Message communication techniques

• US 8,307,105 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2011
• Issued: 11/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: King, Steven, Huggahalli, Ram, Zhu, Xia, Memon, Mazhar, Berry, Frank, Bhardwaj, Nitin, Kumar, Amit, Willke, Theodore II
• Primary Examiner(s): Follansbee, John
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mejia, Anthony
• Application Number:
  US13/173,459
• Publication Number:
  US 20110258283A1
• Time in Patent Office: 495 Days
• Field of Search: 709/200, 709/230, 709/213, 710/315, 710/52, 711/120
• US Class Current: 709/230
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/455 Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/066 Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A network protocol unit interface is described that uses a message engine to transfer contents of received network protocol units in message segments to a destination message engine. The network protocol unit interface uses a message engine to receive messages whose content is to be transmitted in network protocol units. A message engine transmits message segments to a destination message engine without the message engine transmitter and receiver sharing memory space. In addition, the transmitter message engine can transmit message segments to a receiver message engine by use of a virtual address associated with the receiver message and a queue identifier, as opposed to a memory address.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining a virtual message transmit engine to process a received network protocol unit, wherein the virtual message transmit engine is associated with a first host physical message engine;

determining a virtual message receive engine associated with the virtual message transmit engine, wherein the virtual message receive engine is associated with a second host physical message engine;

the virtual message transmit engine requesting transforming contents of the network protocol unit into one or more message segments;

the virtual message transmit engine requesting the first host physical message engine to transmit a request to send message to the virtual message receive engine;

the virtual message transmit engine requesting the first host physical message engine to transmit the network protocol unit; and

the virtual message transmit engine requesting transmission of content of the received network protocol unit using the one or more message segments to a memory region associated with the virtual message receive engine, wherein the transmission of the one or more message segments comprises transmission of one or more message segments to the memory region by identifying a virtual message engine address of the virtual message receive engine and independent of identifying the destination memory address of the memory region.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more message segments comprises a reassembly tag field and message segment offset field and further comprising:

identifying the memory region based on the reassembly tag field;

identifying a buffer in the memory region based on the reassembly tag field; and

identifying a location in the buffer to store at least one of the message segments based in part on the message segment offset field.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more message segments comprises:

a link level address;

an address of the virtual message receive engine;

a reassembly tag field;

a message segment offset field; and

a data portion.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the network protocol unit is Ethernet compliant.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving one or more message segments;

re-assembling one or more message segments into a message; and

forming a second network protocol unit based on contents of the message.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein contents of the received one or more message segments comprise at least one of control, data, and management information.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the first host physical message engine is associated with a core and the second host physical message engine is associated with another core.

8. An apparatus comprising:

a processor comprising at least one core;

logic to receive a network protocol and to perform media access control, filtering, and request buffering of the network protocol unit; and

a physical message engine, wherein

one of the at least one core is to associate a virtual message transmit engine with the physical message engine;

one of the at least one core is to associate the virtual message transmit engine with a virtual message receive engine;

the virtual message transmit engine is to request the physical message engine to transmit a request to send message to the virtual message receive engine;

the virtual message transmit engine is to request the physical message engine to transmit the network protocol unit; and

the physical message engine is to transmit content of the network protocol unit, using at least one segment, in response to a request from the virtual message transmit engine, to a memory region associated with the virtual message receive engine, the request identifying the virtual message receive engine and independent of specification of a physical memory address of the memory region.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the virtual message receive engine is allocated based on receive side scaling.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the virtual receive message engine is associated with a core and the virtual transmit message engine is associated with another core.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein at least one segment comprises:

a link layer;

a destination virtual message engine address;

a reassembly tag field;

a message segment offset field; and

a data portion.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the memory region is based on the reassembly tag field and further comprising:

a buffer in the memory region based on the reassembly tag field; and

a location in the buffer to store at least one segment based in part on the message segment offset field.

13. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising:

logic to prepare network protocol units for transmission; and

a second message engine to receive the at least one segment and to provide content of the received at least one segment to the logic to prepare network protocol units for transmission.

14. A system comprising:

a storage device;

a network interface to receive a network protocol unit;

at least one core;

a first message engine; and

a second message engine, wherein;

one of the at least one core is to associate the first message engine with a virtual message transmit engine,

one of the at least one core is to associate the virtual message transmit engine with a virtual message receive engine;

one of the at least one core is to associate the second message engine with the virtual message receive engine;

the virtual message transmit engine is to request the first message engine to transmit a request to send message to the virtual message receive engine;

the virtual message transmit engine is to request the first message engine to transmit content of the network protocol unit; and

the first message engine is to transmit content of the network protocol unit using at least one message to a memory region associated with the virtual receive message engine, in response to a request from the virtual message transmit engine, the request from the virtual message transmit engine identifying the virtual message receive engine and independent of specification of a physical memory address of the memory region.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the first message engine and the second message engine do not maintain memory coherency.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the first message engine and the second message engine do not access the same physical memory.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the first message engine comprises:

a message mapper to determine the destination virtual message receive engine associated with the network protocol unit; and

logic to transmit content of the network protocol unit using at least one message to the memory region associated with the destination virtual message receive engine.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein at least one message comprises:

a link layer;

a destination virtual message engine address;

a reassembly tag field;

a message segment offset field; and

a data portion.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the memory region is based on the reassembly tag field and further comprising:

a buffer in the memory region based on the reassembly tag field; and

a location in the buffer to store the at least one message based in part on the message segment offset field.

20. The system of claim 14, wherein the first message engine is associated with a first core and the second message engine is associated with a second core.