Data processing system with routing tables

• US 20080244087A1
• Filed: 10/31/2007
• Published: 10/02/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Xilinx, Inc. (Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: SolarFlare Communications Incorporated (Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.)
• Inventors: Riddoch, David James, Pope, Steven Leslie, Law, Greg
• Granted Patent: US 8,868,780 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/238
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/021 Ensuring consistency of routing table updates, e.g. by using epoch numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/54 Organization of routing tables
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/56 Routing software
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/745 Address table lookup; Address filtering
• 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

A data processing system with routing tables comprising an operating system for supporting processes, such that the process are associated with one or more resources and the operating system being arranged to police the accessing by processes of resources so as to inhibit a process from accessing resources with which it is not associated. Part of this system is an interface for interfacing between each process and the operating system and a memory for storing state information for at least one process. The interface may be arranged to analyze instructions from the processes to the operating system, and upon detecting an instruction to re-initialize a process cause state information corresponding to that pre-existing state information to be stored in the memory as state information for the re-initialized process and to be associated with the resource.

Claims

1. A data processing system comprising:

an operating system that stores a first network routing table comprising one or more entries each indicating at least part of a route over a network to a respective destination;

a transmission support function arranged to maintain a copy of the first network routing table; and

a network data transmission function arranged to transmit data in accordance with the copy network routing table and without accessing the first network routing table.

2. A data processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the transmission support function is internal to the operating system.

3. A data processing system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the network data transmission function is external to the operating system.

4. A data processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the network data transmission function is at user level.

5. A data processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first network routing table comprises data enabling routing using address resolution protocol.

6. A data processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first network routing table comprises data enabling routing using transmission control protocol and/or user datagram protocol.

7. A data processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the operating system is arranged to signal to the transmission support function when data stored in the first network routing table is updated.

8. A data processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the transmission support function is arranged to check the first network routing table for updates.

9. A data processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the network data transmission function is arranged to read the copy network routing table by means of memory mapping.

10. A data processing system as claimed in claim 9 wherein the memory mapping is read only memory mapping.

11. A data processing system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a network endpoint, wherein the system is arranged such that the network endpoint is unable to access the first network routing table directly.

12. A data processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the system has a counter and is arranged to maintain the counter by incrementing it each time a change is made to the first network routing table.

13. A data processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the operating system is arranged to transmit data using the first network routing table.

14. A data processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the network data transmission function is arranged to transmit the said data in accordance with the copy network routing table in the form of packets and to create packet headers for such packets based on information in the copy network routing table.

15. A data processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the operating system is arranged to delete entries from the first network routing table if they are unused.

16. A data processing system as claimed in claim 15 wherein the operating system is arranged to periodically delete, with a first frequency, unused entries from the first network routing table.

17. A data processing system as claimed in claim 16, wherein the network data transmission function is arranged to transmit to the operating system signals for causing the operating system to maintain entries in the network routing table.

18. A data processing system as claimed in claim 17 wherein the signals are dedicated messages for maintaining tables in the operating system.

19. A data processing system as claimed in claim 17, wherein the signals are address resolution protocol reinforce messages.

20. A data processing system as claimed in claim 17, wherein the signals are sent periodically with a second frequency.

21. A data processing system as claimed in claim 20, wherein the second frequency is greater than the first frequency.

22. Software for execution by a data processing system comprising:

an operating system that stores a first network routing table comprising one or more entries each indicating at least part of a route over a network to a respective destination;

the software defining;

a transmission support function arranged to maintain a copy of the first network routing table; and

a network data transmission function arranged to transmit data in accordance with the copy network routing table and without accessing the first network routing table.