of example hardware components of computing device 500 , which may be used to practice various aspects of the technology.
- computing device 500 may be employed to perform process 400 of FIG. 4 .
- Computing device 500 may also be an embodiment of computing device 200 of FIG. 2 .
- computing device 500 includes processor 510 , operating memory 520 , data storage memory 530 , network adapter 540 , input interface 550 , and display component 560 . These aforementioned components may be interconnected by bus 570 .
- computing device 500 may be virtually any type of general- or specific-purpose computing device.
- computing device 500 may be a user device such as a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a display device, a camera, a printer, or a smartphone.
- computing device 500 may also be server device such as an application server computer, a virtual computing host computer, or a file server computer.
- Computing device 500 includes at least one processor 510 configured to execute instructions, such as instructions for implementing the above-described processes or technology.
- the aforementioned instructions, along with other data may be stored in operating memory 520 and/or data storage memory 530 .
- operating memory 520 is employed for run-time data storage while data storage memory 530 is employed for long-term data storage.
- data storage memory 530 is employed for long-term data storage.
- each of operating memory 520 and data storage memory 530 may be employed for either run-time or long-term data storage.
- Each of operating memory 520 and data storage memory 530 may also include any of a variety of data storage devices/components, such as volatile memories, semi-volatile memories, non-volatile memories, random access memories, static memories, disks, disk drives, caches, buffers, or any other media that can be used to store information.
- operating memory 520 and data storage memory 530 specifically do not include or encompass communications media, any communications medium, or any signals per se.
- computing device 500 may include or be coupled to any type of computer-readable media such as computer-readable storage media (e.g., operating memory 520 and data storage memory 530 ) and communication media (e.g., communication signals and radio waves). While the term computer-readable storage media includes operating memory 520 and data storage memory 530 , this term specifically excludes and does not encompass communications media, any communications medium, or any signals per se.
- computer-readable storage media e.g., operating memory 520 and data storage memory 530
- communication media e.g., communication signals and radio waves
- Network adapter 540 maybe an embodiment of network adapter 260 of FIG. 2 .
- Computing device 500 also includes input interface 550 , which may be configured to enable computing device 500 to receive input from users or from other devices.
- computing device 500 includes a display component 560 , which may be configured to render displays.
- display component 560 includes a frame buffer, graphics processor, graphics accelerator, or a virtual computing host computer and is configured to render the displays for presentation on a separate visual display device (e.g., a monitor, projector, virtual computing client computer, etc.).
- display component 560 includes a visual display device and is configured to render and present the displays for viewing.
Abstract
Description
- This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/900,366, filed May 22, 2013, entitled “ALLOCATION OF SHARED RESOURCES FOR VIRTUALIZED NETWORKING,” (Atty. Dkt. No. 338718-US-NP). The entirety of this afore-mentioned application is incorporated herein by reference.
- Virtualization technology enables physical resources to be shared by multiple virtual devices. As one example of such technology, multiple virtual stations or other virtual adapters may be associated with an underlying network adapter (i.e., a network interface card or a network controller). These multiple virtual adapters may provide network connectivity or access to a communications medium via the underlying network adapter's physical resources such as buffers, wireless radio(s), other kind of transceiver(s), and/or antenna(s). For example, virtual adapters may provide this connectivity or access to applications such as user-mode programs, kernel-mode processes, virtual machines, or the like.
- In these and other scenarios, multiple applications or multiple virtual adapters may contend for the same resources (e.g., the resources associated with the underlying network adapter). Such contention may result in connectivity problems (e.g., slow data rates, dropped connections, difficulty in establishing connections, etc.). In addition, such contention may lead to inefficient usage of the resources associated with the underlying network adapter.
- This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.
- Technology for allocating network adapter resources amongst multiple virtual network stations or other virtual adapters is disclosed. As one example, the resource allocation may be based on analysis of the relative latency, jitter, or bandwidth considerations for applications communicating via each of the multiple virtual adapters. The resource allocation may also be based on how efficiently each of the virtual adapters utilized previously allocated resources.
