High-Quality Sound Device Virtualization in Xen Para-Virtualized Environment

Abstract

I/O virtualization plays an important role in client virtualization, and audio performance directly impacts user experience. Solutions for I/O virtualization includes full device emulation, split driver model and direct I/O. Full device emulation supports sound device virtualization but suffers in heavy load environment. Split driver model has better performance but does not support sound devices. Direct I/O has the best I/O performance which is close to native, but it sacrifices fault isolation and device transparency. In order to improve user audio experience in virtual machine, a method is proposed to implement high-quality sound device virtualization based on split driver model. Built on top of Xen, the frontend and backend drivers of sound device are both provided. The test results show that sound device virtualization based on split driver model enhances user audio experience in Xen virtual environment.