Method and system for an OS virtualization-aware network interface card

• US 20070244972A1
• Filed: 05/16/2006
• Published: 10/18/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Fan, Kan
• Granted Patent: US 8,635,388 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/205
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/622 Layer-2 addresses, e.g. medium access control [MAC] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/90 Buffering arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/9063 Intermediate storage in different physical parts of a node or terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]

Abstract

Aspects of a method and system for an operating system (OS) virtualization-aware network interface card (NIC) are provided. A NIC may provide direct I/O capabilities for each of a plurality of concurrent guest operating systems (GOSs) in a host system. The NIC may comprise a GOS queue for each of the GOSs, where each GOS queue may comprise a transmit (TX) queue, a receive (RX) queue, and an event queue. The NIC may communicate data with a GOS via a corresponding TX queue and RX queue. The NIC may notify a GOS of events such as down link, up link, packet transmission, and packet reception via the corresponding event queue. The NIC may also support unicast, broadcast, and/or multicast communication between GOSs. The NIC may also validate a buffered address when the address corresponds to one of the GOSs operating in the host system.

Claims

1. A method for handling processing of network information, the method comprising communicating data with each of a plurality of concurrently running guest operating systems (GOSs) in a host system via at least a corresponding one of a plurality of GOS queues residing in a network interface card (NIC).

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein each of said plurality of GOS queues comprises at least one of a transmit (TX) queue, a receive (RX) queue, and an event queue.

3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising communicating data from said NIC to one of said plurality of concurrently running GOSs via said TX queue in said corresponding GOS queue.

4. The method according to claim 2, further comprising communicating data from one of said plurality of concurrently running GOSs to said NIC via said RX queue in said corresponding GOS queue.

5. The method according to claim 2, further comprising indicating the occurrence of a communication event from said NIC to one of said plurality of concurrently running GOSs via said event queue in said corresponding GOS queue.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein said communication event is one of a link up event, a link down event, a packet transmitted event, and a packet received event.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising communicating data between at least two of said plurality of concurrently running GOSs via said NIC.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising validating a GOS media access control (MAC) address buffered in said NIC.

9. A machine-readable storage having stored thereon, a computer program having at least one code for handling network processing of network information, the at least one code section being executable by a machine for causing the machine to perform steps comprising communicating data with each of a plurality of concurrently running guest operating systems (GOSs) in a host system via at least a corresponding one of a plurality of GOS queues residing in a network interface card (NIC).

10. The machine-readable storage according to claim 9, wherein each of said plurality of GOS queues comprises at least one of a transmit (TX) queue, a receive (RX) queue, and an event queue.

11. The machine-readable storage according to claim 10, further comprising code for communicating data from said NIC to one of said plurality of concurrently running GOSs via said TX queue in said corresponding GOS queue.

12. The machine-readable storage according to claim 10, further comprising code for communicating data from one of said plurality of concurrently running GOSs to said NIC via said RX queue in said corresponding GOS queue.

13. The machine-readable storage according to claim 10, further comprising code for indicating the occurrence of a communication event from said NIC to one of said plurality of concurrently running GOSs via said event queue in said corresponding GOS queue.

14. The machine-readable storage according to claim 13, wherein said communication event is one of a link up event, a link down event, a packet transmitted event, and a packet received event.

15. The machine-readable storage according to claim 9, further comprising code for communicating data between at least two of said plurality of concurrently running GOSs via said NIC.

16. The machine-readable storage according to claim 9, further comprising code for validating a GOS media access control (MAC) address buffered in said NIC.

17. A system for handling network processing of network information, the system comprising circuitry within a network interface card (NIC) that enables communication of data between said NIC and each of a plurality of concurrently running guest operating systems (GOSs) in a host system via at least a corresponding one of a plurality of GOS queues residing in said NIC.

18. The system according to claim 17, wherein each of said plurality of GOS queues comprises at least one of a transmit (TX) queue, a receive (RX) queue, and an event queue.

19. The system according to claim 18, further comprising circuitry within said NIC that enables communication of data from said NIC to one of said plurality of concurrently running GOSs via said TX queue in said corresponding GOS queue.

20. The system according to claim 18, further comprising circuitry within said NIC that enables communication of data from one of said plurality of concurrently running GOSs to said NIC via said RX queue in said corresponding GOS queue.

21. The system according to claim 18, further comprising circuitry within said NIC that enables indicating the occurrence of a communication event from said NIC to one of said plurality of concurrently running GOSs via said event queue in said corresponding GOS queue.

22. The system according to claim 21, wherein said communication event is one of a link up event, a link down event, a packet transmitted event, and a packet received event.

23. The system according to claim 17, further comprising circuitry within said NIC that enables communication of data between at least two of said plurality of concurrently running GOSs via said NIC.

24. The system according to claim 17, further comprising circuitry within said NIC that enables validation of a GOS media access control (MAC) address buffered in said NIC.