Of Mice and Elephants
[This post has been written by Martin Casado and Justin Pettit with hugely useful input from Bruce Davie, Teemu Koponen, Brad Hedlund, Scott Lowe, and T. Sridhar]
Overview
This post introduces the topic of network optimization via large flow (elephant) detection and handling. We decompose the problem into three parts, (i) why large (elephant) flows are an important consideration, (ii) smart things we can do with them in the network, and (iii) detecting elephant flows and signaling their presence. For (i), we explain the basis of elephant and mice and why this matters for traffic optimization. For (ii) we present a number of approaches for handling the elephant flows in the physical fabric, several of which we’re working on with hardware partners. These include using separate queues for elephants and mice (small flows), using a dedicated network for elephants such as an optical fast path, doing intelligent routing for elephants within the physical network, and turning elephants into mice at the edge. For (iii), we show that elephant detection can be done relatively easily in the vSwitch. In fact, Open vSwitch has supported per-flow tracking for years. We describe how it’s easy to identify elephant flows at the vSwitch and Continue reading
