Data reception management apparatus, systems, and methods

• US 20030236911A1
• Filed: 06/25/2002
• Published: 12/25/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Jenison, Lucas M., Connor, Patrick L., Minnick, Linden
• Granted Patent: US 8,190,765 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/234
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2852 Metropolitan area networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2854 Wide area networks, e.g. public data networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76

Abstract

Computer network apparatus may include a packet-receiving module to receive a packet into an element of a storage array while a low resource state exists, an array truncation module to truncate the array at the element when the array is full or when no more packets are available to be received, and an array indication module to indicate the array after the array truncation module truncates the array. In one embodiment, a system may include a receiving node containing the apparatus. A method may include receiving a packet into an element of an array while a low resource state exists, truncating the array at the element after the array is full or no more packets are available to be received, and indicating the array.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a packet-receiving module to receive packets into of an array of elements; and

an array truncation module to truncate the array at an element, the array truncation module being responsive to at least one of;

an indication of the array being full and to an indication that no more packets are available for reception after at least the packet has been received into the array by the packet-receiving module.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the packet-receiving module is included in a network controller.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a protocol stack to copy the packet to a buffer.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the protocol stack includes a transport control protocol Internet protocol (TCP/IP).

5. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a memory including the array, the memory capable of being communicatively coupled to the packet-receiving module.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a low resource module capable of being communicatively coupled to the packet-receiving module, the low resource module to indicate existence of the low resource state.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the low resource module comprises a driver module.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the driver module operates in accordance with a network driver interface specification.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the packet-receiving module is to receive the packets into the array of elements responsive to an indication of a low resource state.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising an array indication module to indicate the array responsive to an indication that the array truncation module has truncated the array.

11. A system, comprising:

a sending node to send a packet; and

a receiving node capable of being communicatively coupled to the sending node, the receiving node including a packet-receiving module to receive the packet into an element of an array responsive to an indication of the existence of a low resource state, an array truncation module to truncate the array at the element responsive to an indication of the array being full or to an indication that no more packets are available for reception after at least the packet has been received into the array, and an array indication module to indicate the array responsive to an indication that the array truncation module has truncated the array; and

a wireless interface capable of being communicatively coupled to the receiving node.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

a memory to store a representation of the low resource state and a representation of a resource state associated with reception of another packet into an additional element of the array.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the sending node is capable of sending the packet to the receiving node using at least one of:

a wide area network and a local area network

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the packet-receiving module operates in accordance with a network driver interface specification.

15. A method, comprising:

receiving a packet into an element of an array while a low resource state exists;

truncating the array at the element after the array is full or no more packets are available to be received after receiving at least the packet; and

indicating the array.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

determining that the array is full.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

determining that no more packets are available to be received.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

indicating the array if the array is full and resources are not low.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

indicating the array if the array is full and no more packets are available to be received.

20. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

determining the element of the array.

21. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

copying the element of the array.

22. The method of claim 15, wherein receiving the packet into the element of the array occurs in accordance with a network driver interface specification.

23. An article comprising a machine-accessible medium having associated data, wherein the data, when accessed, results in a machine performing:

receiving a packet into an element of an array while a low resource state exists;

truncating the array at the element after the array is full or no more packets are available to be received after receiving at least the packet; and

indicating the array.

24. The article of claim 23, wherein the machine-accessible medium further includes data, which when accessed by the machine, results in the machine performing:

determining if another packet remains in the array after truncating the array at the element.

25. The article of claim 23, wherein the machine-accessible medium further includes data, which when accessed by the machine, results in the machine performing:

marking the element of the array.

26. The article of claim 23, wherein the machine-accessible medium further includes data, which when accessed by the machine, results in the machine performing:

determining the element of the array by calculating an index.

27. The article of claim 23, wherein the machine-accessible medium further includes data, which when accessed by the machine, results in the machine performing:

calculating an index by subtracting a difference between a low resource threshold associated with the array and a number of resources remaining when the packet was received into the element of the array.

28. The article of claim 23, wherein the machine-accessible medium further includes data, which when accessed by the machine, results in the machine performing:

associating a first element of the array with another packet included in a next element of the array following the packet received into the element of the array.

29. The article of claim 23, wherein the machine-accessible medium further includes data, which when accessed by the machine, results in the machine performing:

receiving another packet into another element of the array.

30. A method, comprising:

adding at least two packets to an array after a low resource state occurs during construction of the array; and

determining a truncation location in the array after construction of the array completes.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein construction of the array completes when the array is full.

32. The method of claim 30, wherein construction of the array completes when no more packets are available for reception.

33. The method of claim 30, further comprising truncating the array at the truncation location to provide a truncated array.

34. The method of claim 33, further comprising indicating the truncated array.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein indicating the truncated array comprises indicating the truncated array in accordance with a network driver interface specification.

36. The method of claim 33, further comprising subsequently indicating elements included in the truncated array.

37. The method of claim 30, further comprising determining if a low resource state exists.