Message communication techniques

• US 8,751,676 B2
• Filed: 10/29/2012
• Issued: 06/10/2014
• 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): Mejia, Anthony
• Application Number:
  US13/662,989
• Publication Number:
  US 20130055263A1
• Time in Patent Office: 589 Days
• Field of Search: 709/213, 709/230, 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 computer-implemented method comprising:

associating a virtual message transmit engine with a first host physical message engine;

associating a virtual message receive engine with the virtual message transmit engine, the virtual message receive engine associated with a second host physical message engine;

transforming contents of a received network protocol unit into one or more message segments; and

the virtual message transmit engine requesting transmission of the one or more message segments using the first host physical message engine to a memory region associated with the virtual message receive engine, wherein the transmission of the one or more message segments to the memory region comprises identification of an address of the virtual message receive engine and without the message segments identifying the destination memory address of the memory region.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one message segment comprises:

a link layer field;

a destination virtual message engine address;

a reassembly tag field;

a message segment offset field; and

a data portion.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein a location of the memory region to store at least one message segment is based in part on the reassembly tag field and the message segment offset field.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving message segments;

re-assembling message segments into a message;

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

causing transmission of the second network protocol unit.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein contents of the received message segments comprise at least one of control, data, and management information.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the virtual message transmit engine is associated with a core and the virtual message receive engine is associated with another core.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting the virtual message receive engine using receive side scaling.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second host physical message engines do not share the same physical memory and do not maintain memory coherency.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein transmission of the one or more message segments using the first host physical message engine to a memory region associated with the virtual message receive engine comprises use of a data mover.

10. An apparatus comprising:

a processor comprising at least one core;

circuitry to receive a network protocol unit 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 a virtual message receive engine with the virtual message transmit engine, and

the virtual message transmit engine is to request the physical message engine to transmit content of the network protocol unit using at least one message segment to a memory region associated with the virtual message receive engine, wherein the transmission of the at least one message segment to the memory region comprises identification of an address of the virtual message receive engine and without the at least one message segment identifying a memory address of the memory region.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein at least one message segment comprises:

a link layer field;

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 a location of the memory region to store at least one message segment is based in part on the reassembly tag field and the message segment offset field.

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

14. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein a second physical message engine is associated with the virtual message receive engine and the physical message engine and the second physical message engine do not share the same physical memory and do not maintain memory coherency.

15. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the transmission of the at least one message segment to the memory region comprises use of a data mover.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions thereon, which when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

associate a first message engine with a virtual message transmit engine,

associate the virtual message transmit engine with a virtual message receive engine;

associate a second message engine with the virtual message receive engine;

request to provide content of a network protocol unit using at least one message segment; and

cause the virtual message transmit engine to request transmission by the first message engine of the at least one message segment to a memory region associated with the virtual receive message engine, wherein the transmission of the at least one message segment to the memory region comprises identification of an address of the virtual message receive engine and without the at least one message segment identifying the destination memory address of the memory region.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein at least one message segment comprises:

a link layer field;

a destination virtual message engine address;

a reassembly tag field;

a message segment offset field; and

a data portion.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein a location of the memory region to store at least one message segment is based in part on the reassembly tag field and the message segment offset field.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein to request transmission of the at least one message segment to a memory region, the computer is to request use of a data mover to copy content to the memory region.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the first message engine comprises a physical message engine and the second message engine comprises another physical message engine.