US 11,960,439 B2 · Scalable MCTP infrastructure

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for scalable MCTP infrastructure. A system is split into independent MCTP domains, wherein each MCTP domain uses Endpoint Identifiers (EIDs) for endpoint devices within the MCTP domain in a manner similar to conventional MCTP operations. A new class of MCTP devices (referred to as a Domain Controllers) is provided to enable inter-domain communication and communication with global devices. Global traffic originators or receivers like a BMC (Baseboard Management Controller), Infrastructure Processing Unit (IPU), Smart NIC (Network Interface Card), Debugger, or PROT (Platform Root or Trust) discover and establish two-way communication through the Domain Controllers to any of the devices in the target domain(s). The Domain Controllers are configured to implement tunneled connections between global devices and domain endpoint devices. The tunneled connections may employ encapsulated messages with outer and inner headers and/or augmented MCTP messages with repurposed fields used to store source and destination EIDs.

Claims23

Dependent claims

A computer system, comprising:

a plurality of processors, a respective processor including a respective domain controller and coupled to a respect set of one or more domain endpoint devices via respective links;
one or more interconnects, coupled between pairs of processors;
and
one or more non-domain endpoint devices communicatively coupled either directly or indirectly to at least one processor,
wherein the computer system is configured to implement multiple MCTP (Management Control Transport Protocol) domains, each MCTP domain employing at least one domain controller and employing 8-bit device Endpoint Identifiers (EIDs) to uniquely identify domain endpoint devices within the MCTP domain, and
wherein the one or more non-domain endpoint devices are enabled to send data to and receive data from domain endpoint devices in each of the multiple MCTP domains.

3 more elements

A method implemented by a system including a plurality of processors, each processor including a respective domain controller and coupled to a respective set of one or more domain endpoint devices via respective links, the system further including one or more non-domain endpoint devices, respective non-domain endpoint devices communicatively coupled either directly or indirectly to at least one processor, the method comprising:

implementing multiple MCTP (Management Control Transport Protocol) domains, each MCTP domain employing a domain controller in a respective processor and employing 8-bit device Endpoint Identifiers (EIDs) to uniquely identify domain endpoint devices within the MCTP domain;
and
enabling the one or more non-domain endpoint devices to communicate with domain endpoint devices in each of the multiple MCTP domains.

A processor, having an MCTP (Management Control Transport Protocol) domain controller and a plurality of Input/Output (I/O) interfaces configured to be coupled to respective domain endpoint devices and a global endpoint device when installed in a first socket in a multi-socket computer system, wherein the MCTP domain controller is configured to:

implement an MCTP domain that is operated independent from at least one other MCTP domain implemented by an MCTP domain controller in a second processor installed in a second socket in the multi-socket computer system, wherein the MCTP domain employs 8-bit device Endpoint Identifiers (EIDs) to uniquely identify the domain endpoint devices within the MCTP domain, and a global EID for the global endpoint device.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Scalable MCTP infrastructure

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Scalable MCTP infrastructure

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims23