Replication in a protocol offload network interface controller
First Claim
1. Network interface circuitry, configured to couple a host computer and a network, the network interface circuitry comprising at least one processor configured to:
- offload from the host computer at least a portion of transport layer communication protocol processing to accomplish at least two separate stateful transport layer communication connections, each between the host computer and a peer, wherein the two separate stateful layer communication connections are between the host and two separate peers; and
access at least one data item originating from the host;
wherein the at least a portion of transport layer communication protocol processing by the network interface circuitry includes replicating the accessed at least one data item to generate a plurality of replicated data items and providing each of the plurality of replicated data items from the network interface circuitry using a separate one of the at least two separate stateful transport layer communication connections, andwherein when the plurality of replicated data items are provided from the network interface circuitry using the at least two separate stateful transport layer communication connections, maintain a single data structure to indicate a state of all of the at least two separate stateful transport layer communication connections.
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Abstract
Data replication can be supported efficiently in a protocol offload device (such as a protocol offload device to offload transport layer protocol processing from a host) by supporting a shared memory (SHM) abstraction for the send and receive buffers that are used in protocol offload devices. The protocol offload send and receive buffers are accessed using a per offloaded connection virtual address method that maps transport protocol sequence numbers (such as TCP protocol sequence numbers), to memory locations within buffers, and, for example, either page tables and paged memory or segment tables and segmented memory tables are used to access the memory.
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Citations
17 Claims
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1. Network interface circuitry, configured to couple a host computer and a network, the network interface circuitry comprising at least one processor configured to:
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offload from the host computer at least a portion of transport layer communication protocol processing to accomplish at least two separate stateful transport layer communication connections, each between the host computer and a peer, wherein the two separate stateful layer communication connections are between the host and two separate peers; and access at least one data item originating from the host; wherein the at least a portion of transport layer communication protocol processing by the network interface circuitry includes replicating the accessed at least one data item to generate a plurality of replicated data items and providing each of the plurality of replicated data items from the network interface circuitry using a separate one of the at least two separate stateful transport layer communication connections, and wherein when the plurality of replicated data items are provided from the network interface circuitry using the at least two separate stateful transport layer communication connections, maintain a single data structure to indicate a state of all of the at least two separate stateful transport layer communication connections. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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Specification