Network communications for operating system partitions
First Claim
1. A method for distributing network communications on a computer system, the method comprising:
- receiving a data packet at a logical switch in the computer system, wherein the data packet includes a packet control descriptor the packet control descriptor comprising a packet status wherein the packet status comprises a normal status, a force out status wherein the force out status indicates that the data packet has been modified to automatically be sent out to a physical port or a re-circulate status wherein the re-circulate status is a status whereby the packet has been designated for a wrap path, the computer system running multiple operating system partitions;
wrapping the data packet from one operating system partition of the computer system to another operating system partition of the computer system through a hardware path internal to the computer system when information in the packet indicates a wrap path; and
sending the data packet received from an operating system partition to a physical port coupled to an external network, or received from the external network to an operating system partition, when information in the data packet indicates a non-wrap path.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Providing communications between operating system partitions and a computer network. In one aspect, an apparatus for distributing network communications among multiple operating system partitions includes a physical port allowing communications between the network and the computer system, and logical ports associated with the physical port, where each logical port is associated with one of the operating system partitions. Each of the logical ports enables communication between a physical port and the associated operating system partition and allows configurability of network resources of the system. Other aspects include a logical switch for logical and physical ports, and packet queues for each connection and for each logical port.
90 Citations
17 Claims
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1. A method for distributing network communications on a computer system, the method comprising:
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receiving a data packet at a logical switch in the computer system, wherein the data packet includes a packet control descriptor the packet control descriptor comprising a packet status wherein the packet status comprises a normal status, a force out status wherein the force out status indicates that the data packet has been modified to automatically be sent out to a physical port or a re-circulate status wherein the re-circulate status is a status whereby the packet has been designated for a wrap path, the computer system running multiple operating system partitions; wrapping the data packet from one operating system partition of the computer system to another operating system partition of the computer system through a hardware path internal to the computer system when information in the packet indicates a wrap path; and sending the data packet received from an operating system partition to a physical port coupled to an external network, or received from the external network to an operating system partition, when information in the data packet indicates a non-wrap path. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method for providing network communications for a computer system, the method comprising:
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receiving a data packet at a network adapter wherein the data packet includes a packet control descriptor the packet control descriptor comprising a packet status wherein the packet status comprises a normal status, a force out status wherein the force out status indicates that the data packet has been modified to automatically be sent out to a physical port or a re-circulate status; checking whether the data packet is a re-circulated packet, wherein a re-circulated packet is a packet that has been designated for a wrap path; storing the data packet in one of a plurality of connection queues, the connection queues for storing data packets that are to be sent from or received by at least one process in at least one user space of the computer system via associated network connections; and storing the data packet in a default operating system queue if no network connection can be found for the data packet, the default operating system queue for storing data packets that are to be sent from or received by a kernel of an operating system partition implemented by the computer system. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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Specification