# US 10,313,272 B2 · System and method for providing an infiniband network device having a vendor-specific attribute that contains a signature of the vendor in a high-performance computing environment

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- Number: US 10,313,272 B2
- Document ID: US10313272B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 15/414,173
- Filed: 2017-01-24
- Published: 2017-07-27
- Granted: 2019-06-04
- Earliest claimed: 2016-01-27
- Assignees: Oracle International Corporation
- Applicants: Oracle International Corporation
- Inventors: Dag Georg Moxnes; Line Holen; Bjørn Dag Johnsen
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10313272B2

## CPC

- H04L 49/25: Routing or path finding in a switch fabric
- G06F 9/451: Execution arrangements for user interfaces
- G06F 9/45558: {Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects}
- G06F 16/2237: {Vectors, bitmaps or matrices}
- H04L 41/046: comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
- H04L 41/0803: Configuration setting
- H04L 41/0853: by actively collecting configuration information or by backing up configuration information
- H04L 41/12: Discovery or management of network topologies
- H04L 43/0817: by checking functioning
- H04L 43/0823: Errors, e.g. transmission errors
- H04L 43/0882: Utilisation of link capacity
- H04L 45/02: Topology update or discovery
- H04L 45/48: Routing tree calculation
- H04L 49/111: Switch interfaces, e.g. port details
- H04L 49/118: Address processing within a device, e.g. using internal ID or tags for routing within a switch
- H04L 49/15: Interconnection of switching modules
- H04L 49/30: {Peripheral units, e.g. input or output ports}
- H04L 49/358: {Infiniband Switches}
- H04L 49/70: {Virtual switches}
- H04L 63/20: {for managing network security; network security policies in general (filtering policies H04L63/0227)}
- H04L 67/10: in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46)
- H04L 67/1097: for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
- G06F 2009/45579: {I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage}
- G06F 2009/45595: {Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances}
- H04L 12/44: Star or tree networks
- H04L 63/12: {Applying verification of the received information (cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for data integrity or data verification H04L9/32)}
- H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M)
- G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N)

## Abstract

System and method for providing an InfiniBand network device having a vendor-specific attribute that contains a signature of the vendor. An exemplary embodiment can provide an InfiniBand compatible network device from a vendor. The vendor can further define a subnet management attribute, where the subnet management attribute has an attribute identifier in the range of attribute identifiers reserved in the InfiniBand specification. The vendor can define a signature bit string that is a fixed number of bits in length and a number of offset bits, where the number of offset bits indicates the start of the signature bit string within the attribute. The subnet management attribute can be configured with the signature bit string starting where the offset bits indicate, and the subnet management attribute can be included as an attribute of the InfiniBand compatible network device.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method for providing an InfiniBand network device having a vendor-specific attribute that contains a signature of the vendor, comprising:
providing, by the vendor, an InfiniBand compatible network device;
defining, by the vendor, a subnet management attribute, wherein the subnet management attribute has an attribute identifier in the range of attribute identifiers reserved in the InfiniBand specification;
defining, by the vendor, a signature bit string that is a fixed number of bits in length, wherein the signature bit string represents a unique identifier of the vendor;
defining, by the vendor, a number of offset bits, wherein the number of offset bits indicates the start of the signature bit string within the attribute;
configuring the subnet management attribute with the signature bit string starting where the offset bits indicate; and
including the subnet management attribute as an attribute of the InfiniBand compatible network device.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, comprising:
defining, by the vendor, a method of the subnet management attribute, wherein the method requests a read of the subnet management attribute from the InfiniBand compatible network device.

### Claim 3 (depends on 2)

The method of claim 2, comprising:
providing, by the vendor, a subnet manager;
sending, by the subnet manager, a first subnet management packet directed at the InfiniBand compatible network device, wherein the first subnet management packet contains the method.

### Claim 4 (depends on 3)

The method of claim 3, comprising:
receiving, by the InfiniBand compatible network device, the first subnet management packet; and
replying, by the InfiniBand compatible network device and to the subnet manager, with a second subnet management packet that contains the attribute in the data field of the second subnet management packet.

