US 10,455,061 B2Granted

Lightweight transport protocol

AssigneeMicrosoft Technology Licensing, LLC

InventorsAdrian Caulfield, Eric Chung, Doug Burger, Derek Chiou

Life of this patent

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Abstract

A smart NIC (Network Interface Card) is provided with features to enable the smart NIC to operate as an in-line NIC between a host's NIC and a network. The smart NIC provides pass-through transmission of network flows for the host. Packets sent to and from the host pass through the smart NIC. As a pass-through point, the smart NIC is able to accelerate the performance of the pass-through network flows by analyzing packets, inserting packets, dropping packets, inserting or recognizing congestion information, and so forth. In addition, the smart NIC provides a lightweight transport protocol (LTP) module that enables it to establish connections with other smart NICs. The LTP connections allow the smart NICs to exchange data without passing network traffic through their respective hosts.

Claims19

Dependent claims

A first network interface card (NIC) to handle network flows for a host, the first NIC comprising:

a media access controller (MAC) configured to connect to a network;
processing hardware configured to transmit packets of the network flows by transmitting to the network, from the MAC, packets received from the host, and by passing to the host, packets received from the network by the MAC;
a first module configured to implement a lightweight transport protocol (LTP);
and
a second module configured to communicate with an arbitrary second NIC via the first module by (i) specifying a network address corresponding to the second NIC to enable the first module to establish an LTP connection with endpoints at the first NIC and at the second NIC and (ii) exchanging packets with the second NIC through the LTP connection;
and
the processing hardware further configured to differentiate between the packets of the network flows and the packets of the LTP connection, wherein packets determined to be packets of the network flows, according to their destinations, are handled by being passed to the host and by being passed to the network, and wherein packets determined to be packets of the LTP connection are handled by the first module instead of being passed to the host or the network.

4 more elements

A network interface card (NIC) to handle Internet Protocol (IP) flows, the NIC configured to connect to a host and comprising:

a media access controller (MAC) configured to connect to a network;
a control circuit configured to pass flow IP packets of the IP flows by:
(i) transmitting, from the MAC, flow IP packets received from the host, and by
(ii) passing, to the host, flow IP packets received from the network via the MAC;
the control circuit further configured to implement a lightweight transport protocol (LTP) by establishing and maintaining connections for the LTP and by providing retransmission of LTP packets originated and sent by the NIC that have been determined by the control circuit to require retransmission, the LTP connections having endpoints in the NIC and another NIC, the LTP packets being exchanged between the NIC and the other NIC and not being passed to or from the host;
wherein the NIC is configured to receive inbound IP packets, some of which are IP packets of the IP flows, and some of which are IP packets containing LTP packets, wherein the control circuit is configured to determine which inbound IP packets contain LTP packets;
and
wherein the control circuit is further configured to:
by default, for any given inbound packet received via the MAC that is determined to not contain an LTP packet, based thereon, cause the given inbound IP packet to be passed to the host, and
pass to an LTP module LTP packets from IP packets determined to contain LTP packets, wherein the LTP module is configured to implement the LTP.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 15/849,609Filed 20 Dec 2017 · division
Priority: 26 Jun 2015
Published: US 2018/0139310 A117 May 2018
Granted: 22 Oct 2019
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification5 codes

H04L 69/165
Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]: combined use of…
H04L 12/4633
Interconnection of networks: interconnection of networks using encapsulation techniques, e.g. tunneling
H04L 49/25
Packet switching elements: routing or path finding in a switch fabric
H04L 49/30
Packet switching elements: peripheral units, e.g. input or output ports

Family

Application14/752,713Parent of this division · filed 26 Jun 2015
US 2018/0139310 A1Pre-grant publication · published 17 May 2018
US 9,888,095 B2Parent of this division
US 2016/0381189 A1Published application
US 10,455,061 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

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