VMware, Inc.
Multi-pipe bandwidth control in hosted systems

Abstract:

Techniques are described that allow each host in a multi-host system to throttle its bandwidth between multiple data nodes without the need to coordinate with the other hosts. Specifically, techniques are described in which a limit is applied to the amount of sent-but-not-acknowledged data a given host may have. If the host has reached the limit, the host must wait for acknowledgements before sending more data. In one embodiment, the limit is enforced using a token-based bandwidth control. Embodiments are described in which the limit on sent-but-not-acknowledged data varies dynamically based on system conditions. Specifically, each host may monitor its aggregate latency, and increase the limit when latency is low (indicating low-congestion conditions), and decrease the limit when latency is high (indicating high-congestion conditions).