Patent Application
20230412517
This application is based on and claims priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2022-0070988, filed on Jun. 10, 2022, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
The disclosure relates to a system and a method for simultaneous packet processing through multiple containers.
Mobile edge computing (MEC), one of the technologies that achieve 5G services with characteristics such as ultra-low latency, ultra-high speed, and ultra-connectivity, is an edge computing technology that provides services by building a system at the edge close to users.
MEC is based on software defined network (SDN) for network slicing and network functions virtualization (NFV) that virtualizes network equipment.
The fact that SDN separates control and data to apply network slicing technology to NFV may provide flexibility capable of providing services tailored to traffic characteristics. However, network slicing alone may not be able to satisfy the traffic throughput and delay time required to meet the service level that VNF should provide.
Therefore, for high-speed packet processing, there is a need for a technology capable of increasing processing speed and reducing delay time by horizontally dividing a vertical packet processing structure processed by one application.
When packets received through network slicing in MEC are processed in one container, the required packet processing delay time may not be satisfied as the number of packet processing steps increases and becomes more complex.
Therefore, it is necessary to configure a single process by separating the single process into a plurality of containers that perform several segmented processes. However, when each divided container simultaneously accesses a packet, problems such as a processing time delay loss due to processing order control and packet copying or locking may occur.
As a method to solve this problem, the disclosure proposes a method in which a set of series of packets is simultaneously transmitted to a plurality of containers in a zero-copy technique and each container processes the packets received in parallel based on metadata including information referring to each packet included in a shared memory.
The disclosure has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems in the prior art, and an aspect of the disclosure is to provide a simultaneous packet processing system and method through multiple containers in which, for high-speed packet processing, a vertical packet processing structure processed by one application may be horizontally divided to increase the processing speed and reduce the delay time, and the multiple containers may simultaneously process packets in parallel by separating the entire application into a plurality of containers of a single functional unit to increase throughput and reduce delay time.
In accordance with an aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a simultaneous packet processing system through multiple containers, including a controller container configured to generate metadata including reference information on an input packet, generate a bucket, and store a plurality of pieces of metadata in the bucket; a shared memory in which the bucket is generated; and a plurality of worker containers configured to include each of modules constituting an application, wherein each of the plurality of worker containers processes the packet by referring to the metadata in the bucket.
In the simultaneous packet processing system through multiple containers according to an embodiment of the disclosure, the metadata may include a packet processing status bitmap indicating whether the corresponding worker container processes the packet, each bit of the packet processing status bitmap may indicate a packet processing completion status or a packet non-processing status of the corresponding worker container, the worker container having processed the packet may set the corresponding bit of the corresponding packet processing status bitmap to a packet processing completion status, and the worker container having processed the packet may set, when a specific worker container does not need to process the packet, a bit corresponding to the specific worker container from the packet processing status bitmap for the corresponding packet to the packet processing completion status.
In addition, in the simultaneous packet processing system through multiple containers according to an embodiment of the disclosure, each of the plurality of worker containers may include a unique identification number (WID) of the worker container; and a prerequisite worker container bitmask (PID) indicating that the corresponding worker container can process the packet after the corresponding packet is processed by the specific worker container.
In addition, in the simultaneous packet processing system through multiple containers according to an embodiment of the disclosure, each of the worker containers may simultaneously access the shared memory to refer to the bucket, and confirm the packet to be processed by comparing the prerequisite worker container bitmask (PID) of each worker container with the packet processing status bitmap in the metadata of the bucket.
In addition, in the simultaneous packet processing system through multiple containers according to an embodiment of the disclosure, a packet processing completion bitmap indicating whether each packet referred to by the metadata included in the bucket is completely processed may be added to each bucket, each bit of the packet processing completion bitmap may indicate whether the packet referred to by the metadata included in the corresponding bucket is completely processed by all the worker containers, and the worker container that has confirmed that all bits of the packet processing status bitmap are set to the packet processing completion status may set the corresponding bit of the packet processing completion bitmap to the packet processing completion status.
