Intelligent network interface system and method for protocol processing

• US 8,856,379 B2
• Filed: 09/27/2013
• Issued: 10/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• 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:
  US14/040,179
• Publication Number:
  US 20140032779A1
• Time in Patent Office: 375 Days
• Field of Search: 709200-202, 709230-236, 370/392, 370/469, 370/474
• US Class Current: 709/232
• 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 receiving data by a network interface that is coupled to a computer by an input/output (I/O) bus, the method comprising:

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

storing, on the network interface, a TCP connection defined by source and destination IP addresses and source and destination TCP ports;

receiving, by the network interface, a network packet having an IP header, a TCP header and data;

parsing, by the network interface, the IP header and TCP header; and

storing, by the network interface, the data in a memory location of the computer allocated by the upper layer.

2. The method of claim 1, including updating, by the network interface, the TCP connection to record receiving the packet.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the TCP header is not sent from the network interface to the computer.

4. The method of claim 1, including using an upper layer header of the packet to obtain the memory location.

5. The method of claim 1, including parsing an upper layer header of the packet by the network interface.

6. The method of claim 5, including using a length field obtained by the parsing of the upper layer header to determine a size of the memory location.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the network interface, a plurality of network packets having IP headers, TCP headers and data payloads;

parsing, by the network interface, the IP headers and TCP headers; and

storing, by the network interface, the data payloads in the memory location of the computer allocated by the upper layer.

8. A method for receiving data by a network interface that is coupled to a computer by an input/output (I/O) bus, the method comprising:

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

storing, on the network interface, a TCP connection defined by source and destination IP addresses and source and destination TCP ports;

receiving, by the network interface, a network packet having an IP header, a TCP header and data;

updating, by the network interface, the TCP connection to record receiving the packet; and

storing, by the network interface, the data in a memory location of the computer allocated by the upper layer.

9. The method of claim 8, including parsing, by the network interface, the IP header and TCP header.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the TCP header is not sent from the network interface to the computer.

11. The method of claim 8, including using an upper layer header of the packet to obtain the memory location.

12. The method of claim 8, including parsing an upper layer header of the packet by the network interface.

13. The method of claim 12, including using a length field obtained by the parsing of the upper layer header to determine a size of the memory location.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving, by the network interface, a plurality of network packets having IP headers, TCP headers and data payloads;

parsing, by the network interface, the IP headers and TCP headers; and

storing, by the network interface, the data payloads in the memory location of the computer allocated by the upper layer.

15. An apparatus comprising:

a computer running a protocol processing stack including an Internet Protocol (IP) layer and a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) layer, with an upper layer running above the TCP layer, the computer having a memory, the memory having a buffer allocated by the upper layer for storing data corresponding to the upper layer; and

a network interface that is coupled to the computer by an input/output (I/O) bus, the network interface having an interface memory storing a TCP connection defined by source and destination IP addresses and source and destination TCP ports, the network interface including a mechanism for receiving a network packet having an IP header, a TCP header and data, parsing the IP header and the TCP header, and storing the data in the buffer.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the network interface is adapted to update the TCP connection to record receiving the packet.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the TCP header is not stored in the buffer.

18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the packet includes an upper layer header, and the computer is adapted to use the upper layer header to allocate the buffer.

19. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the packet includes an upper layer header, and the network interface is adapted to parse the upper layer header.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the computer is adapted to use a length field parsed from the upper layer header by the network interface to determine a size of the buffer.