- As one example, the disclosed technology may be employed with Wi-Fi virtualization to allocate resources such as a network adapter, components of the network adapter (e.g., queue space, other memory, signal processing components, receivers, transmitters, antennas, etc.), capacity between a host and the network adapter, access to a communication medium, or the like. In addition, the disclosed technology may be employed to enable multiple virtual Wi-Fi stations or virtual Wi-Fi access points to operate on a single computing device. The disclosed technology may also be employed in conjunction with Wi-Fi Direct to facilitate both peer-to-peer connection(s) and infrastructure connection(s) over a single radio. However, the disclosed technology is not limited to these examples.
- Other aspects of and applications for the disclosed technology will be appreciated upon reading and understanding the attached figures and description.
- Non-limiting and non-exhaustive embodiments of the present invention are described with reference to the following drawings. In the drawings, like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout the various figures unless otherwise specified. These drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale.
- For a better understanding of the present invention, reference will be made to the following Detailed Description, which is to be read in association with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
-
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating one example of a suitable environment in which aspects of the technology may be employed; -
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating functional blocks of a computing device in which aspects of the technology may be employed; -
FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating functional blocks ofnetwork adapter driver 250 ofFIG. 2 ; -
FIG. 4 is a logical flow diagram illustrating a process for allocating shared resources and operating a network adapter according to aspects of the technology; and -
FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating example hardware components of a computing device in which aspects of the technology may be practiced. - The following description provides specific details for a thorough understanding of, and enabling description for, various embodiments of the technology. One skilled in the art will understand that the technology may be practiced without many of these details. In some instances, well-known structures and functions have not been shown or described in detail to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the description of embodiments of the technology. It is intended that the terminology used in this disclosure be interpreted in its broadest reasonable manner, even though it is being used in conjunction with a detailed description of certain embodiments of the technology. Although certain terms may be emphasized below, any terminology intended to be interpreted in any restricted manner will be overtly and specifically defined as such in this Detailed Description section. For example, the term “based on” or “based upon” is not exclusive and is equivalent to the term “based, at least in part, on” and includes being based on additional factors, some of which are not described herein. References in the singular are made merely for clarity of reading and include plural references unless plural references are specifically excluded. The term “or” is an inclusive “or” operator and is equivalent to the term “and/or” unless specifically indicated otherwise. As used herein, the terms “component” and “system” are intended to encompass hardware, software, or various combinations of hardware and software. Thus, for example, a system or component may be a process, a process executing on a computing device, the computing device, or a portion thereof.
- Technology for allocating network adapter resources amongst multiple virtual network stations or other virtual adapters is disclosed. As one example, the resource allocation may be based on analysis of the relative latency, jitter, or bandwidth considerations for applications communicating via each of the multiple virtual adapters. The resource allocation may also be based on how efficiently each of the virtual adapters utilized previously allocated resources.
- As one non-limiting example, the disclosed technology may be employed with Wi-Fi virtualization to allocate resources such as a network adapter, components of the network adapter (e.g., queue space, other memory, signal processing components, receivers, transmitters, antennas, etc.), capacity between a host and the network adapter, access to a communication medium, or the like. In addition, the disclosed technology may be employed to enable multiple virtual Wi-Fi stations or virtual Wi-Fi access points to operate on a single computing device. The disclosed technology may also be employed in conjunction with Wi-Fi Direct to facilitate both peer-to-peer connection(s) and infrastructure connection(s) over a single underlying network adapter.
- As a more detailed example, a single computing device may host multiple virtual Wi-Fi adapters that are configured to interface with any one or more networks via a shared wireless radio. In this example, the disclosed technology may be employed to manage the transfer of data (e.g., protocol data units) from virtual Wi-Fi adapter queues (e.g., in virtual adapter drivers or in virtual adapters) to queues of a network adapter, manage the transmission of data from the network adapter queues, manage the time that the wireless radio listens for data directed to each of the virtual adapters on their respective channels, or the like.