In addition, in the simultaneous packet processing system through multiple containers according to an embodiment of the disclosure, when all bits of the packet processing completion bitmap of the bucket are set to the packet processing completion state, the controller container may empty or delete the bucket, and the controller container may output or discard packets referred to by the metadata in the bucket according to a packet processing policy by referring to the metadata of the corresponding bucket in order to empty the corresponding bucket.
In addition, in the simultaneous packet processing system through multiple containers according to an embodiment of the disclosure, the metadata may further include a packet pointer configured to indicate a location of a packet stored in a storage space of a network interface card through which packets are input/output; and user data including information shared with other containers during packet processing, including additional processing results for the packet.
In addition, in the simultaneous packet processing system through multiple containers according to an embodiment of the disclosure, when the number of buckets to store the generated metadata is insufficient, the controller container may generate a new bucket for storing the generated metadata in the shared memory.
In accordance with another aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a simultaneous packet processing method through multiple containers including (A) by a controller container, generating metadata including reference information on an input packet; (B) by the controller container, generating a bucket in a shared memory and storing a plurality of pieces of metadata in the bucket; and (C) by each of a plurality of worker containers including each of modules constituting an application, processing the packet by referring to the metadata in the bucket.
In the simultaneous packet processing method through multiple containers according to an embodiment of the disclosure, the metadata may include a packet processing status bitmap indicating whether the corresponding worker container processes the packet, each bit of the packet processing status bitmap may indicate a packet processing completion status or a packet non-processing status of the corresponding worker container, the worker container having processed the packet may set the corresponding bit of the corresponding packet processing status bitmap to the packet processing completion status, and the worker container having processed the packet may set, when a specific worker container does not need to process the packet, a bit corresponding to the specific worker container from the packet processing status bitmap for the corresponding packet to the packet processing completion status.
In addition, in the simultaneous packet processing method through multiple containers according to an embodiment of the disclosure, each of the plurality of worker containers may include a unique identification number (WID) of the worker container; and a prerequisite worker container bitmask (PID) indicating that the corresponding worker container can process the packet after the corresponding packet is processed by the specific worker container.
In addition, in the simultaneous packet processing method through multiple containers according to an embodiment of the disclosure, each of the worker containers may simultaneously access the shared memory to refer to the bucket, and confirm the packet to be processed by comparing the prerequisite worker container bitmask (PID) of each worker container with the packet processing status bitmap in the metadata of the bucket.
In addition, in the simultaneous packet processing method through multiple containers according to an embodiment of the disclosure, a packet processing completion bitmap indicating whether each packet referred to by the metadata included in the bucket is completely processed may be added to each bucket, each bit of the packet processing completion bitmap may indicate whether the packet referred to by the metadata included in the corresponding bucket is completely processed by all the worker containers, and the worker container that has confirmed that all bits of the packet processing status bitmap are set to the packet processing completion status may set the corresponding bit of the packet processing completion bitmap to the packet processing completion status.
In addition, in the simultaneous packet processing method through multiple containers according to an embodiment of the disclosure, when all bits of the packet processing completion bitmap of the bucket are set to the packet processing completion state, the controller container may empty or delete the bucket, and the controller container may output or discard packets referred to by the metadata in the bucket according to a packet processing policy by referring to the metadata of the corresponding bucket in order to empty the corresponding bucket.
In addition, in the simultaneous packet processing method through multiple containers according to an embodiment of the disclosure, the metadata may further include a packet pointer configured to indicate a location of a packet stored in a storage space of a network interface card through which packets are input/output; and user data including information shared with other containers during packet processing, including additional processing results for the packet.
In addition, in the simultaneous packet processing method through multiple containers according to an embodiment of the disclosure, when the number of buckets to store the generated metadata is insufficient, the controller container may generate a new bucket for storing the generated metadata in the shared memory.
