Max-min resource allocation in a network processor

Abstract

Routers process packets and forward them to appropriate output ports. There are two resources that packets contest to acquire within a router; processing resource and bandwidth resource. Processing resource includes parsing the contents of a packet/header and do classification, lookup, checksum etc. Bandwidth resource indicates output bandwidth of a router. These two contested resources make up the two-dimensional resource allocation problem, which our MAX-MIN flow control algorithm addresses. We propose an intelligent explicit rate (ER) allocation algorithm based on the control-theoretic ER allocation algorithm. In the router model with two distinct resource constraints, at a given time, either one or both resources can be scarce. Depending on the scenario, our MAX-MIN flow control algorithm intelligently allocates resources using different adaptive operations for each steady state. The algorithm maintains per-flow state making it simple and scalable. At steady state, input flow rates and queue lengths asymptotically converge to a unique and fair equilibrium point. The fairness and intelligent adaptation is verified through simulation in the Intel IXP1200 Software Development Environment.