- In managing these and other resources, the disclosed technology may automatically allocate resources based on the type of traffic originating from or destined to the virtual adapters, provide a “minimum” resource allocation to each virtual adapter, and resolve allocation or resource conflicts between various virtual stations. In these and other manners, the disclosed technology may enable greater utilization of network adapters and provide improved communications to and from virtual adapters.
-
FIG. 1 is a diagram ofenvironment 100 in which aspects of the technology may be practiced. As shown,environment 100 includescomputing devices access point 140. As one non-limiting example,computing device 110 is configured to communicate withcomputing devices access point 140 viawireless links -
Computing device 110, along withcomputing devices - In the illustrated example,
computing devices wireless link 125 whilecomputing devices wireless link 135. As one example,wireless links wireless links wireless links wireless links - As illustrated,
environment 100 also includesaccess point 140 which is linked tocomputing device 110 viawireless link 145.Access point 140 may be, for example, a Wi-Fi access point that is configured to provide a Basic Service Set (BSS) link betweencomputing device 110 and a backend network such as the Internet or an intranet. However,access point 140 may alternately or additionally be any other type of device that provides access to a network or resource. For example,access point 140 may be a wireless repeater, a femtocell, an access point for a wide area network or metropolitan area network (e.g., a WiMax base station, a 4G base station, a Long Term Evolution (LTE) base station, etc.), or the like. In addition,access point 140 may either be a stand-alone/hardware access point or a Software Enabled Access Point (SoftAP), e.g., operating on a general-purpose computing device or on a smart phone. As withwireless links wireless link 145 may also employ any suitable communications protocols or standards. - As shown in
environment 100,computing device 110 is configured to communicate withcomputing devices access point 140, viawireless links device 110 via separate networks using Wi-Fi virtualization technology. As one example,computing device 110 may include only a single physical wireless network adapter but be configured with multiple virtual adapters and associated components that enable sharing of the single physical wireless network adapter. However, in other examples,computing device 110 includes more than one physical wireless network adapter. - In implementing Wi-Fi virtualization technology,
computing device 110 may also include any number of virtual adapters and associated components of any one or more types. For example,computing device 110 may include both a virtual non-access point Wi-Fi station as well as a virtual Wi-Fi SoftAP. In this example, the non-access point Wi-Fi station and the Wi-Fi SoftAP may be separate Wi-Fi entities that appear to upper level applications as independent/separate media access control/physical layer interfaces.Computing device 110 may also employ any of the allocation technology described herein to allocate shared resources amongst the virtual adapters or amongst applications that utilize the virtual adapters. This allocation technology may, for example, enablecomputing device 110 to maintain separate connections to multiple devices. In one example, these separate connections are via separate networks but over a shared network adapter. - Although the above example is described in the context of a combining a virtual non-access point Wi-Fi station with a virtual Wi-Fi SoftAP on
computing device 110, combinations of any other number or types of virtual adapters may be employed. For example, the described technology may be employed in conjunction with virtualization of multiple standards or protocols over the same network adapter. As one example, a Wi-Fi station and a WiMax station may be virtualized over a single physical radio. As another example, a WiMax station and a Bluetooth interface may be virtualized over a shared network adapter. As yet a further example, a Wireless Mesh Network adapter and a Wi-Fi adapter may be virtualized on the same computing device. These and other examples are possible implementations of the disclosed technology. -
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating functional blocks ofcomputing device 200, which may be an embodiment ofcomputing device FIG. 1 . As illustrated,computing device 200 includesapplications transport components virtual adapter drivers virtual adapters network adapter driver 250, andnetwork adapter 260. Although two sets of applications, network/transport components, virtual adapter drivers, and virtual adapters are illustrated incomputing device 200, this is merely for clarity of illustration. Any number of applications may be associated with a particular virtual adapter path and any number of virtual adapters paths may be employed in a particular computing device. -
Applications applications applications - In one typical example,
applications applications 210A and 2106. In other words,applications -
Applications virtual adapters transport components virtual adapter drivers transport components transport components transport components - In addition,
virtual adapter drivers transport components virtual adapters virtual adapter drivers virtual adapter drivers - As shown,
