MANAGING PROCESSING QUEUE ALLOCATION USING SEQUENCE NUMBER BITS OF AN IPSEC PACKET

1 . A method comprising:

in a first gateway, receiving a packet from a second gateway;

in the first gateway, identifying a value of a subset of bits in a sequence number portion of the packet;

in the first gateway, selecting a queue from a plurality of queues at the first gateway to process the packet based on the value of the subset of bits.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the packet comprises an internet protocol security (IPsec) packet.

3 . The method of claim 1 further comprising:

in the second gateway, determining a hash value based at least on a hash of tuple information from a second packet encapsulated in the packet;

in the second gateway, setting the subset of bits of the sequence number portion of the packet to the hash value; and

in the second gateway, communicating the packet to the first gateway.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the tuple information comprises a source IP address, a destination IP address, a source port, and a destination port.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the tuple information further comprises a protocol.

6 . The method of claim 1 further comprising:

exchanging, between the first and second gateway, an indication of receive side scaling functionality.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the indication further indicates a quantity of queues at the first gateway.

8 . The method of claim 7 further comprising:

in the second gateway, determining the value of the subset of bits based at least on a hash of tuple information from a second packet encapsulated in the packet and the quantity of queues at the first gateway;

in the second gateway, setting the subset of bits of the sequence number portion of the packet to the value; and

in the second gateway, communicating the packet to the first gateway.

9 . The method of claim 1 further comprising:

in the first gateway, receiving a second packet from the second gateway;

in the first gateway, identifying a second value of a second subset of bits in a sequence number portion of the second packet; and

in the first gateway, selecting a second queue from the plurality of queues on the first gateway based on the second value of the second subset of bits.

10 . A system comprising:

a first gateway; and

a second gateway configured to:

receive a packet from the first gateway;

identify a value of a subset of bits in a sequence number portion of the packet;

select a queue from a plurality of queues at the first gateway to process the packet based on the value of the subset of bits.

11 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the packet comprises an internet protocol security (IPsec) packet.

12 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the first gateway is further configured to:

determine a hash value based at least on a hash of tuple information from a second packet encapsulated in the packet;

set the subset of bits of the sequence number portion of the packet to the hash value; and

communicate the packet to the second gateway.

13 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the tuple information comprises a source IP address, a destination IP address, a source port, and a destination port.

14 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the tuple information further comprises a protocol.

15 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the second gateway is further configured to:

communicate an indication of receive side scaling functionality to the first gateway.

16 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the indication further indicates a quantity of queues at the second gateway.

17 . The system of claim 16 , wherein the second gateway is further configured to:

determine the value of the subset of bits based at least on a hash of tuple information from a second packet encapsulated in the packet and the quantity of queues at the first gateway;

set the subset of bits of the sequence number portion of the packet to the value; and

communicate the packet to the first gateway.

18 . A computing apparatus comprising:

a storage system;

a processing system operatively coupled to the storage system; and

program instructions stored on the storage system to operate a gateway that, when executed by the processing system, direct the computing apparatus to:

receive a packet from a computing node;

hash tuple information from the packet to generate a value corresponding to a queue identifier;

add the value as a subset of bits in a sequence number portion of a second packet that encapsulates the packet; and

communicate the second packet to a second gateway.

19 . The computing apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the tuple information comprises a source IP address, a destination IP address, a source port, a destination port, and a protocol.

20 . The computing apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the program instructions further direct the computing apparatus to receive an indication of a quantity of queues available at the second gateway, and wherein the value comprise an integer value less than the quantity of queues.