Single logical network interface for advanced load balancing and fail-over functionality
AssigneeNVIDIA Corporation
InventorsAshutosh Jha, Ayaz Abdulla, Hemamalini Manickavasagam, Anand Rajagopalan, Paul Sidenblad
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Abstract
The invention sets forth an approach for aggregating a plurality of NICs in a computing device into a single logical NIC as seen by that computing device's operating system. The combination of the single logical NIC and a network resource manager provides a reliable and persistent interface to the operating system and to the network hardware, thereby improving the reliability and ease-of-configuration of the computing device. The invention also may improve communications security by supporting the 802.1X and the 802.1Q networking standards.
Claims26
A method for configuring a computing device having an operating system and a first network interface card (NIC) and a second NIC configured as a team to support one or more network connections using load balancing and fail-over techniques, the method comprising:
- creating a first function driver associated with the first NIC and a second function driver associated with the second NIC;
- coupling the first function driver to a software stack within the operating system through a first software binding;
- coupling the second function driver to the software stack through a second software binding;
- creating a virtual function driver associated with the team of NICs;
- and
- coupling the virtual function driver to the software stack through a third software binding.
A computer-readable medium storing instructions for causing a computing device having an operating system and a first network interface card (NIC) and a second NIC configured as a team to configure itself to support one or more network connections using load balancing and fail-over techniques by performing the steps of:
- creating a first function driver associated with the first NIC and a second function driver associated with the second NIC, wherein the first function driver is configured to be coupled to a software stack within the operating system through a first software binding and to a network resource manager through a first software handle, and the second function driver is configured to be coupled to the software stack through a second software binding and to the network resource manager through a second software handle;
- and
- creating a virtual function driver associated with the team of NICs, wherein the virtual function driver is configured to be coupled to the software stack through a third software binding and to the network resource manager through third software handle.
A method for configuring a computing device having an operating system and a network interface card (NIC) to support one or more network connections, the method comprising:
- creating a function driver associated with the NIC;
- coupling the function driver to a software stack within the operating system through a software binding for managing network connections conventionally;
- and
- coupling the function driver to a network resource manager through a software handle, wherein the network resource manager is configured to manage network connections locally.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.