US 11,606,310 B2 · Flow processing offload using virtual port identifiers

Abstract

Some embodiments of the invention provide a method for providing flow processing offload (FPO) for a host computer at a physical network interface card (pNIC) connected to the host computer. A set of compute nodes executing on the host computer are each associated with a set of interfaces that are each assigned a locally-unique virtual port identifier (VPID) by a flow processing and action generator. The pNIC includes a set of interfaces that are assigned physical port identifiers (PPIDs) by the pNIC. The method includes receiving a data message at an interface of the pNIC and matching the data message to a stored flow entry that specifies a destination using a VPID. The method also includes identifying, using the VPID, a PPID as a destination of the received data message by performing a lookup in a mapping table storing a set of VPIDs and a corresponding set of PPIDs and forwarding the data message to an interface of the pNIC associated with the identified PPID.

Claims14

Dependent claims

A method for providing flow processing offload (FPO) for a host computer at a physical network interface card (pNIC) connected to the host computer, the method comprising:

receiving a data message of a particular data message flow at a first interface of the pNIC that is associated with a first physical port identifier (PPID);
performing a first lookup in a mapping table storing a set of virtual port identifiers (VPIDs) and a corresponding set of PPIDs to translate the first PPID into a corresponding particular VPID;
based on the particular VPID, identifying, for the particular data message flow, a flow entry that specifies the particular VPID as a destination for data messages of the particular data message flow;
using the particular VPID to identify a second PPID port as a destination of the received data message by performing a second lookup in the mapping table;
and
forwarding the data message to a second interface of the pNIC associated with the second PPID.

3 more elements

A method for providing flow processing offload (FPO) for a host computer at a physical network interface card (pNIC) connected to the host computer, the pNIC having (i) first and second physical port identifiers (PPIDs) and (ii) a particular virtual port identifier (VPID) associated with the first PPID, the method comprising:

receiving a first data message of a particular data message flow at a first interface of the pNIC, wherein the pNIC stores a flow entry specifying the particular VPID as a destination for data messages of the particular data message flow;
identifying, using the particular VPID, the first PPID as a destination of the first data message by performing a lookup in a mapping table storing a set of VPIDs and a corresponding set of PPIDs;
forwarding the first data message to a second interface of the pNIC associated with the first PPID;
after a change from an association between a first vNIC of a machine executing on the host computer and the first PPID to an association between the first vNIC and a second PPID, modifying the mapping table to update a mapping of the particular VPID to the first PPID into a mapping of the particular VPID to the second PPID;
for a second data message of the particular data message flow that is received after the mapping table is modified, using the flow entry to identify the particular VPID as a destination of the second data message;
using the particular VPID to identify in the modified mapping table the second PPID as the destination of the second data message;
and
forwarding the second data message to a third interface of the pNIC associated with the second PPID.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Flow processing offload using virtual port identifiers

Life of this patent

Flow processing offload using virtual port identifiers

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims14