Multi-host bandwidth management considering external and internal traffic

Abstract

Instead of using a bandwidth limiter for bandwidth allocation in an SSD, a dummy virtual function (VF) is used to transfer internal operations. A centralized logic such as the bandwidth limiter is incorporated in the device controller. This logic is responsible for controlling the bandwidth between the hosts. The logic is not just responsible for data transfers triggered by the hosts, but also for data transfers triggered by the device in internal operations such as garbage collection. In order to control the traffic trigged by internal operations, a dummy VF is created along with dummy submission queues. The internal operations are queued in the dummy submission queues, while the bandwidth limiter is responsible for the performance rate. Using this approach, bandwidth allocation is balanced between the hosts and SSD.