Intelligent network interface system and method for protocol processing

• US 8,805,948 B2
• Filed: 09/26/2013
• Issued: 08/12/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Alacritech, Inc.
• Original Assignee: A Tech LLC
• Inventors: Boucher, Laurence B., Blightman, Stephen E. J., Craft, Peter K., Higgen, David A., Philbrick, Clive M., Starr, Daryl D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Meky, Moustafa M
• Application Number:
  US14/038,297
• Publication Number:
  US 20140059155A1
• Time in Patent Office: 320 Days
• Field of Search: 709200-202, 709/212, 709/224, 709/230, 709/236, 709/238, 370/389, 370/392, 370/419, 370/463, 370/469, 370/479
• US Class Current: 709/212
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 5/10 having a sequence of storage locations each being individually accessible for both enqueue and dequeue operations, e.g. using random access memory G06F5/065 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/245 Link aggregation, e.g. trunking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/90 Buffering arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/901 using storage descriptor, e.g. read or write pointers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/9063 Intermediate storage in different physical parts of a node or terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/9094 Arrangements for simultaneous transmit and receive, e.g. simultaneous reading/writing from/to the storage element
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/10 of different types
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/25 of the same type
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/12 Protocol engines
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/161 Implementation details of TCP/IP or UDP/IP stack architecture; Specification of modified or new header fields
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/162 involving adaptations of sockets based mechanisms secure socket layer H04L63/168
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/163 In-band adaptation of TCP data exchange; In-band control procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/165 : Combined use of TCP and UDP protocols; selection criteria therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/166 : IP fragmentation; TCP segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/168 : specially adapted for link layer protocols, e.g. asynchronous transfer mode [ATM], synchronous optical network [SONET] or point-to-point protocol [PPP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/169 : Special adaptations of TCP, UDP or IP for interworking of IP based networks with other networks protocols for interworking, protocol conversion H04L69/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/18 : Multiprotocol handlers, e.g. single devices capable of handling multiple protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 : Parsing or analysis of headers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/32 : Architecture of open systems interconnection [OSI] 7-layer type protocol stacks, e.g. the interfaces between the data link level and the physical level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 : Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13093 : Personal computer, PC
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13103 : Memory
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13204 : Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13299 : Bus
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/1332 : Logic circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13345 : Intelligent networks, SCP
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0029 : Provisions for intelligent networking

Abstract

A system for protocol processing in a computer network has an intelligent network interface card (INIC) or communication processing device (CPD) associated with a host computer. The INIC or CPD provides a fast-path that avoids host protocol processing for most large multipacket messages, greatly accelerating data communication. The INIC or CPD also assists the host for those message packets that are chosen for processing by host software layers. A communication control block (CCB) for a message is defined that allows DMA controllers of the INIC to move data, free of headers, directly to or from a destination or source in the host. The CCB can be passed back to the host for message processing by the host. The INIC or CPD contains hardware circuits configured for protocol processing that can perform that specific task faster than the host CPU. One embodiment includes a processor providing transmit, receive and management processing, with full duplex communication for four fast Ethernet nodes.

Claims

1. A method for network communication by a host computer having a network interface that is connected to the host by an input/output bus, the method comprising:

running, on the host computer, a protocol processing stack including an Internet Protocol (IP) layer and a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) layer, with an application layer running above the TCP layer;

initializing, by the host computer, a TCP connection that is defined by source and destination IP addresses and source and destination TCP ports;

receiving, by the network interface, first and second packets, wherein the first packet has a first TCP header and contains first payload data for the application, and the second packet has a second TCP header and contains second payload data for the application;

checking, by the network interface, whether the packets have certain exception conditions, including checking whether the packets are IP fragmented, checking whether the packets have a FIN flag set, and checking whether the packets are out of order;

if the first packet has any of the exception conditions, then protocol processing the first TCP header by the protocol processing stack;

if the second packet has any of the exception conditions, then protocol processing the second TCP header by the protocol processing stack;

if the packets do not have any of the exception conditions, then bypassing host protocol processing of the TCP headers and storing the first payload data and the second payload data together in a buffer of the host computer, such that the payload data is stored in the buffer in order and without any TCP header stored between the first payload data and the second payload data.

2. The method of claim 1, including allocating the buffer by the application, prior to storing the first payload data and the second payload data together in the buffer.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein storing the first payload data and the second payload data together in a buffer of the host computer is performed by a direct memory access (DMA) unit of the network interface.

