Accelerating data routing

• US 8,537,815 B2
• Filed: 06/17/2010
• Issued: 09/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/17/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: DiMambro, Francesco
• Primary Examiner(s): Chriss, Andrew
• Assistant Examiner(s): KAMARA, MOHAMED A
• Application Number:
  US12/817,834
• Publication Number:
  US 20110310892A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,188 Days
• Field of Search: 370/389, 370/473, 370/472, 370/474, 709/230, 709/236
• US Class Current: 370/389
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/60 Router architectures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/9042 Separate storage for different parts of the packet, e.g. header and payload

Abstract

Systems, devices and methods for improving network performance are disclosed. In particular, in one embodiment, a method of processing data packets in an electronic network is provided. The method includes receiving data packets at a receive stack of an electronic network device and creating a first packet from at least a portion of each of the set of data packets. The first packet includes an indicator that the first packet is a first packet type. The creation of the first packet includes saving a first header of the plurality of data packets, modifying the first header with information from each of the set of data packets, and concatenating the set of data packets.

Claims

1. A method of processing data packets in an electronic network comprising:

receiving a plurality of data packets at a receive stack of an electronic network device;

saving a first header of the plurality of data packets;

modifying the first header with information from each of the set of data packets;

moving a start of data pointer for each of the plurality of data packets;

concatenating the set of data packets, thereby creating a concatenated packet, wherein the concatenated packet includes an indicator identifying the concatenated packet as a first packet type; and

routing the concatenated packet to a transmit stack of the electronic network device; and

segmenting the concatenated packet in the transmit stack, wherein segmenting the concatenated packet in the transmit stack comprises restoring information from the modified first header to each of the plurality of data packets.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising segmenting the concatenated packet in a transmit stack of the electronic network device, wherein segmenting the concatenated packet comprises moving the start of data pointer for each of the plurality of data packets.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising recalculating a checksum for the first header.

5. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

receiving the concatenated packet at the transmit stack;

setting one or more bits in a header of the concatenated packet to provide an indicator that the concatenated packet is of the first packet type.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein creating the concatenated packet from at least a portion of each of the set of data packets comprises aggregating non-header data from the plurality of data packets in a buffer with the first header.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprises removing a packet size limitation.

2. A method of processing data packets in an electronic network comprising:

receiving a plurality of data packets at a receive stack of an electronic network device;

saving a first header of the plurality of data packets;

modifying the first header with information from each of the set of data packets;

moving a start of data pointer for each of the plurality of data packets;

concatenating the set of data packets, thereby creating a concatenated packet, wherein the concatenated packet includes an indicator identifying the concatenated packet as a first packet type;

passing the concatenated packet to a bridge layer of the receive stack; and

routing the concatenated packet to a transmit stack of the electronic network device from the bridge layer, wherein the receive stack includes a plurality of protocol layers, wherein the bridge layer is an intermediate layer of the plurality of protocol layers, and wherein routing the concatenated packet to the transmit stack bypasses at least one protocol layer in the plurality of protocol layers.

8. A method for operating a network device, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of data packets at a receive stack of the network device;

subtracting a payload checksum from each of the plurality of data packets;

placing the payload checksums in a meta-structure; and

concatenating the plurality of data packets, thereby generating a combined packet from the received plurality of data packets;

passing the combined packet to a transmit stack of the network device; and

segmenting the combined packet into the plurality of data packets prior to transmitting the plurality of data packets.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein segmenting the combined packet into the plurality of data packets comprises providing the payload checksums to the respective data packets of the plurality of data packets.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein passing the combined packet to the transmit stack comprises passing the combined packet and the meta-structure at a network address translation layer of the network device.

11. The method of claim 9 further comprising calculating a header and a complete checksum for each of the plurality of data packets.

12. An electronic device comprising:

a processor;

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory storing operating instructions for the operation of the electronic device;

a receive stack comprising a plurality of operative layers operated by the processor, wherein the receive stack is configured to create a combined packet from a plurality of received data packets, preserving checksum data of the data packets; and

a transmit stack comprising a plurality of operative layers operated by the processor, wherein the transmit stack is configured to receive the combined packet from the receive stack and reconstitute the plurality of data packets with the preserved checksum data prior to transmitting the plurality of data packets.

13. The electronic device of claim 12 wherein the processor is configured to operate a first layer of the receive stack to pass the combined packet to the transmit stack.

14. The electronic device of claim 12 wherein the processor is configured to extract the checksum data from a payload portion of the plurality of data packets and store the checksum data in a meta-structure associated with the combined packet.

15. The electronic device of claim 14 wherein the processor is configured to move a start of data pointer for each of the plurality of data packets when creating the combined packet.

16. The electronic device of claim 15 wherein the processor is configured to move the start of data pointer for each of the plurality of data packets when segmenting the combined packet.

17. The electronic device of claim 12 wherein the processor is configured to calculate a checksum for at least one header of the plurality of data packets upon reconstituting the packets in the transmit stack.

18. The electronic device of claim 12 wherein each of the transmit and receive stacks comprise a first layer, the first layer comprising:

a driver; and

a bridge layer logically located between the driver and a second layer, the bridge layer including a first address table and the second layer including a second address table, wherein one of the bridge layer or the second layer includes a network address translation layer.