Microsoft Corporation
Network flow state management for connectionless protocol(s)

Abstract:

Described herein is a system and method for managing network flow state for ongoing flows (connectionless protocol flows and connection-based protocol flows) between client device(s) and a virtual machine using a flow collection data structure (e.g. hash table) having a predefined maximum quantity of ongoing flows that can be managed. When it is determined that the flow collection data structure is managing greater than an acceptable threshold of connectionless protocol flows, at a dynamically adjustable frequency, flow state for more connectionless protocol flow(s) having an unexpired time-to-live are expired. The frequency can be adjusted based upon a rate at which new flows are being created and/or a rate at which flows are being deleted. Also described herein is a system and method in which, at a particular frequency, only a portion of the flows in the flow collection data structure are evaluated in order to minimize impact on packet processing.