4. The method of claim 1, including accumulating the payload data in a memory on the network interface, such that the payload data is stored in the memory in order and without any TCP header stored between the first payload data and the second payload data, prior to storing the first payload data and the second payload data together in the buffer.

5. The method of claim 1, including sending an identification of the TCP connection from the host computer to the network interface, the identification including the source and destination IP addresses and source and destination TCP ports that define the TCP connection, prior to checking whether the packets have certain exception conditions.

6. The method of claim 1, including comparing, by the network interface, the IP addresses and TCP ports of the packets with the source and destination IP addresses and source and destination TCP ports that define the TCP connection.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein checking whether the packets have certain exception conditions includes checking whether the packets have a RST flag set.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein checking whether the packets have certain exception conditions includes checking whether the packets have a SYN flag set.

9. A method for network communication by a host computer having a network interface that is connected to the host by an input/output bus, the method comprising:

receiving, by the network interface, a first packet having a header including source and destination Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and source and destination Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) ports;

protocol processing, by the host computer, the first packet, thereby initializing a TCP connection that is defined by the source and destination IP addresses and source and destination TCP ports;

receiving, by the network interface, a second packet having a second header and payload data, wherein the second header has IP addresses and TCP ports that match the IP addresses and TCP ports of the TCP connection;

receiving, by the network interface, a third packet having a third header and additional payload data, wherein the third header has IP addresses and TCP ports that match the IP addresses and TCP ports of the TCP connection;

checking, by the network interface, whether the second and third packets have certain exception conditions, including checking whether the packets are IP fragmented, checking whether the packets have a FIN flag set, and checking whether the packets are out of order;

if the second packet has any of the exception conditions, then protocol processing the second packet by the host computer;

if the third packet has any of the exception conditions, then protocol processing the third packet by the host computer;

if the second and third packets do not have any of the exception conditions, then storing the payload data of the second and third packets together in a buffer of the host computer, such that the payload data is stored in the buffer in order and without any TCP header stored between the payload data of the second and third packets.

10. The method of claim 9, including allocating the buffer by an application running on the host computer, prior to storing the payload data of the second and third packets together in the buffer.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein storing the payload data of the second and third packets together in a buffer of the host computer is performed by a direct memory access (DMA) unit of the network interface.

12. The method of claim 9, including accumulating the payload data of the second and third packets in a memory on the network interface, such that the payload data of the second and third packets is stored in the memory in order and without any TCP header stored between the payload data of the second and third packets, prior to storing the payload data of the second and third packets together in the buffer.

13. The method of claim 9, including sending an identification of the TCP connection from the host computer to the network interface, the identification including the source and destination IP addresses and source and destination TCP ports that define the TCP connection, prior to checking whether the second and third packets have certain exception conditions.

14. The method of claim 9, including comparing, by the network interface, the IP addresses and TCP ports of the second and third packets with the source and destination IP addresses and source and destination TCP ports that define the TCP connection.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein checking whether the second and third packets have certain exception conditions includes checking whether the packets have a RST flag set.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein checking whether the second and third packets have certain exception conditions includes checking whether the packets have a SYN flag set.

17. An apparatus for network communication, the apparatus comprising:

a host computer running a protocol stack including an Internet Protocol (IP) layer and a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) layer, the protocol stack adapted to establish a TCP connection for an application layer running above the TCP layer, the TCP connection being defined by source and destination IP addresses and source and destination TCP ports;

a network interface that is connected to the host computer by an input/output bus, the network interface adapted to parse the headers of received packets to determine whether the headers have the IP addresses and TCP ports that define the TCP connection and to check whether the packets have certain exception conditions, including whether the packets are IP fragmented, have a FIN flag set, or are out of order, the network interface having logic that directs any of the received packets that have the exception conditions to the protocol stack for processing, and directs the received packets that do not have any of the exception conditions to have their headers removed and their payload data stored together in a buffer of the host computer, such that the payload data is stored in the buffer in order and without any TCP header stored between the payload data that came from different packets of the received packets.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the buffer is controlled by the application.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the network interface includes a direct memory access (DMA) unit that is adapted to store the payload data in the buffer.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the network interface includes a memory that is adapted to accumulate the payload data without any TCP header stored between the payload data that came from different packets of the received packets.

21. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the exception conditions include having a RST flag set.

22. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the exception conditions include having a SYN flag set.