US 9,225,673 B2 · Method and apparatus to manage per flow state

Abstract

A method and apparatus to reduce memory required in a network interface controller to store per flow state information associated with a network connection is provided. Instead of storing per flow state information for a connection in the network interface controller at an endpoint of the connection, the per flow state information for the connection is stored in memory external to the network interface controller. The stored state information is conveyed in a packet by the network interface controller between the endpoints of the connection. For a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection, the state information is conveyed between the endpoints of the TCP connection in a TCP option included in the TCP header in the packet.

Claims10

Dependent claims

At least one non-transitory computer usable medium comprising instructions to cause a device at a local system, when in operation, to:

access a first Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) segment the first TCP segment having a first segment header, the first segment header comprising at least one of:
(1) a single field value specifying a processor core on a remote system, or (2) a single field value specifying a location in memory of a remote system of flow context data associated with the first segment;
and
cause transmission of a second TCP segment from the local system, the second TCP segment having a second segment header, the second segment header comprising at least one of:
(1) the single field value specifying the processor core on the remote system, or (2) the single field value specifying the location in memory of the remote system of flow context data associated with the first segment.

2 more elements

A local system, comprising logic to:

access a first Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) segment the first TCP segment having a first segment header, the first segment header comprising at least one of:
(1) a single field value specifying a processor core on a remote system, or (2) a single field value specifying a location in memory of a remote system of flow context data associated with the first segment;
and
cause transmission of a second TCP segment from the local system, the second TCP segment having a second segment header, the second segment header comprising at least one of:
(1) the single field value specifying the processor core on the remote system, or (2) the single field value specifying the location in memory of the remote system of flow context data associated with the first segment.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Method and apparatus to manage per flow state

Life of this patent

Method and apparatus to manage per flow state

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims10