US 9,178,815 B2 · NIC flow switching

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, and systems for implementing in Network Interface Controller (NIC) flow switching. Switching operations are effected via hardware-based forwarding mechanisms in apparatus such as NICs in a manner that does not employ use of computer system processor resources and is transparent to operating systems hosted by such computer systems. The forwarding mechanisms are configured to move or copy Media Access Control (MAC) frame data between receive (Rx) and transmit (Tx) queues associated with different NIC ports that may be on the same NIC or separate NICs. The hardware-based switching operations effect forwarding of MAC frames between NIC ports using memory operations, thus reducing external network traffic, internal interconnect traffic, and processor workload associated with packet processing.

Claims30

Dependent claims

A method implemented within a computer system having at least one host processor and having first and second Network Interface Controller (NIC) ports communicatively coupled to a physical network external to the computer system, the method comprising:

receiving a Media Access Channel (MAC) frame at the first NIC port;
determining the MAC frame is to be forwarded to the second NIC port;
and
effecting forwarding of the MAC frame from the first NIC port to the second NIC port by moving or copying data corresponding to the MAC frame from a first queue associated with the first NIC port to a second queue associated with the second NIC port,
wherein determining the MAC frame is to be forwarded to the second NIC port and the moving or copying data from the first queue to the second queue are performed independent of the at least one host processor.

2 more elements

An apparatus, comprising:

an interconnect interface;
memory, having an address space;
and
a plurality of network ports coupled in communication via an internal interconnect, each network port having a network interface;
wherein the apparatus further includes logic configured, upon operation of the apparatus, to allocate portions of the address space to sets of queues for each of the plurality of network ports, wherein each set of queues includes a plurality of receive (Rx) queues and a plurality of transmit (Tx) queues, wherein a portion of the Tx queues are Tx forwarding queues mapped to at least one of Rx and Tx queues in other network ports on the apparatus, and
wherein each network port further includes at least one hardware-based forwarding mechanism, configured, upon operation of the apparatus, to,
compare header data in a Media Access Control (MAC) frame against MAC frame header filter data to determine if the MAC frame is to be forwarded to another network port in the apparatus;
and in response to a determination that the MAC frame is to be forwarded to another network port,
moving or copying the MAC frame from a first queue allocated to the network port to a second queue allocated to the other network port.

6 more elements

A computer system, comprising:

a processor having a plurality of processor cores operatively couple to a memory controller and a first interconnect interface;
system memory, operatively coupled to the memory controller;
and
a first and second Network Interface Controller (NIC), operatively coupled to the processor, wherein each of the first and second NICs includes,
an interconnect interface, operatively coupled to the first interconnect interface via a NIC to processor interconnect;
local memory having a local address space;
and
one or more network ports, each network port having a network interface;
wherein each of the first and second NICs further includes logic configured, upon operation of the computer system, to allocate portions of its local address space to sets of queues for each of its one or more network ports, wherein each set of queues includes a plurality of receive (Rx) queues and a plurality of transmit (Tx) queues, wherein a portion of the Tx queues are Tx forwarding queues that are mapped to queues associated with other network ports,
and wherein each NIC port further includes at least one hardware-based forwarding mechanism, configured, upon operation of the computer system, to,
compare header data in a Media Access Control (MAC) frame against MAC frame header filter data to determine if the MAC frame is to be forwarded to another network port;
and in response to a determination that the MAC frame is to be forwarded to another network port,
move or copy the MAC frame from a first queue allocated to a network port on the NIC to a second queue allocated to the other network port.

10 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

NIC flow switching

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NIC flow switching

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Abstract

Claims30