1. gRPC stack supporting Intel
Resource Director
technology (RDT)
Anthony Chow
Sept 18, 2017

2. Project Description
• Network Func-ons Virtualiza-on ( NFV ) and Service
Func-on Chaining ( SFC ) have moved from idea to POC to
implementaBon stage . The challenge sBll remains to get bare
metal performance from virtual machines .
• Resource Director Technology (RDT) from Intel is designed to
bring in QoS to the virtual machine resources.
• gRPC from Google is a framework which could be used to
design priority based services .
• This project integrates these technologies and creates a
framework for more reliable and efficient services via gRPC
enhanced with RDT.

3. gRPC
• gRPC can be summarized as protocol buffers running over
HTTP/2 with mulBple programming language support.

4. Protocol Buffer
• Protocol buffer is one form of Interface DefiniBon Language
for structured data serializaBon and de-serializaBon between
two parBes and are transmiYed over a network in binary
forms.

5. HTTP/2
• Hypertext Transfer Protocol Version 2 (HTTP/2) is defined by
RFC 7540 aimed at providing beYer performance for HTTP
traffics with bi-direcBonal streaming and flow control on a
single TCP connecBon.

6. Multi-language Support
• gRPC has a command line compiler to generate stubs and
code in different languages that can be used for the gRPC
client and server. This feature facilitates the gRPC code to be
up and running rapidly.

7. gRPC Message types
• Unary
• Client Streaming
• Server Streaming
• Bi-direcBonal Streaming

8. gRPC WorkFlow

9. Resource Director Technology
• Provides hardware framework for monitoring and control
• Consist of:
Ø Cache Monitoring Technology (CMT)
Ø Cache AllocaBon Technology (CAT)
Ø Memory Bandwidth Monitoring (MBM)
Ø Code and Data PrioriBzaBon (CDP)
• Integrated in the Linux Kernel 4.10 (MBA for 4.12).
• hYps://github.com/01org/intel-cmt-cat

10. Source: Intel

11. Source: Intel

12. Source: Intel

13. Integrate gRPC with RDT
• ApplicaBon, Virtual Machine or Container is the gRPC client
• gRPC server is a process/task running on OS of the host or
hypervisor to interact with RDT.