virtual adapters applications network adapter driver 250 andnetwork adapter 260. For example,virtual adapters device 200 to a separate network, e.g., to enablecomputing device 200 to maintain simultaneous connections with multiple networks over a shared network adapter. However, multiple virtual adapters on one computing device may alternately be configured to provide multiple connections to the same network. These and other possibilities are encompassed by the disclosed technology. - In
computing device 200,network adapter driver 250 is configured to interface bothvirtual adapters adapter 260, for example, by providing the interface, translation, and abstraction functionalities commonly associated with device drivers. In addition,network adapter driver 250 may also be configured to provide or enable some or all of the resource allocation technology described herein. For example, one implementation ofnetwork adapter driver 250 is adapted to receive data fromapplications virtual adapters network adapter 260 tovirtual adapters applications network adapter driver 250 is adapted to analyze the data and to allocate resources toapplications virtual adapters -
Network adapter driver 250 may also be adapted to determine how efficiently previously allocated resources were utilized by the applications or virtual adapters to which they were allocated and to reallocate resources or base later allocations on the prior utilization. Likewise,network adapter driver 250 may be adapted to resolve conflicts in the allocation of resources between to the various virtual stations. Further details regarding these and other features are provided below in conjunction withFIG. 3 . - In the example of
computing device 200,network adapter 260 is adapted to interfacecomputing device 200 to a wireless medium under the control ofnetwork adapter driver 250, e.g., by enabling transmission and reception of data to the wireless medium via an air interface. As one example,network adapter 260 is a physical Wi-Fi adapter embodied in what may commonly be referred to as a “wireless card.” These and other examples ofnetwork adapter 260 may include a wireless receiver and a wireless transmitter that are respectively adapted to receive and transmit data via the wireless medium under the control ofnetwork adapter driver 250. In addition, certain implementations ofnetwork adapter 260 may be half-duplex network interfaces. For example, network adapters that are designed to operate with half-duplex duplex protocols may be half-duplex interfaces. However, other network adapters may be full duplex interfaces. - In addition,
network adapter 260 may also include a finite amount of queue space (e.g., to buffer data to be transmitted, to buffer received data before it is transferred to networkadapter driver 250, etc.), other memory, and signal processing resources. These and other resources may be allocated with the described technology. - In typical implementations,
applications virtual adapters network adapter driver 250 would be implemented in software (e.g., either part of the operating system, as user-mode software, kernel-mode software, or as a combination of user-mode software and kernel-mode software) whilenetwork adapter 260 would be implemented in combinations of firmware and hardware. However, other implementations are possible. For example, functionalities described as implemented innetwork adapter 260 may be implemented in software (e.g., withinnetwork adapter driver 250 or another component) or functionalities described as performed bynetwork adapter driver 250 may be implemented withinnetwork adapter 260. The disclosed technology may be implemented in these and other ways. -
FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating functional blocks ofnetwork adapter driver 250 ofFIG. 2 . As illustrated,network adapter driver 250 includesvirtual adapter interface 370,resource manager 380, andnetwork adapter interface 390. However, other network adapter drivers may include other, additional, or fewer components. As described above,network adapter driver 250 may be adapted to interface multiple virtual adapters to a network adapter. - Within
network adapter driver 250,virtual adapter interface 370 may be adapted to provide an interface to the virtual adapters. For example,virtual adapter interface 370 may provide this interface by forwarding data-path data between the virtual adapters andnetwork adapter interface 390, by receiving attributes regarding the data-path data (either within or separate from the data-path data), and by providing communications characteristics of the data-path data toresource manager 380. In addition,virtual adapter interface 370 may be adapted to analyze the attributes and generate the communications characteristics forresource manager 380. - As one non-limiting example, the attributes may include traffic category information such as the traffic category classifications defined by the Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA) portions of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standards. For example, such traffic category classifications may indicate that given traffic flows have been assigned voice priority, video priority, best effort priority, or background priority. In another example, the attributes may indicate a specific scenario associated with a particular application or virtual adapter, such as an Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) request or a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) request. In these and other scenarios, the assigned EDCA traffic classifications may not adequately reflect the importance of the associated traffic or may not fully reflect the resources that should be allocated to transmit or receive the associated traffic.
