Patent attributes
Techniques are disclosed for utilizing control packets to manage flows by a smart network interface card (smartNIC). In one example, an accelerator determines that a cache entry is a candidate for removal, the cache entry being part of a cache that is managed by the accelerator, the cache entry storing flow state of a particular flow, the accelerator being responsible for forwarding packets associated with the particular flow based at least in part on the flow state, and the flow information formatted utilizing a particular header format. The accelerator generates an instruction to remove the cache entry of the particular flow from the cache based at least in part on receiving the determination that the cache entry is the candidate for removal. The accelerator removes the cache entry of the particular flow from the cache based at least in part on the instruction.
