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Method, system, and computer program product for ethernet virtualization using an elastic FIFO memory to facilitate flow of broadcast traffic to virtual hosts

  • US 7,760,736 B2
  • Filed: 02/25/2008
  • Issued: 07/20/2010
  • Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2008
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. A method for Ethernet virtualization using an elastic FIFO memory to facilitate flow of broadcast traffic to a virtual host, the method comprising:

  • receiving a packet that represents unknown traffic on a network, the packet including a header;

    examining the packet header to ascertain that the packet is a broadcast packet;

    passing the packet to a store engine;

    the store engine obtaining a packet buffer from an elastic first-in, first-out (FIFO) memory, wherein the packet buffer is an empty packet-sized block of memory in a local data store;

    the store engine moving the packet into the packet buffer and submitting the packet buffer to the elastic FIFO memory;

    an assist engine finding the packet buffer on a named queue of broadcast packets and then determining a connection to the packet and moving the packet from the named queue to a numbered connection queue for that connection;

    a local engine performing a monitoring procedure to detect both an availability of connection-specific resources and a presence of one or more waiting packets with a known destination connection;

    when a destination connection with one or more waiting packets and available connection-specific resources are both detected, removing the packet from the local data store;

    allocating the one or more connection-specific resources required to send the packet to a virtual host memory corresponding to the destination connection; and

    writing the packet to the virtual host memory.

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