US 2016/0301613 A1 · FAST-PATH METHOD FOR TRANSMITTING DATA CORRESPONDING TO A TRANSPORT LAYER CONNECTION

Abstract

An intelligent network interface card (INIC) or communication processing device (CPD) works with a host computer for data communication. The device provides a fast-path that avoids protocol processing for most messages, greatly accelerating data transfer and offloading time-intensive processing tasks from the host CPU. The host retains a fallback processing capability for messages that do not fit fast-path criteria, with the device providing assistance such as validation even for slow-path messages, and messages being selected for either fast-path or slow-path processing. A context for a connection is defined that allows the device to move data, free of headers, directly to or from a destination or source in the host. The context can be passed back to the host for message processing by the host. The device contains specialized hardware circuits that are much faster at their specific tasks than a general purpose CPU. A preferred embodiment includes a trio of pipelined processors devoted to transmit, receive and utility processing, providing full duplex communication for four Fast Ethernet nodes.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method for sending data over a network, the method comprising:

establishing, by a protocol stack running on a host computer, a transport layer connection, including creating a context for the connection;
receiving, by the protocol stack from a process running at a layer above the transport layer, a block of data corresponding to the transport layer connection;
maintaining, at a network interface device for the host computer, a basic frame header for the context;
transferring, by the network interface device, portions of the block of data from the host computer to the network interface device;
creating headers for the portions, by the network interface device, from the basic frame header;
and
prepending, by the network interface device, the headers to the portions to form transmit frames.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application

15/185,349Filed 17 Jun 2016

Priority

14 Oct 1997

Published

13 Oct 2016

Term ends

Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification34 codes

H04L 47/193
At layers above the network layer: at the transport layer, e.g. TCP related
G06F 13/28
For access to input/output bus: using burst mode transfer, e.g. direct memory access DMA, cycle steal
G06F 13/4022
Coupling between buses: using switching circuits, e.g. switching matrix, connection or expansion network
G06F 13/4221
On a parallel bus: being an input/output bus, e.g. ISA bus, EISA bus, PCI bus, SCSI bus

Family

Application60/061,809Us provisional application · filed 14 Oct 1997

Application09/067,544Continuation in part · filed 27 Apr 1998

Application60/098,296Us provisional application · filed 27 Aug 1998

Application09/141,713Continuation in part · filed 28 Aug 1998

Application09/384,792Continuation · filed 27 Aug 1999

Application09/464,283Continuation in part · filed 15 Dec 1999

Application09/514,425Continuation in part · filed 28 Feb 2000

Application10/005,536Continuation · filed 7 Nov 2001

Application10/678,336Continuation · filed 3 Oct 2003

Application15/185,349Continuation

Application09/384,792Continuation in part