- Based on the attributes regarding the data-path data,
virtual adapter interface 370 may generate communications characteristics and provide the generated communications characteristics toresource manager 380. As one example, the communications characteristics may be generated by associating priorities to at least two network traffic flows from different virtual network adapters and be based on EDCA classifications associated the traffic flows. In such an example, the classifications may reflect on latency, jitter, or bandwidth requirements, or other considerations associated with the traffic flows. However, in other examples, the communications characteristics may be generated by estimating bandwidth, latency, jitter, or other characteristics of the traffic flows. - Further, the communications characteristics may include or serve as requests for resources. For example, communications characteristics may include or serve as a Limited Latency Request (LLR), a Resource Availability Request (RAR), or a Bandwidth Request (BWR). In this example, a LLR may be based on the least latency or jitter tolerant application accessing a network adapter via any associated virtual adapter. A LLR may also reflect a request for the associated virtual adapter to be granted a transmit or receive opportunity according to a periodic schedule (e.g., every 50 milliseconds) and may include a tolerance for variation from the periodic schedule. Such a request may be generated by
virtual adapter interface 370 in response to detection of a latency-sensitive marking in a traffic flow or in response to an application issuing an explicit request, e.g., upon entry into media streaming mode or upon connection of a voice over IP (VoIP) call. A LLR request may remain in effect until it is canceled, for example, by a LLR request with latency and jitter tolerance parameter set to zero. Further, a LLR may have a greater priority than other requests. - A RAR may indicate that an application or a virtual adapter should receive guaranteed access to transmit or receive resources for a given duration, until completion of an operation, or until the RAR is canceled. Additionally, a RAR may specify a virtual adapter and an interval during which the specified virtual adapter is to have continuous access to the transmit or receive resources of a network adapter. For example, a RAR request may be issued to ensure presence of a radio on a particular channel until an EAP process has completed, a DHCP request has been fulfilled, a Wi-Fi Direct discovery or pairing process has completed, or the like. In this example, a RAR may cause
resource manager 380 to hold the network adapter on the channel associated with virtual adapter for the duration of the RAR. - A BWR may specify an estimate of a bandwidth demand for an application or a virtual adapter, and may serve as a request for a statistical or other bandwidth reservation for an associated application or virtual adapter.
Virtual adapter interface 370 may generate a BWR in response to a particular traffic profile with predicable bandwidth demands (e.g., video playback). For example,virtual adapter interface 370 may detect such a situation by monitoring traffic volume, Quality of Service (QoS) markings, or via receipt of a command from an application or virtual adapter. In the absence of an active BWR, bandwidth of a network adapter may be shared equally by all virtual adapters associated with the network adapter. - As introduced above,
resource manager 380 may manage resources associated with a network adapter based on communications characteristics provided byvirtual adapter interface 370. These managed resources may include but are not limited to queue space (e.g., in the network adapter driver, the network adapter, or both), other memory, signal processing resources, receivers, transmitters, antennas, capacity between a host and the network adapter, access to a communication medium, portions of a radio transmission or reception schedule, or the like. At a high level, this resource allocation may be based on analysis of the relative latency, jitter, or bandwidth considerations for applications communicating via each of the multiple virtual adapters associated with the network adapter. - More specifically,
