Method and system for handling connection setup in a network

Abstract

Certain embodiments of a method and system for handling connection setup in a network may comprise a network interface hardware device (NIHW) that may be operable to receive a services list and/or connection acceptance criteria from a first guest operating system running on a host system, receive a connection request from a second guest operating system running on the host system, and determine whether to allow establishment of the requested connection based on one or both of the services list and the connection acceptance criteria. The determination may be made prior to or during connection set up. The NIHW may maintain a connection state comprising information regarding set up of the requested connection. The services list may comprises one or more of a local network address, a local transport address, a network protocol, and a transport protocol. The communicated acceptance criteria may comprises packet filtering operations and/or security operations.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.