Cisco Systems, Inc.
Traffic management for smart network interface cards

Abstract:

Systems, methods, and computer-readable for load distribution amongst smart network interface cards (sNICs) connected to a host device include a controller. The controller can instantiate an agent in the host device to obtain telemetry information pertaining to the sNICs, where the sNICs can be used for communication between the host device and upstream devices in a software-defined network. The telemetry information indicates service offloading capabilities of the sNICs. The controller can also obtain network topology information pertaining to at least the host device, the sNICs and the upstream devices, and determine load distribution policies for the sNICs based on the network topology information and the telemetry information. The controller can provide the load distribution policies to the one or more upstream devices, where the load distribution policies take into account the service offload capabilities of the sNICs.