US 9,307,054 B2 · Intelligent network interface system and method for accelerated protocol processing

Abstract

A system for protocol processing in a computer network has an intelligent network interface card (INIC) or communication processing device (CPD) associated with a host computer. The INIC or CPD provides a fast-path that avoids host protocol processing for most large multipacket messages, greatly accelerating data communication. The INIC or CPD also assists the host for those message packets that are chosen for processing by host software layers. A communication control block (CCB) for a message is defined that allows DMA controllers of the INIC to move data, free of headers, directly to or from a destination or source in the host. The CCB can be passed back to the host for message processing by the host. The INIC or CPD contains hardware circuits configured for protocol processing that can perform that specific task faster than the host CPU. One embodiment includes a processor providing transmit, receive and management processing, with full duplex communication for four fast Ethernet nodes.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A host computer comprising:

a central processing unit (CPU) that is adapted to execute a multi-layer network protocol including a transport layer and an application running above the transport layer;
a host memory that is accessible by the CPU, the host memory including a buffer that is allocated by the application;
a network interface that is connected to the CPU by a bus, the network interface adapted to perform operations including:
receiving a network packet having an Internet Protocol (IP) header, a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) header and payload data;
protocol processing the IP header and the TCP header and thereby determining an IP source address, an IP destination address, a TCP source port and a TCP destination port for the packet;
comparing the IP source and destination addresses and TCP source and destination ports of the packet with IP source and destination addresses and TCP source and destination ports of a TCP control block (TCB);
and
if the IP source and destination addresses and TCP source and destination ports of the packet match the IP source and destination addresses and TCP source and destination ports of the TCB, transferring the payload data directly to the buffer without transferring the TCP header to the buffer.

5 more elements

A method for network communication by a host computer having a network interface that is connected to a central processing unit (CPU) by a bus, the host computer executing a multi-layer network protocol, including an Internet Protocol (IP) layer and a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) layer, the method comprising:

receiving, by the network interface, a network packet including an IP header, a TCP header and payload data;
processing, by the network interface, the IP header and the TCP header and thereby determining an IP source address, an IP destination address, a TCP source port and a TCP destination port of the network packet;
determining, by the network interface, whether the source and destination IP addresses and source and destination TCP ports of the packet correspond to a control block stored by the host computer, and if so transferring the payload data of the network packet directly to a buffer of the host computer assigned by a process at a layer higher than the TCP layer, without performing any TCP processing on the network packet by the CPU.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Intelligent network interface system and method for accelerated protocol processing

Life of this patent

Intelligent network interface system and method for accelerated protocol processing

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20