LinuxCon + CloudOpen + ContainerCon NA 2015

As network speeds continue to increase from 10Gbit/s, to 40Gbit/s, and very soon to 100Gbit/s the rate at which packets can arrive increases, and as a result the amount of of time to process packets decreases to as little as 6.7ns per packet at 100Gbit/s.

This talk explains the challenges the kernel network stack is facing, and describe some strategies and mitigation techniques to handle these increasing network speeds.

Recent improvement to the TX layer will be explained, but it cannot standalone. Further improvements to the RX layer and qdisc layer are still needed.

The memory subsystem is also pressured to its limits, and plumbering and cooperation between networking and MM (Memory Management) kernel developers are needed.