According to the simultaneous packet processing system and method through multiple containers according to an embodiment of the disclosure, the entire application may be separated into multiple containers in a single functional unit, a set of series of packets may be simultaneously transmitted to a plurality of containers in a zero-copy technique, and each container may simultaneously process packets received in parallel based on metadata including information referring to each packet included in a shared memory, thereby increasing the processing speed and throughput to reduce delay time.
The above and other aspects, features and advantages of the disclosure will be more apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
The objects, specific advantages, and novel features of the disclosure will become more apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and preferred embodiments.
The terms and words which are used in the present specification and the appended claims should not be construed as being confined to common meanings or dictionary meanings but be construed as meanings and concepts matching with the technical spirit of the disclosure based on the principle that an inventor can properly define the concept of a term to describe his/her invention in the best fashion.
In the specification, in adding reference numerals to components throughout the drawings, it is to be noted that like reference numerals designate like components even though components are shown in different drawings.
In addition, the terms “first”, “second”, “one surface”, “the other surface” and so on are used to distinguish one element from another element, and the elements are not defined by the above terms.
In describing the disclosure, a detailed description of related known functions or configurations will be omitted so as not to obscure the gist of the disclosure.
Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
In a simultaneous packet processing system and method through multiple containers according to an embodiment of the disclosure, packet reference information may be simultaneously transmitted to a plurality of containers in a zero-copy technique for a set of series of packets, and each container may process the packets by referring to the packet reference information received in parallel.
In addition, in the simultaneous packet processing system and method through multiple containers according to an embodiment of the disclosure, each container may confirm a target to be processed through metadata including information referring to a packet that each container can process.
In addition, in the simultaneous packet processing system and method through multiple containers according to an embodiment of the disclosure, by separating one application into a plurality of containers for high-speed packet processing, a plurality of containers may simultaneously process packets in parallel, thereby increasing the throughput and reducing the delay time.
In addition, in the simultaneous packet processing system and method through multiple containers according to an embodiment of the disclosure, rather than a structure that sequentially processes packets in one application, each module constituting the application may be configured as a container, and a bucket including a plurality of pieces of metadata including reference information indicating each packet may be transmitted to each container through a shared memory, thereby processing the packets using a distribution technique.
In addition, in the simultaneous packet processing system and method through multiple containers according to an embodiment of the disclosure, during packet processing using a distribution technique, the processing priorities of the packets may be determined to process the packets.
In addition, the simultaneous packet processing system through multiple containers according to an embodiment of the disclosure may include a plurality of worker containers configured to perform metadata processing, transmission/reception packet bucket processing, and function-specific packet processing, a controller container configured to perform worker container control, and a shared memory.
In an embodiment of the disclosure, a container refers to isolation technologies such as Linux processes or networks, metadata may be used for managing a packet pointer that refers to or indicates packets to manage the packets based on a shared memory, and additional information, and a bucket may be used for storing a plurality of pieces of metadata and managing the metadata in units of bundles.
A simultaneous packet processing system through multiple containers according to an embodiment of the disclosure shown in
Each of the plurality of worker containers 106_1 to 106_4 may process the packet 101 by referring to the metadata 108_1 to 108_10.
In
In an embodiment of the disclosure, it is assumed that one bucket 112_1 stores 10 pieces of metadata. However, the embodiment of the disclosure is not limited thereto, and one bucket 112_1 may store a smaller or larger number of meta data.
In
In the simultaneous packet processing system through multiple containers according to an embodiment of the disclosure, by dividing metadata including information referring to a large number of packets in units of buckets, the metadata may be simultaneously processed in a container-based process horizontally divided for each function, thereby increasing the processing performance for all the packets and reducing the packet delay time.
