#NIC SUPPORTS NETMAP SOFTWARE#
Software switches are widely employed to route traffic between VNFs and physical Network Interface Cards (NICs). With the ultimate goal of replacing proprietary hardware appliances with Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) implemented in software, Network Function Virtualization (NFV) has gained popularity in the past few years. ptnet is available under a BSD license as part of the netmap distributions on github. We prove the effectiveness of our approach by comparing ptnet's performance with one of the state of the art I/O virtualization solutions, namely VirtIO on Linux and QEMU/KVM. ptnet leverages the features of the netmap framework (including virtualization and passthrough support), and defines a simple yet performant network device model that can be easily supported in different operating systems and hypervisors. In this paper we present ptnet, an approach to network I/O virtualization that provides high performance for both traditional TCP/IP and high packet rate applications. To date, we are still missing a comprehensive solution that supports such extreme workloads across multiple operating systems and hypervisors, while at the same time addressing other requirements such as ease of configuration, operating system independence, scalability and isolation.
In response, researchers have explored and proposed new solutions for high performance VM networking, including optimizations to virtual network adapters (such as VirtIO) to support high speed bulk traffic, and alternative frameworks for userspace networking and physical or virtual passthrough. The rising interest in Network Function Virtualization (NFV) requires Virtual Machines (VMs) to operate with diversified networking workloads, from traditional, bulk TCP transfers to novel ones featuring extremely high packet rates.
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