resource manager 380 may allocate transmission resources through use of transmit tokens. In such an example, each virtual adapter may be associated with a transmit token bucket and have transmit tokens added to its buckets in proportion to its bandwidth allocation. At any given time,resource manager 380 may service the virtual adapter with greatest number of tokens, for example, by issuing a requesting to transmit data frames from that virtual adapter's queue. Alternately,resource manager 380 may service a virtual adapter by moving data frames from that virtual adapter's queue closer to transmission (e.g., by moving the data frames from a network adapter driver queue to a network adapter queue). The number of transmit tokens may then be decreased in proportion to the amount of data that was moved or transmitted. Additionally, the number of data frames that may be transmitted or moved in a single service may be limited in any suitable manner. As one example, a transmit or move limit may be implemented by capping the number of transmit tokens that can be in a transmit bucket. - Additionally, if a LLR is in force,
resource manager 380 may service the virtual adapter associated with the LLR before servicing the virtual adapter with the greatest number of transmit tokens. For example,resource manager 380 may service the virtual adapter associated with the LLR based on the last time that that virtual adapter was serviced. -
Resource manager 380 may also optionally employ a token or credit based mechanism (e.g., receive queue tokens and receive queue token buckets) to allocate receive resources. Such mechanisms may be employed if host packet processing or a host/network adapter interface (rather than network adapter resources) is a likely receive-chain bottleneck. In such situations,resource manager 380 may service receive queues based solely on receive queue tokens or based on a combination of receive queue tokens and LLR requests. - Other receive path resource allocation, such as allocation of channel monitoring time, may also be performed by
resource manager 380. For example, such allocation may be performed if a network adapter cannot monitor the receive path for all associated virtual adapters at the same time. As one example,resource manager 380 may be adapted to perform receive path resource allocation if the various virtual adapters are configured to receive data via different channels or via different air interface standards or protocols. In such a situation,resource manager 380 may also maintain receiver time tokens and receiver time token buckets that to define how long a network adapter is to monitor/dwell on given channel while servicing a virtual adapter's receive path. Such monitoring/dwelling on a channel may be defined in terms of an absolute duration to be tuned to a channel, as a duration to remain on a channel after receiving a beacon, or the like. In addition, monitoring/dwelling on a channel may be have a higher priority than data transmission, monitoring for beacons, or the like. However, other suitable priority schemes may be employed for these and other operations. - As introduced above,
resource manager 380 may also receive feedback regarding how efficiently previously allocated resources were utilized by the applications or virtual adapters to which they were allocated and reallocate resources or base later allocations on the this feedback. For example, this feedback may be received from a network adapter vianetwork adapter interface 390 and may be indicative of an actual over-the-air transmission rate of virtual adapter, transmission of data from a particular virtual adapter over an air interface during a scheduled transmission time, or the like. Further, such feedback may be employed to prevent a virtual adapter that unable to utilize its allocated resources (e.g., due to a congested channel, a non-responsive receiver, or other problems) from being allocated resources that could be better utilized by other virtual adapters. - In addition, the feedback may be based on information for any one or more prior periods. As one specific example, the feedback may include a moving average of information from a predefined number of beacon periods. However, any other suitable feedback may be employed. Further, if a virtual adapter is associated with multiple remote peers, e.g., if the virtual adapter is operating as Wi-Fi SoftAP, or as a member of an IBSS, efficiency may be received or determined on a per-remote-peer basis. In this example, information for each remote peer, such as each remote peer's address, may be employed to track efficiency in a manner that captures potential differences in communications conditions between the various remote peers and that avoids penalizing unaffected peers.