The controller container 102 may generate metadata 108_1 to 108_10 including packet reference information 110 with respect to each of the packets 101 that are input and stored in the MC 100 or a network device so that all the worker containers 106_1 to 106_4 can simultaneously have a read-access to the corresponding packets, and store and manage the generated metadata 108_1 to 108_10 in the buckets 112_1 to 112_N generated in the shared memory 104.
All the worker containers 106_1 to 106_4 may confirm target packets through the metadata 108_1 to 108_10 and store packet processing results in the corresponding metadata 108_1 to 108_10.
In the simultaneous packet processing system through multiple containers according to an embodiment of the disclosure, metadata, bucket information, and worker container information may be generated.
The metadata 108_1 may include a packet pointer 110, which is packet reference information indicating the location of the packet 101 which is input and stored in the MC 100, user data including information shared with other containers during packet processing, including additional processing results for the packet 101, and a packet processing status bitmap indicating whether the corresponding worker container has processed the packet.
Referring to
The bucket information may include a packet processing completion bitmap indicating whether processing of the packet indicated by each metadata included in the bucket has been completed, and a bucket size.
Referring to
Meanwhile, when it is confirmed that all the bits 302_1 to 302_4 of the packet processing status bitmap 300 are set to 1 after the worker container completes packet processing and set the corresponding bit of the packet processing status bitmap 300 of
For example, as shown in
That is, the status of the packet processing completion bitmap 400 shown in
The worker container information may include a unique identification number (WID) of the worker container, and a prerequisite worker container bitmask (PID) indicating that the corresponding worker container can process the packet after the corresponding packet is processed by a specific worker container.
Referring again to
The controller container 102 may generate the plurality of buckets 112_1 to 112_N in the shared memory 104.
The metadata 108_1 may be managed as a bundle of metadata called a bucket. The controller container 102 may manage the metadata in units of buckets.
When the buckets are needed up to a certain number, the bucket may be maintained at a certain size by additionally generating the buckets or dropping the metadata including information referring to the packet. The generation and deletion of the buckets may be performed by the controller container 102, and as an example, as shown in
When the processing of all the packets indicated by all metadata in the bucket has been completed, the controller container 102 may output or discard the corresponding packets according to a packet processing policy (accept or drop) by referring to the metadata in the bucket, and then empty the metadata in the bucket.
In this manner, when it is confirmed that the processing of the packet indicated by all metadata 108_1 to 108_10 in the bucket 112_1 has been completed, by referring to the packet processing completion bitmap 114_1 or 400 of the first bucket 112_1 that is the first bucket, the controller container 102 may output or discard the packet according to the packet processing policy.
The controller container 102 may provide, to each worker container 106_1 to 106_4, a worker container unique identification number (WID) at the time of initial execution and a prerequisite worker container bitmask (PID) indicating that the corresponding worker container can process the packet after the corresponding packet has been processed by a specific worker container.
There is one or more worker containers, and all the worker containers 106_1 to 106_4 may confirm whether they can process the packet by referring to the metadata in the first bucket 112_1, and process the packet when the packet is a target packet and then record the packet processing results in the metadata 108.
In an embodiment of the disclosure, for example, it is exemplarily assumed that four worker containers 106_1 to 106_4 exist, but the disclosure is not limited thereto, and fewer or more worker containers may exist.
Referring to
Each of the first to fourth worker containers 106_1 to 106_4 may include a third bucket processing unit 208, a packet processing unit 210, and a second metadata processing unit 212.
The first metadata processor 202 in the controller container 102 may generate the metadata 108_1 for managing reference and additional information on the input packet 101.
The metadata 108_1 may include a packet processing status bitmap 300 as shown in
For example, the first worker container 106_1 may correspond to a first bit 302_1, the second worker container 106_2 may correspond to a second bit 302_2, the third worker container 106_3 may correspond to a third bit 302_3, and the fourth worker container 106_4 may correspond to a fourth bit 302_4.
Meanwhile, the second metadata processing unit 212 in each worker container 106_1 to 106_4 may reflect the packet processing result to the metadata 108_1, and change user data or the packet processing status bitmap 300 so that the packet can be processed in another worker container. The user data may include information shared with other containers during packet processing, including additional processing results.
