Dynamic workload profiling and task allocation in packet processing systems

Abstract—Computer networks require increasingly complex packet processing services on routers to adapt to new functional-ity, security, and performance requirements. Embedded multicore packet processing systems that can provide this capability are difficult to program and manage at runtime. We propose a novel way of representing processing tasks, obtaining runtime profiling information, and mapping tasks to processors. By duplicating processing tasks with heavy processing requirements, a more balanced workload can be obtained. The mapping algorithm con-siders that balance when assigning tasks to processors as well as the cost of inter-processor communication. Our evaluation results show that our approach can improve the system throughput by 2.39–2.89 times at a cost of 1.49–1.64 times higher inter-processor communication. Index Terms—High-performance router, packet processing, network processor, scheduling I