Extending the Control Plane of Container Orchestrators for I/O Virtualization

TL;DR

This paper introduces ConRDMA, a novel architecture that extends container orchestrators' control over SR-IOV and RDMA virtualization, improving bandwidth management and node selection for containerized applications.

Contribution

It proposes a new system design that enhances SR-IOV and RDMA virtualization control within container orchestrators, addressing configurability and performance isolation.

Findings

ConRDMA improves bandwidth efficiency for containers.

It enables better node selection based on communication needs.

The system demonstrates enhanced control over RDMA virtualization.

Abstract

Single Root Input/Output Virtualization (SR-IOV) is a standard technology for forking a single PCI express device and providing it to applications while ensuring performance isolation. It enables container orchestrators to share a limited number of physical network interfaces without incurring significant virtualization overhead. The allocation of virtualized network devices to containers, however, needs to be more configurable based on the bandwidth needs of running applications. Moreover, container orchestrators' network control over the virtualized interfaces is limited by the abilities of SR-IOV. We explore the design considerations for a system with controlled SR-IOV virtualization and present ConRDMA, a novel architecture that enables fine control of RDMA virtualization for containers. Our evaluation shows that ConRDMA enables containers to use RDMA allocated bandwidth more efficiently and to select best-suited nodes to meet their varying communication requirements.