VMware, Inc.
Zero-copy packet transmission between virtualized computing instances

Abstract:

Example methods are provided for a host to perform zero-copy packet transmission. On example method may comprise allocating a transmit (TX) packet buffer to a first virtualized computing instance and a receive (RX) packet buffer to a second virtualized computing instance, wherein the TX packet buffer and the RX packet buffer are both mapped to a shared memory location associated with the host. The method may also comprise: accessing, by the first virtualized computing instance, the TX packet buffer to store a packet in the shared memory location; processing, by the forwarding element, the packet in the shared memory location; and accessing, by the second virtualized computing instance, the RX packet buffer to receive the packet stored in the shared memory location.