Titan: Offload-Friendly Packet Scheduling for Multiqueue NICs

Description: At UW-Madison, we are developing new packet scheduling algorithms for multi-queue NICs. In particular, we are motivated by two trends. First, in order to keep up with increases in the number of cores, VMs, and active flows on a single server, the number of queue pairs on NICs is also increasing. Second, in order to enable servers to drive current line rates, NICs provide offload functions to reduce CPU load, and, as line rates increase, the importance of reducing the CPU load of networking increases as well. Unfortunately, current offload functions can lead to increased latency, unfair packet schedules, and network congestion, and these problems are exacerbated by increases in the number of queue pairs provided by a NIC. Our aim is to develop new scheduling algorithms and abstractions to eliminate these problems.