### Claim 5 (depends on 4)

The method of claim 4, comprising:
receiving, by the subnet manager, the second subnet management packet;
using, by the subnet manager, the defined number of offset bits to locate the signature bit string in the attribute contained in the data field of the second management packet; and
verifying, by the subnet manager, that the located signature bit string matches the signature bit string defined by the vendor.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the signature bit string is 32 bits long.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the offset bits are defined by a number of bits that places the signature bit string as the last bits in the subnet management attribute.

### Claim 8

A system for providing an InfiniBand network device having a vendor-specific attribute that contains a signature of the vendor, comprising:
an InfiniBand compatible network device, including a processor and a memory;
a subnet management attribute, wherein the subnet management attribute has an attribute identifier in the range of attribute identifiers reserved in the InfiniBand specification, wherein the subnet management attribute comprises a predefined, fixed number of bits, and wherein the subnet management attribute is stored in the memory of the InfiniBand compatible network device as an attribute of the InfiniBand compatible network device;
a signature bit string contained in the attribute, wherein the signature bit string is a predefined, fixed number of bits in length, and wherein the signature bit string represents a unique identifier of a vendor;
a defined number of offset bits, wherein the number of offset bits indicates the start of the signature bit string within the attribute; and
wherein the subnet management attribute is configured with the signature bit string starting where the offset bits indicate.

### Claim 9 (depends on 8)

The system of claim 8, further comprising:
a method of the subnet management attribute, wherein the method requests a read of the subnet management attribute from the InfiniBand compatible network device.

### Claim 10 (depends on 9)

The system of claim 9, further comprising:
a subnet manager, wherein the subnet manager operates to:
send a first subnet management packet directed at the InfiniBand compatible network device, wherein the first subnet management packet contains the method.

### Claim 11 (depends on 10)

The system of claim 10, wherein the InfiniBand compatible network device operates to:
receive the first subnet management packet; and
reply to the subnet manager, with a second subnet management packet that contains the attribute in the data field of the second subnet management packet.

### Claim 12 (depends on 11)

The system of claim 11, wherein the subnet manager further operates to:
receive the second subnet management packet;
use the defined number of offset bits to locate the signature bit string in the attribute contained in the data field of the second management packet; and
verify that the located signature bit string matches the signature bit string defined by the vendor.

### Claim 13 (depends on 8)

The system of claim 8, wherein the signature bit string is 32 bits long.

### Claim 14 (depends on 8)

The system of claim 8, wherein the offset bits are defined by a number of bits that places the signature bit string as the last bits in the subnet management attribute.

### Claim 15

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium, including instructions stored thereon for providing a vendor-specific attribute that contains a signature of the vendor for an InfiniBand network device, which when read and executed by one or more computers cause the one or more computers to perform steps comprising:
providing a subnet management attribute,
wherein the subnet management attribute has an attribute identifier in the range of attribute identifiers reserved in the InfiniBand specification,
wherein the subnet management attribute has a signature bit string that is a fixed number of bits in length,
wherein the signature bit string represents a unique identifier of the vendor,
wherein the subnet management attribute has a number of offset bits, and
wherein the number of offset bits indicates the start of the signature bit string within the attribute;
configuring the subnet management attribute with the signature bit string starting where the offset bits indicate; and
storing the subnet management attribute in a memory of an InfiniBand compatible network device as an attribute of the InfiniBand compatible network device.

### Claim 16 (depends on 15)

The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, further comprising the steps of:
defining a method of the subnet management attribute, wherein the method requests a read of the subnet management attribute from the InfiniBand compatible network device.

### Claim 17 (depends on 16)

The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 16, further comprising the steps of:
providing a subnet manager;
sending, by the subnet manager, a first subnet management packet directed at the InfiniBand compatible network device, wherein the first subnet management packet contains the method.

### Claim 18 (depends on 17)

The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17, further comprising the steps of:
receiving, by the InfiniBand compatible network device, the first subnet management packet; and
replying, by the InfiniBand compatible network device and to the subnet manager, with a second subnet management packet that contains the attribute in the data field of the second subnet management packet.

### Claim 19 (depends on 18)

The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18, further comprising the steps of:
receiving, by the subnet manager, the second subnet management packet;
using, by the subnet manager, the defined number of offset bits to locate the signature bit string in the attribute contained in the data field of the second management packet; and
verifying, by the subnet manager, that the located signature bit string matches the signature bit string defined by the vendor.

### Claim 20 (depends on 15)

The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the signature bit string is 32 bits long.