- As also introduced above,
resource manager 380 may be adapted to allocate a minimum resource allocation to each virtual adapter, regardless of the respective priorities of traffic from the other virtual adapters. For example, this minimum resource allocation may prevent high-priority traffic on one virtual adapter from monopolizing resources and causing other virtual adapters to drop connections. In one specific example,resource manager 380 may allocate air interface access time to each virtual adapter based upon the amount of time needed by that virtual adapter to maintain an established wireless connection. However, any other suitable allocation scheme may be employed. -
Resource manager 380 may also be adapted to resolve allocation conflicts or resource conflicts between various virtual adapters, for example, if there are conflicts between various LLRs, RARs, or BWRs. In one example,resource manager 380 will not allow conflicting RARs to be in effect at the same time. For example, RARs that require multiple virtual adapters associated with the same network adapter to access different channels at the same time may be considered conflicting RARs. In another example,resource manager 380 will not allow conflicting LLRs to be in effect at the same time, but may allow a RAR to temporarily violate a preexisting LLR. In this example, such a determination may be based on the relative priorities associated with the relevant applications or virtual adapters. - Further, in some situations, a network adapter may not be available to receive one or more beacons for a virtual adapter. For example, such a situation may occur if multiple virtual adapters are associated with BSSs having synchronized beacons, if a channel schedule parameters or a RAR requires tuning of a radio to away from a channel for an extended duration (e.g., longer than a beacon interval), or the like. In these and other situations,
resource manager 380 may cause the network adapter to broadcast a sleep mode message on behalf of an associated virtual adapter. - Within
network adapter driver 250,network adapter interface 390 is adapted to interfacenetwork adapter driver 250 to a network adapter. For example,network adapter interface 390 may be adapted to pass data betweenvirtual adapter interface 370 and the network adapter, and be adapted to control the network adapter based on the output ofresource manager 380. Continuing with this example,network adapter interface 390 may provide queue servicing parameters such as bandwidth allocations per virtual adapter or average or absolute frequencies for servicing queues of a particular virtual adapter. Further,network adapter interface 390 may also provide channel scheduling parameters to the network adapter, e.g., in response to a RAR. Such channel scheduling parameters may include a maximum time between visits to a given channel and the minimum dwell time per visit. - In addition,
network adapter interface 390 may also provide the feedback information toresource manager 380 from the network adapter. For example,network adapter interface 390 may poll the network adapter for feedback, or may receive the feedback information provided at the initiative of the network adapter. These and other variations are possible. -
FIG. 4 is a logical flowdiagram illustrating process 400 for allocating shared resources, e.g., amongst multiple virtual adapters, and operating a network adapter. For clarity,process 400 is described in terms of operations performed in particular sequences by particular devices or components of a system. However, it is noted that other processes are not limited to the stated sequences, devices, or components. For example, certain acts may be performed in different sequences, in parallel, omitted, or may be supplemented by additional acts or features, whether or not such sequences, parallelisms, acts, or features are described herein. Likewise, any of the technology described in this disclosure may be incorporated intoprocess 400 or other processes, whether or not that technology is specifically described in conjunction with a process.Process 400 may also be performed on or by other devices, components, or systems, whether or not such devices, components, or systems are described herein. These processes may also be embodied in a variety of ways. For example, they may be embodied on an article of manufacture, e.g., as computer-readable instructions stored in a computer-readable storage medium or be performed as a computer-implemented process. As an alternate example, these processes may be encoded as computer-executable instructions and transmitted via a communications medium. -
Process 400 begins at 410 where attributes are received from multiple virtual stations. In one implementation, these attributes are received atvirtual adapter interface 370 from applications associated with each of the multiple virtual stations. These attributes may be received as part of, or separately from, data-path data that is to be forwarded tonetwork adapter 260 vianetwork adapter interface 390. - Following receipt of the attributes,
virtual adapter interface 370 may generate communications characteristics at 420. For example, these communications characteristics may include requests such as LLRs, RARs, or BWRs, or may be generated by associating priorities to at least two network traffic flows based on EDCA traffic classifications. - Processing then flows to 430 where
resource manager 380 may allocate resources, for example, based on the communication characteristics generated at 420. These resources may be allocated using any of the above-discussed technology and be provided tonetwork adapter interface 390. - At 440,
network adapter interface 390 ofnetwork adapter driver 250 may controlnetwork adapter 260 based on the output ofresource manager 380. As one example, this control may include controlling the loading of data-path data into queues ofnetwork adapter 260 or instructingnetwork adapter 260 to transmit or receive data. Further, at 450,network adapter 260 transmits or receives data under the control ofnetwork adapter interface 390. - Processing then flows 460 where
network adapter interface 390 receives feedback fromnetwork adapter 260 regarding how efficiently previously allocated resources were utilized. - From 460, processing may loop back to 410 for the allocation of additional resources and the transmission or reception of additional data. As discussed above, the feedback received at 460 may be employed to allocate or reallocate resources for the handling of the additional data.