For example, the second metadata processing unit 212 may set the corresponding bit of the packet processing status bitmap 300 to 1 when packet processing is completed or needed.
For example, as shown in
The first bucket processing unit 204 in the controller container 102 may store the generated metadata 108_1 in the bucket 112_1 generated in the shared memory 104. When there is no free space in the bucket, the first bucket processing unit 204 may generate a new bucket in the shared memory 104 and then store the metadata 108_1 in the newly generated bucket.
The third bucket processing unit 208 present in each of the worker containers 106_1 to 106_4 may sequentially access the first metadata 108_1 present in the first bucket 112_1 of the shared memory 104 to confirm whether the packet indicated by the first metadata 108_1 is a packet to be processed of the corresponding container, and transmit the packet to the packet processing unit 210 when the packet is the packet to be processed.
The second bucket processing unit 206 in the controller container 102 may confirm whether processing of all the packets indicated by all metadata 108_1 to 108_10 of the first bucket 112_1 has been completed, and empty and delete the bucket 112_1 when the processing of all the packets has been completed.
As shown in
For example, when a total of 10 pieces of metadata 108_1 to 108_10 exist in one bucket 112_1, as shown in
For example, the first bit 402_1 may correspond to a packet indicated by the first metadata 108_1 in the bucket 112_1, and the tenth bit 402_10 may correspond to a packet indicated by the tenth metadata 108_10 in the bucket 112_1.
Accordingly, as shown in
On the other hand, when the packet pointers included in the metadata 108_1 to 108_10 in the bucket 112_1 are transmitted to the packet pointer input/output unit 200 while the bucket 112_1 is emptied, or when the packet is required to be deleted, the second bucket processing unit 206 in the controller container 102 may delete the corresponding packets based on the packet pointers included in the metadata 108_1 to 108_10 in the bucket 112_1.
Referring to
In operation S502, the controller container 102 may generate a bucket 112_1 in the shared memory 104 and store a plurality of metadata 108_1 to 108_10 indicating a plurality of packets in the bucket 112_1.
Each of first to fourth worker containers 106_1 to 106_4 including each of modules constituting an application may process the packet 101 by referring to the metadata 108_1 to 108_10 in the bucket 112_1.
Referring to
The metadata 108_1 generated by the controller container 102 may include the packet pointer 110 for the packet 101, user data, and a packet processing status bitmap (300 in
Additional processing results for the packet 101 may be stored in the user data and can be referred to in other containers. At this time, the user data has separated data areas, so that the user data is not processed redundantly even if all containers process the user data simultaneously.
The packet processing status bitmap 300 in
In an embodiment of the disclosure, since four worker containers 106_1 to 106_4 exist, the packet processing status bitmap 300 has a size of 4 bits, as shown in
Each bit of the packet processing status bitmap 300 may correspond to each of the first to fourth worker containers 106_1 to 106_4.
For example, the first worker container 106_1 may correspond to the first bit 302_1, the second worker container 106_2 may correspond to the second bit 302_2, the third worker container 106_3 may correspond to the third bit 302_3, and the fourth worker container 106_4 may correspond to the fourth bit 302_4.
Each bit 302_1 to 302_4 of the packet processing status bitmap 300 may indicate a packet processing completion status or a packet non-processing status of the corresponding worker container. In an embodiment of the disclosure, the packet processing completion status may be set to 1, and the packet non-processed status may be set to 0.
The worker container having processed the packet may set the corresponding bit of the packet processing status bitmap 300 to the packet processing completion status in the future, and set, when there is a worker container that does not need to process the packet according to the characteristics of the packet, bits corresponding to the worker container that does not need to process the packet among the bits 302_1 to 302_4 of the processing status bitmap 300 to the packet processing completion status.
