Improving Network Performance in Multi-Core Systems

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White Paper

Intel® Ethernet Controllers

Improving Network

Performance in

Multi-Core Systems

Responding to Next-Generation Datacenter Needs

Today’s resource-intensive applications running on Intel® multi-core processor-based

platforms are driving the need not only for greater networking bandwidth, but also

for more efficient processing of network data. The lower power usage and greater

processing capabilities of these systems has IT departments relying on them to

handle more data than ever before. And with the growth of server virtualization

and consolidation, high-volume data transactions, real-time technologies such as

VoIP and video on demand, and the increase to 10GbE bandwidth, the processing

demands on the CPU will continue to grow.

Intel's next generation of Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet controllers

support a number of features that are optimized for new Intel multi-core processor-

based platforms and satisfy the networking requirements of the next-generation

datacenter. Technologies such as Receive-Side Scaling (RSS), Extended Message

Signaled Interrupts (MSI-X), multiple queues, and Virtual Machine Device Queues

(VMDq) distribute network processing across multiple processor cores, thereby

lowering CPU utilization and increasing application responsiveness. These tech-

nologies also provide significant performance improvements in virtualized server

environments. This improved performance includes not only increased bandwidth,

but also lower CPU utilization levels and decreased latency.

In previous-generation platforms, application data requests were associated with a

single processor and handled sequentially, raising CPU utilization levels and lowering

system performance under heavy network loads. Figure 1 shows a typical network

data flow scenario in a previous-generation platform.

Summary of content (4 pages)

PAGE 1
White Paper Intel® Ethernet Controllers Improving Network Performance in Multi-Core Systems Responding to Next-Generation Datacenter Needs Today’s resource-intensive applications running on Intel® multi-core processor-based platforms are driving the need not only for greater networking bandwidth, but also for more efficient processing of network data. The lower power usage and greater processing capabilities of these systems has IT departments relying on them to handle more data than ever before.
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White Paper Improving Network Performance in Multi-Core Systems Table of Contents CPU Solving the Problem.................................................................. 2 Multiple Descriptor Queues....................................................................3 MCH Receive-Side Scaling (RSS)......................................................................3 Virtual Machine Device Queues (VMDq).........................................3 Extended Message-Signaled Interrupts (MSI-X)...........
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Improving Network Performance in Multi-Core Systems White Paper Multiple Descriptor Queues Virtual Machine Device Queues (VMDq) Multiple transmit and receive queues in the controllers allow network traffic streams to be distributed into queues. These queues can be associated with specific processor cores, allowing distribution of the workload and preventing data traffic processing from overwhelming a single core.
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White Paper Improving Network Performance in Multi-Core Systems Intel® 82598 10 Gigabit Ethernet Controller CPU or CPU or CPU or CPU or VM 1 VM 2 VM 3 VM 4 The Intel 82598 10 Gigabit Ethernet Controller is a PCI Expressbased, dual-port, 10-gigabit Ethernet controller, designed for very high-bandwidth needs. It has extensive support for multiple processor cores and is intended for use on large systems, such as enterprise servers, processing appliances, and in embedded applications.