-
FIG. 5 is a high-level illustration of example hardware components ofcomputing device 500, which may be used to practice various aspects of the technology. For example,computing device 500 may be employed to performprocess 400 ofFIG. 4 .Computing device 500 may also be an embodiment ofcomputing device 200 ofFIG. 2 . As shown,computing device 500 includesprocessor 510, operatingmemory 520,data storage memory 530,network adapter 540,input interface 550, anddisplay component 560. These aforementioned components may be interconnected bybus 570. - As with
computing device 200,computing device 500 may be virtually any type of general- or specific-purpose computing device. For example,computing device 500 may be a user device such as a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a display device, a camera, a printer, or a smartphone. Likewise,computing device 500 may also be server device such as an application server computer, a virtual computing host computer, or a file server computer. -
Computing device 500 includes at least oneprocessor 510 configured to execute instructions, such as instructions for implementing the above-described processes or technology. The aforementioned instructions, along with other data (e.g., datasets, metadata, operating system instructions, etc.), may be stored inoperating memory 520 and/ordata storage memory 530. In one example, operatingmemory 520 is employed for run-time data storage whiledata storage memory 530 is employed for long-term data storage. However, each of operatingmemory 520 anddata storage memory 530 may be employed for either run-time or long-term data storage. Each ofoperating memory 520 anddata storage memory 530 may also include any of a variety of data storage devices/components, such as volatile memories, semi-volatile memories, non-volatile memories, random access memories, static memories, disks, disk drives, caches, buffers, or any other media that can be used to store information. However, operatingmemory 520 anddata storage memory 530 specifically do not include or encompass communications media, any communications medium, or any signals per se. - Also,
computing device 500 may include or be coupled to any type of computer-readable media such as computer-readable storage media (e.g., operatingmemory 520 and data storage memory 530) and communication media (e.g., communication signals and radio waves). While the term computer-readable storage media includesoperating memory 520 anddata storage memory 530, this term specifically excludes and does not encompass communications media, any communications medium, or any signals per se. -
Network adapter 540 maybe an embodiment ofnetwork adapter 260 ofFIG. 2 . -
Computing device 500 also includesinput interface 550, which may be configured to enablecomputing device 500 to receive input from users or from other devices. In addition,computing device 500 includes adisplay component 560, which may be configured to render displays. In one example,display component 560 includes a frame buffer, graphics processor, graphics accelerator, or a virtual computing host computer and is configured to render the displays for presentation on a separate visual display device (e.g., a monitor, projector, virtual computing client computer, etc.). In another example,display component 560 includes a visual display device and is configured to render and present the displays for viewing. - While the above Detailed Description describes certain embodiments of the technology, and describes the best mode contemplated, no matter how detailed the above appears in text, the technology can be practiced in many ways. Details may vary in implementation, while still being encompassed by the technology described herein. As noted above, particular terminology used when describing certain features or aspects of the technology should not be taken to imply that the terminology is being redefined herein to be restricted to any specific characteristics, features, or aspects with which that terminology is associated. In general, the terms used in the following claims should not be construed to limit the technology to the specific embodiments disclosed herein, unless the Detailed Description explicitly defines such terms. Accordingly, the actual scope of the technology encompasses not only the disclosed embodiments, but also all equivalent ways of practicing or implementing the technology.
Claims (21)
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EP3000272B1 (en) | 2019-10-23 |
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US20140348073A1 (en) | 2014-11-27 |
EP3000272A1 (en) | 2016-03-30 |
CN105309029B (en) | 2019-12-03 |
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