Programmable system for processing a partitioned network infrastructure

• US 6,421,730 B1
• Filed: 04/01/1999
• Issued: 07/16/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Fall, Kevin, Narad, Charles E., Shankar, Pradip, Rand, Leonard M., MacAvoy, Neil, Hall, Jerry J.
• Primary Examiner(s): HARRELL, ROBERT B
• Application Number:
  US09/283,662
• Time in Patent Office: 1,202 Days
• Field of Search: 709/200, 709/202, 709/203, 709/228, 709/310, 709/246, 709/230, 709/236, 370/395, 370/466, 370/468, 370/469, 370/471, 370/235, 370/412
• US Class Current: 709/236
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30021 Compare instructions, e.g. Greater-Than, Equal-To, MINMAX
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30029 Logical and Boolean instructions, e.g. XOR, NOT
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30036 Instructions to perform operations on packed data, e.g. vector, tile or matrix operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30094 Condition code generation, e.g. Carry, Zero flag
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30127 Register windows
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30145 Instruction analysis, e.g. decoding, instruction word fields
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30167 of immediate specifier, e.g. constants
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/3885 using a plurality of independent parallel functional units
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/16 Multipoint routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/627 policing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/90 Buffering arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/901 using storage descriptor, e.g. read or write pointers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/9031 Wraparound memory, e.g. overrun or underrun detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/9047 including multiple buffers, e.g. buffer pools
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/9094 Arrangements for simultaneous transmit and receive, e.g. simultaneous reading/writing from/to the storage element
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/03 Protocol definition or specification protocol conformance testing H04L1/244
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/12 Protocol engines
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

The present invention relates to a general-purpose programmable packet-processing platform for accelerating network infrastructure applications which have been structured so as to separate the stages of classification and action. Network packet classification, execution of actions upon those packets, management of buffer flow, encryption services, and management of Network Interface Controllers are accelerated through the use of a multiplicity of specialized modules. A language interface is defined for specifying both stateless and stateful classification of packets and to associate actions with classification results in order to efficiently utilize these specialized modules.

Claims

1. A platform for processing a partitioned network infrastructure application, comprising:

a first facility for processing an application processor (AP) module;

a second facility for processing a policy engine (PE) module, wherein the PE module includes a plurality of action and classification engines (ACEs), the plurality containing instances of two or more different ACEs and two or more instances of a particular ACE; and

a messaging facility for supporting communication between the AP module and the PE module.

2. The platform of claim 1 wherein one of the ACEs includes a user-defineable action component.

3. The platform of claim 2 wherein the user-defineable action component is definable using a general purpose programming language.

4. The platform of claim 1 wherein the second facility is implemented in software.

5. The platform of claim 4 wherein the PE module and the AP module are processed on the same physical resource.

6. The platform of claim 1 wherein the ACE further comprises a frame classification rule.

7. The platform of claim 6 wherein the ACE further comprises an action associated with the frame classification.

8. The platform of claim 1 wherein the plurality of ACEs is processed serially.

9. The platform of claim 1 wherein the second facility is implemented in hardware.

10. The platform of claim 1 wherein the ACE further comprises a target, the target representing a packet destination for a classified frame.

11. The platform of claim 1 wherein the ACE further comprises a plurality of targets, the plurality representing two or more destinations for a classified frame.

12. The platform of claim 1 wherein the ACE further comprises a context for upcalls between the AP and PE modules.

13. The platform of claim 1 wherein the ACE further comprises a context for downcalls between the AP and PE modules.

14. A method for partitioning functionality of a network infrastructure application, comprising the steps of:

defining an application processor (AP) module; and

defining a policy engine (PE) module, wherein the PE module includes a plurality of action and classification engines (ACEs), the plurality containing instances of two or more different ACEs and two or more instances of a particular ACE.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein one of the ACEs includes a user-defineable action component.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the user-defineable action component is definable using a general purpose programming language.

17. The method of claim 14 wherein the PE module is processed by software.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the PE module and the AP module are processed on the same physical resource.

19. The method of claim 14 wherein the ACE further comprises a frame classification rule.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the ACE further comprises an action associated with the frame classification.

21. The method of claim 14 further comprising the step of defining communication between the AP module and the PE module.

22. The method of claim 14 wherein the plurality of ACEs is processed serially.

23. The method of claim 14 wherein the PE module is processed by hardware.

24. The method of claim 14 wherein the ACE further comprises a target, the target representing a packet destination for a classified frame.

25. The method of claim 14 wherein the ACE further comprises a plurality of targets, the plurality representing two or more destinations for a classified frame.

26. The method of claim 14 wherein the ACE further comprises a context for upcalls between the AP and PE modules.

27. The method of claim 14 wherein the ACE further comprises a context for downcalls between the AP and PE modules.

28. A platform for processing a partitioned network infrastructure application, comprising:

a first facility for processing an application processor (AP) module;

a second facility for processing a policy engine (PE) module, wherein the PE module includes a plurality of action and classification engines (ACEs), the plurality containing two or more instances of a particular ACE; and

a messaging facility for supporting communication between the AP module and the PE module.

29. The platform of claim 28 wherein one of the ACEs includes a user-definable action component.

30. The platform of claim 29 wherein the user-definable action component is definable using a general purpose programming language.

31. The platform of claim 28 wherein the second facility is implemented in software.

32. The platform of claim 31 wherein the PE module and the AP module are processed on a same physical resource.

33. The platform of claim 28 wherein the ACE further comprises a frame classification rule.

34. The platform of claim 33 wherein the ACE further comprises an action associated with the frame classification.

35. The platform of claim 28 wherein the ACE further comprises a target, the target representing a packet destination for a classified frame.

36. The platform of claim 28 wherein the ACE further comprises a plurality of targets, the plurality representing two or more destinations for a classified frame.

37. The platform of claim 28 wherein the ACE further comprises a context for upcalls between the AP and PE modules.

38. The platform of claim 28 wherein the ACE further comprises a context for downcalls between the AP and PE modules.

39. The platform of claim 28 wherein the plurality of ACEs are processed serially.

40. The platform of claim 28 wherein the second facility is implemented in hardware.

41. A method for partitioning functionality of a network infrastructure application, comprising the steps of:

defining an application processor (AP) module; and

defining a policy engine (PE) module, wherein the PE module includes a plurality of action and classification engines (ACEs), the plurality containing two or more instances of a particular ACE.

42. The method of claim 41 wherein one of the ACEs includes a user-definable action component.

43. The method of claim 42 wherein the user-definable action component is definable using a general purpose programming language.

44. The method of claim 41 wherein the PE module is processed by software.

46. The method of claim 41 wherein the ACE further comprises a frame classification rule.

47. The method of claim 46 wherein the ACE further comprises an action associated with the frame classification.

48. The method of claim 41 further comprising the step of defining communication between the AP module and the PE module.

49. The method of claim 41 wherein the plurality of ACEs are processed serially.

50. The method of claim 41 wherein the ACE further comprises a target, the target representing a packet destination for a classified frame.

51. The method of claim 41 wherein the ACE further comprises a plurality of targets, the plurality representing two or more destinations for a classified frame.

52. The method of claim 41 wherein the ACE further comprises a context for upcalls between the AP and PE modules.

53. The method of claim 41 wherein the ACE further comprises a context for downcalls between the AP and PE modules.

54. The method of claim 41 wherein the PE module is processed by hardware.

45. The method of claim 45 wherein the PE module and the AP module are processed on a same physical resource.