[Xen-devel] [PATCH 0/4] Support accelerated network plugin modules

[Kieran Mansley <kmansley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This series of patches adds support to netfront and netback to allow
accelerated drivers to plug in and support a fast path for network
traffic.  This is designed to allow use of virtualisable "smart" NICs
directly from domU, with help/control from dom0.  Experiments with
Solarflare hardware have shown a doubling in network performance when
using this approach on 10Gbps networks, compared to the traditional
network path through netfront/netback.  i.e. Performance from domU
approaches that normally seen in dom0.

The patches are as follows:

1/4:  Add xenbus_for_each_[back,front]end functions to iterate each bus
 - this is just a pair of simple helper functions to allow each item on
the backend/frontend bus to be iterated.

2/4:  Add accel option to vif xend config
 - this allows users to specify which vif interfaces should be
accelerated, and which plugin module should be used.

3/4:  Frontend net driver acceleration
 - this provides hooks in the netfront driver to allow a plugin module
to attach and be called at appropriate points.

4/4:  Backend net driver acceleration
 - this provides hooks in the netback driver to allow a plugin module to
attach and be called at appropriate points.  


Kieran


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