Network Stacks for Storage Developers - A Survey of Performance Optimization Techniques

Explore advanced network programming techniques in this 48-minute conference talk from SNIA SDC 2022, where Intel Technical Lead and Core Maintainer Benjamin Walker delves deep into optimizing storage network server implementations. Learn essential best practices for network stack development across Linux, FreeBSD, and Windows platforms, with particular emphasis on protocols similar to NVMe-oF and iSCSI. Master socket grouping strategies, understand POSIX system calls, and gain expertise in epoll, kqueue, and io_uring APIs. Discover cutting-edge Linux features including zero-copy transmit support and application device queues, while exploring extensive io_uring capabilities such as FIXED_FILES, FIXED_BUFFERS, SENDRECV_POLL_FIRST, PROVIDE_BUFFERS, and MSG_WAITALL. Get insights into experimental features like DMA-offload for receive operations and eBPF-based protocol parsing, drawing from a decade of practical implementation experience applicable to various storage-related protocols.