In-Network Memory Access: Bridging SmartNIC and Host Memory

Abstract: SmartNICs have been increasingly utilized across various applications to offload specific computational tasks, thereby enhancing overall system performance. However, this offloading process introduces several communication challenges that must be addressed for effective integration. A key challenge lies in establishing efficient communication between the offloaded components and the main application running on the host. In this study, we evaluate different approaches for achieving memory access between the host and SmartNIC. We analyze memory access performance on both the SmartNIC and the host to support in-network applications and guide the selection of an appropriate memory access design.