In operation S604, the controller container 102 may determine whether an available bucket exists, and generate the bucket 112_1 in operation S606 when there is no available bucket.
When there is the available bucket, in operation S608, the controller container 102 may store the metadata 108_1 in the bucket 112_1. In the above, the bucket 112_1 is a storage space allocated to the shared memory 104 and may store a plurality of metadata 108_1 to 108_10. That is, the bucket 112_1 is for managing metadata in units of bundles.
In operation S610, the controller container 102 may examine a bucket whose processing has been completed.
In this operation, the controller container 102 may identify the packet processing completion bitmap 114_1 to 114_N or 400 indicating whether processing of each packet indicated by each packet pointer of the metadata 108_1 to 108_10 included in the bucket 112_1 has been completed, thereby examining the bucket in which packet processing has been completed.
In operation S612, the controller container 102 may determine whether the bucket is a bucket to be removed.
Since each bit of the packet processing completion bitmap 400 indicates whether processing of the packet corresponding to the packet pointer of the metadata in the corresponding bucket has been completed, the controller container 102, as shown in
For example, as shown in
Referring to
In operation S702, each of the worker containers 106_1 to 106_4 may compare a packet processing status bitmap (e.g., 300 of
In operation S704, each of the worker containers 106_1 to 106_4 may process the corresponding packet when the corresponding packet is a packet in a condition that each of the worker containers 106_1 to 106_4 can process.
Referring to
Since the HD of the current first worker container 106_1 is the same as the packet processing status bitmap (e.g., 300 of
On the other hand, since the PIDs of the second to fourth worker containers 106_2 to 106_4 are not the same as the packet processing status bitmap (e.g., 300 of
In operation S706, information to be shared with other containers during packet processing may be recorded in the user data's own area, and when the first worker container 106_1 completes the processing of the corresponding packet, the first worker container 106_1 may set a bit 302-1 corresponding to itself in the packet processing status bitmap 300 existing in the metadata 108_1 as shown in
Therefore, when the packet processing status bitmap 300 is modified as shown in
In operation S708, when unnecessary worker containers are selected in advance due to packet characteristics, corresponding bits of the packet processing status bitmap 300 may be all set to 1.
For example, when a packet blocking flag is set to “1” and the corresponding packet is to be blocked without being processed by the fourth worker container 106_4, the bit 302_4 corresponding to the fourth worker container 106_4 among the bits 302_1 to 302_4 of the packet processing status bitmap 300 may be set to “1”.
In operation S710, the worker containers 106_1 to 106_4 may identify the packet processing status bitmap 300 to determine whether packet processing has been completed.
As shown in
For example, when the worker container that has confirmed that all the packet processing status bitmaps 300 are set to 1 is the fourth worker container 106_4, as shown in
When the above process is repeated and all the packets indicated by the packet pointers of all metadata 108_1 to 108_10 in the first bucket 112_1 have been completely processed, the packet processing completion bitmap 400 may be set as shown in
Thereafter, the above process is repeated for the second bucket 112_2, which is the next bucket, so that the packets indicated by the packet pointers of the metadata in the second bucket 112_2 may be processed by the first to fourth worker containers 106_1 to 106_4.
As described above, according to the simultaneous packet processing system and method through multiple containers according to an embodiment of the disclosure, the plurality of worker containers may share buckets that store metadata indicating packets through a shared memory to distribute and process the packets simultaneously, and the plurality of containers may simultaneously process the packets in parallel to increase the throughput and significantly reduce the delay time.
Although the present disclosure has been described in detail through specific examples, it is intended to describe the present disclosure in detail, and the present invention is not limited thereto, and by those of ordinary skill in the art within the technical spirit of the present disclosure, it will be clear that the transformation or improvement is possible.
All simple modifications or changes of the present disclosure fall within the scope of the present disclosure, and the specific scope of protection of the present disclosure will be made clear by the appended claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2022-0070988 | Jun 2022 | KR | national |
