Method and apparatus for a shared I/O network interface controller

• US 8,913,615 B2
• Filed: 05/09/2012
• Issued: 12/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mellanox Technologies Limited (NVIDIA Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Mellanox Technologies Limited (NVIDIA Corporation)
• Inventors: Pettey, Christopher J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Towfighi, Afshawn
• Assistant Examiner(s): Smith, Eric P
• Application Number:
  US13/467,174
• Publication Number:
  US 20120218905A1
• Time in Patent Office: 951 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/392
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/74 Address processing for routing
• 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 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1017 based on a round robin mechanism
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context
• 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 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

A shared network interface controller (NIC) interfaces a plurality of operating system domains as part of the load-store architecture of the operating system domains. A bus interface couples the NIC to a load-store domain bus (such as PCI-Express), using header information to associate data on the bus with an originating operating system domain. Transmit/receive logic connects the NIC to the network. Association logic allows the NIC to designate, and later lookup which destination MAC address (on the Ethernet side) is associated with which operating system domain. Descriptor register files and Control Status Registers (CSR'"'"'s) specific to an operating system domain are duplicated and made available for each domain. Several direct memory access (DMA) engines are provided to improve throughput. Packet replication logic, filters (perfect and hash) and VLAN tables are used for looping back packets originating from one operating system domain to another and other operations.

Claims

1. A shared network interface controller (NIC) within the memory maps of a plurality of operating system domains (OSDs), for interfacing the plurality of operating system domains to a network, the controller comprising:

a bus interface, for interfacing the controller to the plurality of operating system domains via a load store-bus, such that the shared network interface controller is within the memory maps of the plurality of operating system domains;

transceiver logic, for interfacing the controller to the network;

a processor configured to control transfer of data packets between the bus interface and the transceiver logic;

packet replication logic, coupled to said bus interface, for detecting whether packets received via the bus interface from a first one of the plurality of operating system domains is destined for a second one of the plurality of operating system domains, and if said packets are destined for said second one of the plurality of operating system domains, said logic causing said packets to be transferred to said second one of the plurality of operating system domains; and

control status registers, wherein each control status register is within a memory map of one or more of the operating system domains interfaced to the bus interface, wherein the shared network interface controller includes the control status registers for each of the plurality of operating system domains, and

wherein the load store-bus comprises a PCI-Express bus.

2. The shared network interface controller as recited in claim 1 wherein the packet replication logic is configured to detect packets received through the bus interface destined only for said second one of the plurality of operating system domains, and to prevent transmission of the detected packets to said network.

3. The shared network interface controller as recited in claim 1 wherein said packet replication logic comprises:

filter or virtual LAN (VLAN) logic, for comparing multicast packets with filters established for each of the plurality of operating system domains to determine whether said multicast packets are destined for said second one of the plurality of operating system domains.

4. The shared network interface controller as recited in claim 3 wherein said filters comprise:

hash filters;

perfect filters; and

VLAN filters.

5. The shared network interface controller as recited in claim 1, wherein the packet replication logic is configured to perform the detection on a transmit descriptor of a packet before the packet is received through the bus interface.

6. The shared network interface controller as recited in claim 1, comprising a transmit first in first out (fifo) memory for storing packets to be transmitted by the transceiver logic to the network and a receive fifo memory for storing packets received from the network, and wherein the packet replication logic is configured to transfer detected packets from the transmit fifo memory to the receive fifo memory.

7. The shared network interface controller as recited in claim 1, wherein the bus interface comprises a direct memory access (DMA) engine configured to copy communications from the operating system domains to the shared network interface.

8. A method for determining a loopback condition within a shared network interface controller (NIC) that is coupled to first and second operating system domains within memory maps of the operating system domains, the method comprising:

determining by the shared network interface controller whether a packet received from the first operating system domain (OSD) via a load store-bus, from within a memory map of the first OSD is destined for the second operating system domain, the first and second operating system domains interfaced to each other, and to a network, through the shared network interface controller;

if the packet is destined for the second operating system domain, forwarding the packet to the second operating system domain, and not forwarding the packet to the network; and

if the packet is not destined for the second operating system domain, forwarding the packet to the network,

wherein the memory maps comprise control status registers, wherein each control status register is within a memory map of one or more of the operating system domains interfaced to the bus interface, and wherein the shared network interface controller includes control status registers for each of the plurality of operating system domains, and

wherein the load store-bus comprises a PCI-Express bus.

9. The method for determining a loopback condition, as recited in claim 8 wherein said step of determining comprises:

examining a destination MAC address of the packet; and

determining whether the destination MAC address is associated with the second operating system domain.

10. The method for determining a loopback condition, as recited in claim 8 wherein said step of determining comprises:

determining whether the packet is a multicast packet, and if so;

examining filter logic to establish whether the second operating system domain should receive the multicast packet.

11. The method for determining a loopback condition as recited in claim 10 wherein the filter logic comprises:

filter tables for the second operating system domain.

12. The method for determining a loopback condition as recited in claim 8 wherein said step of determining comprises:

determining whether the packet is a broadcast packet, and if so;

examining filter logic to establish whether the second operating system domain should receive the broadcast packet.